After buying a house, there are often two lists: fix now and fix someday. The textured acoustic ceiling tiles in our bedroom fall into the latter category. They're not that big of a deal, yet I still lay in bed every night, staring up at them with contempt, wondering why the previous owners made my cozy sleeping space feel like a third-grade classroom.
I was told it wouldn't be too expensive to have drywall installed (though if you've had house work done, you know that's generally an understatement). I've also thought about putting in wood paneling. But again, this is all down the line and until then, I just have to live with my strange ceiling.
Unless someone knows of a clever and temporary DIY solution, that is. I've toyed with taping fabric or some kind of pretty paper over the tiles, but I'm not sure if that's safe. To be honest, I don't really understand why the ceiling tiles are even there.
Readers: Have you removed acoustic ceiling tiles or did you just leave them be? You were so helpful with bungalow paint colors that I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
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Wallpaper maybe?
You could always see about changing them for a decorative ceiling tiles option:http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_seeall_1?rh=k%3Aceiling+tiles%2Ci%3Agarden&keywords=ceiling+tiles&ie=UTF8&qid=1311191603
We had acoustical tiles in our bathroom when we moved in and, to me, it was a fix NOW. It sincerely wasn't expensive to drywall. We removed the ceiling ourselves (best demo feeling ever) and then hired a crew to come in--we needed walls too in another area that was paneled. But, I would say the cost for the ceiling was no more than $500. SOOO worth it. Just saying.
I have the EXACT same ceiling tiles in my bedroom as well! On the same page with you as far as changing them eventually, and would love to hear other options in the meantime.
Terrible.
The "why did they" might be a plaster ceiling in poor condition. I don't think this is any worse to look at than my cracked and lumpy plaster ceiling.
Get a bed with a canopy!
What is underneath the tile? Is it something that could be exposed and beautified? They aren't asbestos are they? If so, you or the seller would have to replace them for safety. At least it is not the dreaded popcorn ceiling. My niece put up gauzy billowy fabric on her ceiling and walls and it is kind of a fairy tent look.
You can buy wallpaper for the ceiling that looks like ceiling tin and it can be painted. This might be a reasonable semi-temporary solution that you end up loving, and with the style of the bedroom decor in the photo, it looks like it could complement it really well.
If you're set on dry-walling, then I would say that the cost of getting the dry wall done is probably less than the total cost of time and materials for any temporary solution.
Go forth with the drywall!
I have those in my dining room-- talk about weird.
I've seen them painted black, trim and all, in galleries and restaurants and they totally look nice. Not sure if it's the best look for a bedroom but heck, for just the price of paint, I would do it. I would go crazy staring up at them at night too! You could do a dark gray, a slightly darker brown than your wall paint, or a nice pop of color Maybe robins egg blue? Good luck!
I had these in my last apartment- for sound deafening. I didnt try to remove them but my neighbor did and there was a plaster ceiling underneath. She patched and painted it and it looked ok, not great, but better. although she started complaining that WE were loud neighbors shortly after. dummy.
Another option is to get a print on them, which might make them a little more bearable to look at. Definitely an eye sore though!
No doubt the ceiling underneath the tile was horrible. Putting up acoustical tile is quite a chore, and is rarely done without a good reason. They also provide sound and temperature insulation. Having said that---I share your discontent with having that be your bedtime view.
If you are strong of neck, back, and arm, and skillful with staple gun and the hot glue gun, you can cover them with fabric. Theoretically, you could CAREFULLY take them off and attach something else to the lathe underneath, like tin tiles. Or Masonite, which you could paint. But I recommend fabric.
We have them in a few rooms in our house. I painted the ones in my daughters room sky blue, and am ignoring the ones in the Dining room (as they too fall into the someday category). However one night I couldn't stand it anymore and started ripping them off my bedroom ceiling...and as it turns out there was an oak ceiling underneath. It was beautiful and I have no idea why anyone would ever cover it up. Maybe what's underneath isn't so scary.
I like the wallpaper idea! It could make it look like a totally different ceiling I'm sure!
This isn't necessarily temporary - and may run the same cost as drywall but have you considered beadboard?
We had ours done because there were a lot of cuts involved. However, if you're doing a straight flat ceiling, I would think this would be a diy-able project.
Here's a link to a brief photo essay of a similar project.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jen-becker/sets/72157626024612971/with/5491098972/
Mine was anouther good surprise. Wood! It had been stained very dark so the tiles made the room lighter but so did the paint I painted the wood!! Carefully try to remove one that is small and peek in????
