Fall has officially arrived, well at least it has felt like it over the last week or so… had a couple of nights that we(I had to) bring in the plants since it was going to get cold enough we could get spot frost in places and my wife was worried we would lose our tomatoes.  Not to mention my wife had broken her toe  so she was immobile  so I was doing the husbandly and wife-duties… ok, enough complaining.

The patio was used for a movie night, and all of the upgrades we had put in it worked great. I did get more done on the benches, in fact, we pretty much got one of the two done. Build painted and covered. All I basically did was built a box around a box then put a top on it.

While my wife and I were in the fabric store (on a 54% off day) and it was recommended to us to buy poly foam then wrap high-loft-batting around it to round corners off and make the seats not look so square on the cushion. Also another trick which my wife knew was when you are making a seat cushion is to put a type of vinyl or plastic under the actual pattern cloth that you want on top of the padding. This will create a barrier in case you ever spill a liquid on the seat, it won’t soak through and it will be easy to clean. We are still working on the other bench but need to figure out what we are going to do for the back of the bench style part….. we have the ottoman done.   Then over the next weekend when we had a bit of down time I tackled the bench part

\

The other part…as promised, was the suspended ceiling. Something that takes some practice to do or at least the general know-how of how to make it work. With ceilings unfortunately there are about 3-4 options, leave it empty and open, suspended ceiling, foam tiles, or Sheetrock. Based on what your application is will help decide which ceiling is right for you. Another thought to consider is  ceiling height, you will lose the most height with suspended ceiling; and the least with Sheetrock. First you need your supplies, for these there are many calculators out there that help you configure how many tiles/ runners/ cross tees you will need to complete your project, I would suggest using these as a good guideline for setting up the room. then it will give you an approx. amount of supplies that you will need to do a ceiling in that room… and you don’t necessarily need to buy everything at once( suspended ceiling ib by far the most expensive of the ceiling options (unless you do copper staple tiles) so buying the grid then waiting for a deal on tile is not a bad idea.

IF YOU DON:T WANT TO SEE HOW TO PUT UP A SUSPENDED CEILING>>>>SKIP THIS :)

Tools: laser level (ideal) or 2’ or 4’ level, string, screws 1 ¼ Philips  and 1 ¾ deck screws

First you will mount the wall  edge runner:

You will also want some of the runner hanging wire that is sold in stores, but don’t feel like you have to buy the special “hanging studs” you can get lags or even use 1.5” torques like I did. First you will want to hang the parameter of the ceiling, decide roughly how high you want the ceiling bottom to be and mark that spot with a pencil on the wall. Next you need to level that line all the way around the room(this is where a laser level is handy) or you can work your way around with a 4 and 2’ level occasionally measuring from either the ceiling or floor to make sure the height hasn’t wavered much. Once you have done that, you can check it by having t people(or nailing) a string across the room and checking that for level… adjusting accordingly. Once that is done go ahead and hang the outer border, using some flat screws(ones that don’t taper on the head preferably) and try to hit studs or at the least ever 16-20 inches around the edge. 

Now that your border is hung, you want to get the runners(big long ones) in place. Decided where you will want them by finding the center of your room and measuring a foot(or two if you are putting 4 x 2 tiles in the long way)  in each direction perpendicular to the joists. Then you will need to put something in the joists/ceiling to hang the wires from.  The more the merrier, but I went ever 32” (distance b/t 2 joists) you will need a row of wire every 4 feet, in line with where you are planning on installing your runners. Measure the distance from a wall to your mark that is 1’ or 2’ off center and then duplicate that line a few times on the joists.

Get your string out, and pull it tight to match up with the few lines you marked across the ceiling. Next you will hang the screws that will hold the wire up, put them at least 2” above the bottom the joist, so you can hangplenty of wire down with room to move. Once that is done, cut your wire into a length long enough to go beyond the “bottom” of your ceiling by at least 3” and then loop the top tight around the screw you just put in( I used a vise-grip and it worked great!) Now for the next part you will need to get your runners out.  Notice that there are many holes in the top, this is where the wires will go through to hang the ceiling up. The distance from the bottom of the runner to the hole is how much above the bottom of the ceiling the wires need to be bent. Run the string at this height along the wires you just hung, now you can go through and bend them all at a 90 deg angle at the height of the string. This creates a uniform height for the ceiling…. Repeat this every 4 feet the width of the room.

Once you have all the wire ready, time to hang grid!!!  Take your runners and figure out how much you need…. But the center of this needs to be the center of the center tile, and the  runners have notches in them every 2 feet for grid-work. That means you have to measure from 1’ or 2’ off center of the room then to your wall. Then from where the one runner stops measure that to the other wall… make sure you do it the same way for every runner otherwise your grid will not be aligned. Once you have your runner ready, take the string down if it is still up and with the help of people bring the first runner up and run the hanger wires through the holes. Then wind it up around the top of the runner a couple of times to keep it from coming loose.  Repeat this for the whole ceiling then get your 4’  tees out. Starting the the center put a 4’ tee in every 2’(if you are doing 4x2 tiles) or 4’( if you are doing 2x2 tiles) then if you are doing 2x2 tiles go back and put 4’ tees in the other direction(perpendicular) to the ones you just put in.  follow that up with the 2’ tees, placing them everywhere there is a 4x2 space to make it 2- 2x2 spaces.

The one thing I never did emphasis is that when you are done with your grid work, the edges should be equal on both sides since you hopefully centered the grid work and that means that as you are placing grid, you will need to trim. Just trim them long enough to set on-top of the l shape bracket so it just “runs” into the side ( the picture helps clarify it.)

Now all you have left to do is get your tiles and place them in, obviously there will be some trimming of the tiles involved unless for some reason you have an exactly even room that is 20x20…

Get your tile up, wire in some lights and ta-da… big upgrade to the look of your basement!