In Need of Tongue and Groove Help

Tom5151

Hello,

Have a couple questions about installing tongue and groove pine in a little cabin I have. To this point we have completely gutted and remodeled the bathroom and two bedrooms. The contractor we have for this is outstanding. He has done a wonderful job and has actually become a friend over the past couple years. I just cannot say enough good things about him. His rates are very competitive but the reality is that having him do the rest of the cabin will be costly and I know that I can do it; I just need a little advice. I will ask him for his advice as well but wanted to get some other perspective too.

Thus my questions:

When doing the ceiling do you start at the center and work out to both ends of the room or do you start at one end and work to the other end? How do you ensure that you don’t end up with really tiny board width at one end of the room? Do you lay it all out ahead of time? What about keeping the boards nice and straight? Any tricks there? I will be using 1X6 #2 knotty pine.

One the walls I will be running the boards horizontally and using the existing studs as nailers. Do you start at the bottom of the wall and work up? How to do ensure that the first board is level all the way around the room so that all of the boards end up being lined up perfectly around the entire room? I assume there are some tricks and techniques for doing this so that you don’t end up way off as you work al the way around the room.

I have never attempted anything like this so anything you can do to explain it really simply to this rookie would be very helpful.

Thanks in advance.

Tom5151

Hello,

Just wanted to see if anyone has any advice or tips on this

Thanks.

ebstein

you can start the ceiling with a cut off piece...you can measure it out accordingly....(if you have 8' boards and the ceiling is 20', just make sure you have a decent size piece in the middle so you dont end up with a small piece...

with the wall question, just start with a piece that's off the floor 3/8-1/2" and keep it level....every few courses, put the level on it...trim will hide any crookedness at floor level...
and start with the ceiling....if you need to keep it off the wall a bit on one side, the wall pieces will hide them....and so will trim.

Tom5151

Thank you very much...that helps a lot.....on the ceiling i was also interested to know where to start from a board width perspective. As you have explained, I can cut my lengths accordingly as i go across the room with a single course to make sure i don't have short peices at one end or the other. But I was also wondering about the widths of the boards. If I start at one end of the room and move across to the other course by course, how do you make sure that the last course doesn't end up being a real skinny width? I know with floors you have to lay it out pretty carefully and sometimes rip the first floor board to a skinnier width so that the other side of the room has a width of let's say 2 inches or more. is it the same with the tongue and groove boards?

12penny

Hey Tom....

For the ceiling, start along one wall and work accross. I normally measure my stock, width wise first, and then do the math. How many peices to go accross the room? If you want to, depending on the size of the last board, you can adjust some with your first. Like tile work.

Lay a line for your first course, and make sure you keep your first board on that line. Then I usually just measure out from there to keep my rows straight. It wouldnt hurt to snap more lines if you wanted to.

Those first couple rows are important. Tap them together firmly and work out. Make sure you push and/or pull all bows out as you nail it up. If you work diligently, you wont have a problem and everything should stay reasonably straight.

Bottom up is correct, tongue up.

You can use a laser level and mark all your lines at once. Or try using a water level. Even a string line level would work, just make sure you pull the string tight and keep the level in the middle of the string.

Take your time, its a fun project.

ebstein

12penny's gotter down!

Tom5151

awesome.....thanks guys....this is an old cabin and not much is square, level or plumb...so I want to make sure i do this right......

For some of the studs that may have a little bow out into the room, do you just plane or sand that down so that everything is nice and flat before installing the boards? For example some of the short studs above the windows that run from the top of the window headers up to the bottom of the wall top plate are not totally flush with the header itself. Some of the framing nails used to toenail the studs, etc stick out a little bit. Do you just sand and grind that stuff down so everything is nice and falt before you start?

ebstein

I guess it depends how much bowed it is

I wouldnt sand anything....just hammer in the nail heads...the crocked stuff adds character...especially in old buildings..BUT, I suppose if you wanted to, you could fur it everything else out with something about 1/8" thick or what ever you need to make it all even..but then you run into other problems like the window trim..it may not be a standed trim size then.
if you have a problem getting the tongue into the groove, you could cut it off in that area..

Tom5151

perfect...thanks for your help......yeah i think a few of the real trouble spots on the studs will need to be planed down with a hand planer a little bit......the rest i can either live with or fur out as the case may be.....i probabaly wont need to fur entire studs......just certain spots to make everything nice and flat.