The ceiling in one room is falling down in my moms house. The house was built in the early 70's and has ceiling heat. The ceiling looks like a blanket held at each corner and sagging in the middle. I checked for a leak in the roof and it's dry and no bug damage. The sheetrock has simply pulled away from the nails.

I really don't want to tackle this job so I called a guy out to give a estimate. He said what he would do is jack the old stuff back up screw it in and then put new 5/8" sheetrock over the old stuff. This way we/he would not need to mess with the insulation and would not need to worry about having the cracks show up again later. At the same time install a wall heater and disconnect the ceiling heat in that room. I was actaully thinking of installing a wall heater instead of messing with the ceiling heat, its a pretty small room and we use a wood stove for heat most of the time.

This person was suggested from the P.U.D. when my mom called to see if they could fix it.

My question is does this sound like a good idea? I guess I don't see anything wrong with it besides the extra weight but I don't even know if that is a big deal or not.

 

If it's a small room I'd just tear out the old and replace it. That way you can check to see if there are any other problems or merely the sheetrock sagging. Sheet rock is not that hard - just a little time consuming. You do need a buddy, tho, makes ceiling work a lot easier.

 

The ceiling in my bedroom wasn't put up right and did the same thing, sagged. It was repaired exactly the way your contractor wants to do it. There was very little mess, the ceilings are textured, also the bedroom seems quieter with the extra layer of sheet rock, I had to redo the fan ceiling box, but it was no big deal.

 

The suggested repair almost sounds good. The only issue I would have with that is the extra layer of drywall--it's not necessary, nor is it good practice for a couple of reasons.

If there was no water damage to the ceiling, then the issue is that the drywall was inadequately attached, so fix that and you're done. It's not really a good idea to have a whole bunch of extra drywall hanging from the ceiling joists, whatever they may be. They were designed for a certain amount of weight, and another layer of drywall, particularly 5/8" is just asking for trouble.

To fix what you've got, find the joists, then start screwing it up from the parts of the "pillow" that are drooping the least and work your way toward the lowest-drooping sections. Start with a minimum of 1-3/4" long screws (get the gold construction ones, not the black drywall screws), and have some longer ones on hand, such as 2", 2-1/2" and 3" even. You don't want to punch the screw throught the drywall paper, so you may have to gradually tighten a bunch of screws, and hammer in the old nails as you go, too.

I've got a friend who was a builder/remodeler for a long time, and he said that he had seen this too many times. Almost every time, it was from using screws or nails that were inadequate in length or possibly overdriven. A 1/2"x4'x8' sheet of drywall is about 54 pounds. Increase that by ~25% for 5/8". That's a lot of weight to be hanging on a few nail or screwheads, so it has to be done right.

Ripping it out and replacing wouldn't be a bad way to go, either.

Jason

 

IF you have to tear the old Sheet Rock down, you might run into blown insulation. A curse upon us victimized buyers.
Then you'll want to have done the repair the way the contractor suggested.

So why'd the Sheet Rock fail? Too thin? Not enough fasteners? Wood failed after it dried out?
If the Wood's OK, you can put newer 5/8"s up and call it good, but if the wood's pithy you can plan on pulling it all down and starting over with furring strips.
I dont know what Celing Heat is or how it affects the building, Sorry.

 

I did drywall work for 2 years and owned my own buisness. I agree with jroehl the extra drywall is not needed infact you can do the repairs your self. Get a 2x4 and push up in the sagging ceiling and find the trusses and start screwing

 

If "blown" insulation is the loose stuff then yeah that's it. The wood is fine no rot of any problems that I can see or feel. I think the sheetrock fell down just because it was not nailed up properly.

Ceiling heat is set up like this. First sheetrock is installed, then a huge maze of wire is zig-zagged back and forth on the sheetrock, held in by staples I think. Then I have heard that a second layer of sheet rock is installed over the wire or a layer of plaster is put over the wire. This house has plaster covering the wire. Then the acoustic pop-corn is sprayed on. The wire is gently heated via a thermostat to warm the room.

 

it was probably put up with nails originly and they dont have the bite needed for over head work drywall is heavy stuff

 

I thought about this but the sheetrock has a total of about 10' of cracks that I feel would break throught the after I mudded it up. Do you think they would?

 

vancouverpower is correct that is what is done with overhead heating like i said earlier it was probably put up with nails and they dont have the bite screws do for overhead work

 

yes nails were used

 

you would have more luck supporting the ceiling along both sides of the crack when using my technique

 

I think you can use Reqitrash's "T" bar idea made of 2X4's and screw the wall board up with regular wall board screws.(Wood's OK?)
Any crack can be mudded up if the wall board is held fast enough around the crack.

This is a one afternoon repair. You wont even get dirty.
Use lots of screws. Get the driver bits that wont let you drive the screws in too far.

That celing heat sounds OK. I put hot water in the floor of my place in Alaska. It made you want to sleep on the floor with the kids.

 

I don't like the idea of this ceiling heat.

Seems like you're initially wasting some energy trying to heat the room.

Doesn't heat tend to rise?

As for the sheetrock, everybody's idea sounds good.

Why not first try the 2x4 t-helper and screw back the sheetrock in place.

All you need is standard 1-5/8" coarse thread sheet rock screws, and borrow a friends drywall gun.

And don't bust through the paper.

If that doesn't work, then re-rock with 1/2" sheetrock.

Just make sure that you find the stud locations before you put up the rock.

Nothing worse than driving in a screw and not hitting the joist.

Good luck.

BTW-how big is the ceiling?

 

I am a general contractor. Remove the sheet rock and replace it! With the old sheet rock removed you can really inspect and find the cause of the existing problem ie improper nailing of sheetrock, leak, etc. If there was a leak the insulation is bad and should be replaced. Just my two cents.