Why not take them off and use American Clay clay plaster to smooth out the ceiling (if it needs it)? I much prefer plaster to drywall (and toxic dry wall mud).
we removed ours....and underneath was cracked plaster in one room and DISGUSTING brown (most likely from cig smoke) wallpaper. We tore out the plaster and lathe and left the beams exposed. It was a huge, horrible job. But it looks aaaaaaaawesome now!!! I just hope my lungs don't hate me down the road.
My parents are getting ready to sell their house, and the tiles in their room are an absolute must fix before listing the property (both because their ugly and because they show some of the damage from a roof leak we had years ago).
Thing is, they've got a 1920s house with the original lathe and plaster walls and ceilings. Just drilling a hole in that stuff is a nightmare. Dad suspects the tiles are glued to the ceiling (rather than tacked up, which would involve so much damage to the plaster it wouldn't have been worth it) so he's not sure how to either get them down or cover them up without plaster dust everywhere.
(He has further support for his glue theory because else where in the house are other half-assed modifications, such as drywall in the kitchen that was put directly on top of the plaster and cut out around the cabinets, rather than taking the cabinets down and doing it right.)
I'd like to second eveb1123's suggestion - I vote for the ceiling wallpaper that looks like tin. I had it in the kitchen of my old house (was there when I moved in) and it totally worked. It was painted similarly to the walls and looked so surprisingly good that most people thought it was the real thing!
Good luck!
Oops, I meant that I *third* the ceiling wallpaper discussion - sorry, alyssasteffes!
I think these ceiling tiles are fine.
It's the ones that hang from the metal matrix that look like they came from a school.
Seriously, the plain, small, square tiles are so.much.better. than godawful textured drywall ceilings.
And chances are, they were put there because the plaster (not drywall-plaster) underneath is cracked.
Paint the ceiling white, put up some crown moulding, and call it a day.
We just (as in this week) pulled down and put up new ceilings in 3 rooms. My husband pulled down the ceiling tile himself. Not too bad of a process--basically you need to remove any crown moulding first (if you have any) then pull off each tile individually. If they are stapled that is easier than if they are glued. No way to tell until you do one. Beneath them should be strapping--which was put over a plaster ceiling that was likely old and damaged. The strapping will then need to be resupported with wood screws or nails. We hired drywallers to do everything post-demo. Basically they resupported the strapping, patched spots where the plaster was falling, and put up 5/8ths blueboard and skimcoated as needed. We also paid for them to prime and paint the ceiling. We weren't going to do that part, but I HIGHLY recommend it. There is a lot of sanding that goes on and I don't think the condition it would have been in post-blueboard would have enabled us to get the finished result we wanted w/o them doing it. I think the whole project including the priming and painting and putting the moulding back up and caulking and filling it was about $800ish per room. If the plaster is in really bad shape--so much so that they can't blueboard over it b/c the weight will be too much then it might run you a bit more. This happened to us in one small room, but they actually didn't charge us more. I now stare up at our flat white ceilings with a big smile. I think it's totally worth it! Just be prepared for a BOATLOAD of dust.
I am renovating now and the first thing to do in every room is take down the drop down ceiling tiles. We have had to undo so many layers and layers of bad ideas. Also, our inspector did warn us that some of the ceiling tiles might have asbestos, so be weary of that.
If you rip those down, and most of them are still in tact, put them on craigslist for musicians in your area. In fact, that might be a good way to get free help :)
Another reason such tiles are put up is to conceal wiring and pipes. On the up side, yours aren't water-damaged, stained, mildewed, or even dirty, apparently, so removing them doesn't have to be rushed for health reasons.
You should be able to stand on a ladder and lift a tile straight up until the lip clears the frame, then slide it sideways to rest on other tiles in order to see what's up there. There has to be that much clearance to install them.
Once you know what you are dealing with you can make a better decision.
They make fairly nice looking embossed replacement tiles that kind of resemble coffered ceilings, so if you find you need to stay with tiles, you could look at those.
My guess is that either the ceiling is in bad repair, or maybe very high -- I get the feeling that it was the Thing at one point in time to install suspended ceilings for sound and temperature insulation and to be "modern" -- so you might be lucky.
@Grace Jackson, the glued-on foot square ceiling tiles are (I think) the ones most likely to have asbestos. I would investigate whether you can seal them in with quarter inch thick gypsum board screwed over the tiles and drywalled.
