I am in something of a bind regarding what to do with the ceilings in our kitchen, and would appreciate some feedback on the subject.
I’m rehabbing our home from top to bottom, and have come across a problem which I’m not sure what to do with. I have always been able to tell that the ceilings have a sag between where the drywall has been nailed to the trusses, but as it was only really noticeable in acutely angled light I didn’t really give it much thought until I came to the kitchen area. The problem is that we want to install full height kitchen cabinets, and if we do so it’s going to cause a problem for the cabinets going across the sagging sections as the rippling effect will be noticeable against the cabinet tops butting up to the ceiling. By virtue of necessity, the cabinet tops will have to be aligned with the peaks in the sagging ceiling, meaning that the valleys will be noticeable. I could use thin molding to contour it with the ceiling, but the overall effect would be that the molding would look like it’s going up and down along the cabinet tops. To give you an idea of how pronounced the sag is, if I put a level up against the ceiling I can squeeze a finger easily into the gaps in some sections.
So what do I do? I really don’t want to strip out all the ceilings, as it would be an expensive nightmare of a job, particularly with all the dusty loose insulation up there that would have to be replaced – and we just don’t have the room financially in our rehab budget to have someone else do it for us. A more cost effective and less time-consuming alternative might be to put up a second ceiling over the existing one, which would probably lower the ceiling height by about two inches and hopefully not adversely affect the appearance or functionality of the 42” wall cabinets by having them two inches lower (the ceiling height in the room at present is the standard 8’). Never having done it before I assume the way to accomplish such a task would be to screw in some battens along the ceiling in line with the trusses (perhaps utilizing the same strips used in attaching drywall to brick walls?) so that I can screw the new ceiling in place in such a way that there’s enough of a gap that the sagging sections of the old ceiling don’t push against it. The major obstacle to all of this though is that we're looking to install a full height (96") wall oven cabinet which would run into problems (literally!) if we lowered the ceiling by even an inch. I know I could probably trim off little bit of the cabinet either at the top or the bottom to squeeze it in, but I don't think I could manage two inches without perhaps compromising the appearance of the cabinet?
If the ceilings had been higher I would have considered putting in a soffit above the wall cabinets to counter the rippling effects of the sagging ceiling, but there just isn’t the space to do it. I had thought that I could put a shallow one of about 2” that would have the equivalent effect on the cabinets height-wise of the second ceiling idea, but a 2” soffit might look stupid – I don’t know. They’re usually about 10” – 12” and designed for use with standard 30” wall cabinets.
As for the other living areas, I’ve though that the most expedient method of dealing with the issue was to put up some small wood beams in line with the trusses, which would of course mask the sagging effect. The bedrooms, for some odd reason, don’t really seem to be affected much at all.
Any thoughts or suggestions on the matter would be gratefully received. This is a pain in the butt aspect to the rehab I hadn't counted on dealing with, and it's not one I'm experienced in at all.
I’m rehabbing our home from top to bottom, and have come across a problem which I’m not sure what to do with. I have always been able to tell that the ceilings have a sag between where the drywall has been nailed to the trusses, but as it was only really noticeable in acutely angled light I didn’t really give it much thought until I came to the kitchen area. The problem is that we want to install full height kitchen cabinets, and if we do so it’s going to cause a problem for the cabinets going across the sagging sections as the rippling effect will be noticeable against the cabinet tops butting up to the ceiling. By virtue of necessity, the cabinet tops will have to be aligned with the peaks in the sagging ceiling, meaning that the valleys will be noticeable. I could use thin molding to contour it with the ceiling, but the overall effect would be that the molding would look like it’s going up and down along the cabinet tops. To give you an idea of how pronounced the sag is, if I put a level up against the ceiling I can squeeze a finger easily into the gaps in some sections.
So what do I do? I really don’t want to strip out all the ceilings, as it would be an expensive nightmare of a job, particularly with all the dusty loose insulation up there that would have to be replaced – and we just don’t have the room financially in our rehab budget to have someone else do it for us. A more cost effective and less time-consuming alternative might be to put up a second ceiling over the existing one, which would probably lower the ceiling height by about two inches and hopefully not adversely affect the appearance or functionality of the 42” wall cabinets by having them two inches lower (the ceiling height in the room at present is the standard 8’). Never having done it before I assume the way to accomplish such a task would be to screw in some battens along the ceiling in line with the trusses (perhaps utilizing the same strips used in attaching drywall to brick walls?) so that I can screw the new ceiling in place in such a way that there’s enough of a gap that the sagging sections of the old ceiling don’t push against it. The major obstacle to all of this though is that we're looking to install a full height (96") wall oven cabinet which would run into problems (literally!) if we lowered the ceiling by even an inch. I know I could probably trim off little bit of the cabinet either at the top or the bottom to squeeze it in, but I don't think I could manage two inches without perhaps compromising the appearance of the cabinet?
If the ceilings had been higher I would have considered putting in a soffit above the wall cabinets to counter the rippling effects of the sagging ceiling, but there just isn’t the space to do it. I had thought that I could put a shallow one of about 2” that would have the equivalent effect on the cabinets height-wise of the second ceiling idea, but a 2” soffit might look stupid – I don’t know. They’re usually about 10” – 12” and designed for use with standard 30” wall cabinets.
As for the other living areas, I’ve though that the most expedient method of dealing with the issue was to put up some small wood beams in line with the trusses, which would of course mask the sagging effect. The bedrooms, for some odd reason, don’t really seem to be affected much at all.
Any thoughts or suggestions on the matter would be gratefully received. This is a pain in the butt aspect to the rehab I hadn't counted on dealing with, and it's not one I'm experienced in at all.