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In this video I want to explain some strategies for creating a framework and
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finished ceiling around ducts and beams and other ugly bothersome things in the
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ceiling of your basement. So here you can see a ventilation duct and then over
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here there's a beam. It's not unusual for ducts to be installed next to beams and
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that's a good thing because you can you can enclose them all in one and that's
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that's a good thing. The less you can build, the fewer of these ceiling
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boxes and areas that stick down below the ceiling, the fewer of them you can
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create the better off you are. So the goal with this sort of thing is is always
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the same in a general sense. You want to have as much, you want to preserve as
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much ceiling height underneath of these obstructions as possible. So the first
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step towards that goal is your ladder design. So this is the the ladder here
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and then there's another one over here. And the job of those is to create little
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walls to bring the recessed area down. Now what some people do is they create
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another ladder that goes underneath of everything because they feel that the
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strength is required. Many times it's not and that the trade-off that the problem
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with building a third ladder is that it steals a lot of headroom. Unnecessarily
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in most cases because if the distance between here and here is no more than
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about 24 inches or so, even beyond that, then you don't need any support
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framework underneath of it. You'll see that the ladders in this case are just
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slightly above the stick down portion of the ventilation ducts. So when all of
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the other stuff goes on top of it, when this case there's resilient channel and
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drywall, you're not losing the space that would normally be taken up by that
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framework. Now if you're dealing with a span that's greater than about 24 inches
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you should probably put a sheet of plywood there. A piece of plywood maybe
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half an inch thick or so to provide something to fasten that drywall to
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You'd also be wise to use 5 8 fire coat drywall for something like this because
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it's substantially stronger and more sag resistant than the more common half-inch
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drywall. So two ladders, one, two, and you should take some steps for sound
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proofing because sound entering into furnace ducts transmits very well through the rest of your house. So some kind of fiber insulation here, as I said
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the resilient channel, that's a great idea. And then regular drywall here and
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then on the ceiling. And you're pretty well ready to go. One other thing, when
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you're planning all this out, keep in mind your need for water supply pipes
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because you are creating an enclosed space here and you might as well do as
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much as you can within it. So installing water supply pipes like these in the
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in the cavity created by these elements makes a lot of sense. It's going
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to be very easy to run them because you're essentially just fastening them to the bottom of the floor joists. That's a lot easier than going through the
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floor joists and it will be completely hidden and also but also remain
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somewhat accessible. I mean if you know those pipes are there and you have a problem, you can get in to service them if you want. A couple more things, if at
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all possible, combine this arrangement with some kind of partition wall. So for
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instance if you had a partition wall here extending down, then this dropping
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of the ceiling level, however much you've minimized it, will be even less of an
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issue because it will be happening in the in the corner of a room up at the
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ceiling but along one side. Another thing you might want to try is using things
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like this to create a kind of a light valence. So one nice way to light up your
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basement is with with lighting that's hidden behind a valence or a stick
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down portion of something. So for instance if you had a partition wall and
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you located it over here, say, to one side of this bulkhead arrangement here and
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the ceiling, the wall went up, there was a ceiling here and then your
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ladder and your enclosure came down again and continued this way before
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going up and then the rest of the ceiling is here, you'd have a kind of a
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gap and you could make that six or eight inches wide. It's a great spot for
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installing some lengths of fluorescent light fixtures because you're going to have light flooding down from behind this all the way along and you don't
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have to build a light valence because essentially this whole business here is
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one big light valence that's also doing a whole lot of other things too