I would take the tiles off carefully, leaving the underlying lathe in tact. Then place masonite panels side by side and cover the entire ceiling.
On the joints between the 4x8 masonite panels place a lathe strip to hide the joint and then prime and paint the entire ceiling. In my opinion that is a cheap and easy fix.
If you have the money however, contract out to do the drywall. I have always contracted drywall out to the pro's because they do it daily, and much better and quicker than I ever could do.
Keep in mind the person who suggested that the tiles were placed up there for a good reason is probably correct - you may find a nightmare behind the tiles!
We had those awful popcorn ceilings, and had them drywalled before we moved in. Really, it wasn't that expensive, and there is no other solution for your problems.
Check what is underneath, and then hire professionals.
As Edgaroso advises, contract it out to reliable pros: they are quick and do a good job. We're old DIYers, have done lots of drywalling, and would still contract out a job such as this.
Employing professionals can make a huge difference to the quality of your life.
Life is too short to lay in bed staring up at those tiles and fretting.
As long as the popcorn is not asbestos, you can just scrape it off and paint over where it used to be. I mean, it's just sprayed to drywall, right?
Also, that embossed wallpaper is called ANAGLIPTA. I learned it from Debbie Travis, bless her heart.
We had the same compressed paper tiles on the ceiling. They are often a tongue-andf-groove system. We pulled them down easily (they were stapled up, which is common), and found beautiful beadboard ceilings. Two coats of paint and some minor patching, and they look amazing. Best of luck...
Okay I couldn't read all the comments, but you can totally do this! Get rid of the tiles!! We pulled all of ours down and underneath was gross however, the tiles have to be secured to the ceiling with strapping, so we used the strapping that was already in place and put up drywall and a friend taught us how to crackfill and voilà!! New smooth ceiling for under $300!! So So So easy and we are hopeless with DIY!! Good luck!!
as to why they would be there: insulation or noise reduction, previous owners probably got cold/hot. anyways get a ladder out, climb up there and press on the middle of a tile with your hand. is there any give, maybe you can lift it up and take a peak? or does it feel like there is a solid something behind it? they could have been glued to the original ceiling or installed with a track system like i found in my new (60's) home.
my husband ripped down our master bedroom tiles because some were stained from a previous roof leak. we gained about 2 inches in ceiling height, but inherited a damaged plaster ceiling and lots of nail holes to fill. not a big deal, just needs skim coating, but you never know what you'll find.
since your tiles look bright white and clean i would absolutely not touch them until you have the funds to drywall the whole thing if it came to that. like someone else said-get yourself a canopy bed until then.
we have the old gold glitter vein ceiling tiles in every single room except 2. so yeah, consider yourself on the luckier side!
I guess I lucked out with ours. They're in our 50's basement and they're super atomic with starbursts on them. To each their own!
We kept ours in the sun room of our 1928 Tudor and painted at glossy bronze/copper color
http://beechwood1928.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/asparagus-with-aged-copper/
I have these and do not like them, however I know for a fact that underneath them is badly damaged plaster over lathe that will be messy and expensive to deal with so I keep it painted and try not to look at it. The way I see it my dollars are better spent elsewhere right now. I figure if my ceiling is the worst thing in my house....
@marid22, Absolutely, much better a cosmetic ceiling problem than, for example, a bad roof.
What about replacing the tiles with wood? Tongue and groove planks or bead board? I've seen it done, it looks good if it works with the style of your home. It looks like your walls are painted paneling, so I think bead board could be an appropriate choice.
I would have an expert check how old your tiles are. When we bought our house all the rooms on the first floor had acoustic tiles on the ceiling. We had them checked by a building inspector who told us that our tiles were from the 1970s and would melt in case of fire. So we had our dangerous tiles removed and the ceiling drywalled.
We have the same tiles, and underneath them is nothing. It just goes straight to the attic, with all of its fiberglass insulation glory. So, clearly the previous owner of our home was taking the easy/cheap way out, but the fixing it will not be nearly as easy as some of the posters describe. The only way to know what you are working with is to try and see what is above it - maybe try from the attic first, if it is a top floor. But if it is like ours, it is actually a fire hazard, because there is no fire break between one room and the next - which makes it very unsafe for bedrooms.
@ Beechwood 1928, thank you! I don't want to do a ceiling demolition right now, but I can paint anything. Great idea.
If you want to get a look at what's underneath the tiles, remove one from a closet where it won't be noticed. These tiles were original equipment in my family's ranch house, which was built in 1959. They were just the style back then for much new construction.