acoustic ceiling tiles

[billfrommich]

I plan on applying acoustic ceiling tiles to select areas of the ceiling in my basement shop. These will be applied directly (glued and/or stapled) to the ceiling - it will not be a drop/suspended installation. I noticed that there are 12" square interlocking tiles sold specifically for this purpose, but it seems that it would be cheaper to use the 2ft x 4ft panels that are designed for suspended ceilings in this application. Both types (tiles and panels) seem to be made of the same type of fibrous material. Can anyone think of a reason I should not use the ceiling panels rather than the tiles?

[Uncle Cracker]

I can't think of any, other than devising a way to handle the joints, which may appear uneven after a time without appearance strips. I don't know if I'd recommend butting the panels flush to each other, without any gaps for expansion.

[charliex]

Nail 3 inch wide 1/4" hardboard furring strips to the bottom of the joists (like an inverted T) Then cut the panels to fit and drop them in. If there is clearance problems from X bracing, leave a strip of furring off at the end of the joist, slide the panels in then install the end panel and nail the last furring strip in place. You should also be able to buy 4 X 8 sheets of similar material. Another option, if you have floor to ceiling clearance, is faced bat insulation. Just staple in place.
Chas

[LarryG]

These will be applied directly (glued and/or stapled) to the ceiling

From this I gather that you have some sort of ceiling already, as opposed to just bare joists. In that case applying the larger, plain panels over an existing substrate will work just fine. The smaller tiles have T&G edges for a finished appearance when there is no grid to conceal the seams, and to hold all the edges in alignment. If you're not concerned about looks, what you propose will save you some money.

One caveat: if the panels will NOT have a solid backing, provide supports at not more than 24" each way, using a system like charliex recommends or similar. The 2x4 panels will sag out in their middles over time; for that reason, we typically use 2x2 grids and panels on all of our projects.

[herb fellows]

I wonder if they would sag over time because the support is too weak for that size?

[billfrommich]

From this I gather that you have some sort of ceiling already, as opposed to just bare joists.

Actually, the ceiling is bare joists attached to a plank type sub-floor (being an older house, the sub-floor consists of 1" x 6" planking laid at a 45 degree angle to the joists). There are gaps of about 1/8" wide between the planks, which allows dust to pass over the dividing wall between my shop and the rest of the basement. My plan is to caulk the ceiling gaps bordering the shop side of the wall and cover the caulked gaps with a single row of the ceiling tiles applied directly to the sub-floor, not the joists. So really this is being done to try as best as I can to keep shop dust out of the rest of the house. After writing the initial post it occurred to me that I could also use drywall as well, although that might be a bit harder to work with.

[dreichel]

My basement ceiling consists of the 12x12 tiles. They are glued to a 1/2-inch thick drywall. The ceiling looks nice, but not when you need to remove some tiles to install coaxial cable, network cables, etc. An advantage of the 12x12 tiles is that you maximize the head height (I have 7 feet 4 inches from concrete floor to the bottom of the first floor joists).

[Richard in Smithville]

If you go with gluing the tiles in place, try a combination of construction adhesive and hot glue. The hot glue will hold the tile in place until the adhesive kicks in.

[Uncle Cracker]

If you go with gluing the tiles in place, try a combination of construction adhesive and hot glue. The hot glue will hold the tile in place until the adhesive kicks in.

If you use Loctite PowerGrab, you may not need anything else.