I left you hanging a few weeks ago after I shared the ceiling tear-out progress at the Underdog. At that time, Handy Hubby had ripped out the ceiling over the kitchen half of the great room that will eventually be vaulted. Here’s the living room/kitchen now after removing the rest of the ceiling.
I know. It still doesn’t look like much but I have a good feeling about what the future vaulted ceiling is going to do for the space. Can you see it? Imagine the ceiling joists gone. Yeah, those wide, flat boards at the original ceiling height that are running parallel to the floor…those, gone. {Along with the vertical supports in the middle of the room.} Look beyond them to the rafters…the skinnier boards running along the roof structure. The future ceiling will live just below those rafters. Now, can you see it? Raising the ceiling is going to give this modest, multifunctional space more breathing room and an airier feel.
But the big question is, how exactly do we plan to vault the ceiling? Handy Hubby spoke with several contractors and even a lumber yard discussing the dimensions of the room and roof and our desire to open up the ceiling. Originally, the thought was that we could just add some collar ties one-third of the way down the rafters – which HH started to DIY himself.
But after more extensive research {because HH is a mechanical engineer after all}, it looks like we’ll need to have a steel support beam put in place that runs along the peak of the vaulted ceiling. We’ll still frame in the beam with some collar ties to disguise it and also to run duct work and electrical through the peak. So the vaulted ceiling will look more like this…
{notice the flat peak…not the aesthetics}
…and less like this…
{once again this picture is for demonstrating a vaulted peak…not aesthetics}
Of course, we’d prefer to have a ‘sharp’ peak versus a flat one but we really need space to hide duct work and to place recessed lighting {since we’re having a hard time finding can lights for slanted ceilings that don’t have a lot of wiggle room between them and the rafters}. Even though we were assured by multiple contractors that collar ties alone would be structurally sound, we’re going the better-safe-than-sorry route and adding in a steel beam for extra support. We will be hiring out for the beam since it’s beyond the scope and manpower of our DIY skills. Once the beam is in place, we can start installing the new ceiling. The jury is still out on what the ceiling material will be. We love the look of a painted plank ceiling but due to cost we may end up with budget-friendly drywall instead. I’ll let you know what happens!
images: 1-4) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking 5) InterNACHI 6) Custom MMIC Design Services, Inc. 7) Benjamin Benschneider for The Seattle Times
DIY, inspiration