Ceiling the deal, part one

Wherein we start installing the ceiling beadboard.
I had previously installed some of the rafters before I started running the wiring that runs overhead.

 

This was to help support the wire runs, and partly to be sure that the rafter design was stable.

The plan is to mount sheets of 1/4" birch beadboard to the rafters, attached primarily with VHB tape and perimeter screws. There will be three 4-foot wide center panels, from front to rear, and then side panels to bring us to the walls.

Started by creating a mounting system at the rear, around the MAXXfan. Because of the wire run and rear door framing, the heights were all wrong to attach a rafter (like in the picture above).

However, the rear support for the fan could be built up to the right height, and some aluminum strips could work to support the rearmost section of the rear ceiling panel. (I rear-ly hope this is making sense.)

 The aluminum strips are attached to the sidewalls at some conveniently aligned holes, and VHB'd to the fan support.

Then added VHB to the top of the aluminum strip,

stuck a crosswise rafter to the VHB, and added the remainder of the rear beadboad panel's supports.

 

Now we were ready to mount the first panel. This is the middle panel of the 3 center panels. We had previously figured out where the ceiling lights would go, so I had already drilled the holes for the wires, and cut the panel down to the right length (88"). We chose that length because the panel ends end up halfway across Annies's structural roof members. You can sort of see that in the picture above.

Then applied VHB to the rafters, and a few temporary guides to make sure the panel would be centered.

Hint: I found that the VHB adhesion can be really improved if I first sprayed the rafters and beadboard back with 3M 90.

Mucho VHB:

One of the temporary guides hard at work:

With the invaluable assistance of the aesthetics committee, we got the panel up. This would have been a real tough job for just one person.

For some reasons, one of the VHB'd rafters on the driver's side isn't holding as well as the others. We decided to push it up tight with some temporary supports, raise the temperature, and see how it holds tomorrow.

The aesthtics committee consult on the poorly adhering section.

 

The discussion gets intense:

Nevertheless, I'm not too concerned.The rest of the panel seems to be holding real well, and this area will also be supported from below by the bath/fridge/closet walls.

A sense of what the end result will look like (brought to you courtesy of wide angle lenses):

 

Tomorrow, assuming that this panel hasn't fallen down, I'll install the ceiling lamps we picked (because I will be removing the OEM lamps), and beginning to build and install the rear panel.