# Coffered Ceilings



## Hank Walker

My name is Hank Walker I am a home improvement and trim specialist in Central New Jersey. I am looking at a project where the homeowner wants a coffered ceiling in their living room. The room dimensions are 16' x 23' with a ceiling of 14' high. I want to build a tic-tac-toe grid in the room with the beams approximately 6"w x 8 1/2"d. I would like to use a 7 1/4" crown molding inside each of the nine boxes on the ceiling. This material will be all paint grade material. There are four high hats that need to be relocated within the boxes. I'm having a hard time figuring out a total cost of this project for labor. It's been serval years since I have done a coffered ceiling. I'm trying to figure out what a labor charge would be for a project this size. Any imput or advice would be helpful. Thank you. 

Thanks,
Hank


----------



## ScipioAfricanus

Well you have come to the right place for such a question.

I hate myself some times.

Andy.


----------



## Splinter

I cant help you with your price, but I figured I could give you some other advice before this thread gets locked down... 

Google Gary Katz coffered ceiling and look at his method for hollow beams.. I just did that in a similar room as you've described. 

I spent a few hours in the shop making the ceiling mounts, and then 2 days on the assembly in the room. I used a much smaller crown, so expect to spend a little extra time than I did... 

I did install new 4" hi-hats into the center of each panel, but I was able to do that while the sheetrock was down. 

You might be able to figure out your own price after reading the Gary Katz tutorial, and ballparking the amount of time necessary.


----------



## J F

http://www.craftsmencarpentry.com/coffered_ceilings.htm :whistling


----------



## loneframer

I'm leaving this thread open, only until the bloodbath begins. Hopefully, it won't get to that point and can be a constructive thread.:thumbsup:


----------



## J F

:blink:


----------



## Sir Mixalot

J F said:


> http://www.craftsmencarpentry.com/coffered_ceilings.htm :whistling


Very Nice Jay.:thumbup:
-Paul


----------



## J F

I used the "Gary Katz method" mentioned above.:thumbsup:


----------



## Splinter

Yep, nice work Jay... 

I never thought about the "faux" coffered ceiling technique... Very cool...


----------



## Hank Walker

*Coffered Ceiling*

:whistling Guys,
Thanks for the information from Gary Katz. Sorry for asking about price. First time on the site. Killing time before the Super Bowl. Trying to catch up on proposals. Very slow here in NJ. Projects are few and far between. Been in business for 20 years and never seen it this slow. Hank


----------



## J F

At least I know what tins was referring to now. :laughing:


----------



## Splinter

loneframer said:


> I'm leaving this thread open, only until the bloodbath begins. Hopefully, it won't get to that point and can be a constructive thread.:thumbsup:


Well, if Hank would get his butt back here and give some input on his abilities and some site details, we might be able to steer clear of a tree fitty thread...


Jay- if the customer wanted flush bottom beams, would you still do it the same way? Mitre the edges, or just bring the sides down flush and hope for a tight fit?

Edit: he's back... woohoo!


----------



## J F

Splinter said:


> Well, if Hank would get his butt back here and give some input on his abilities and some site details, we might be able to steer clear of a tree fitty thread...
> 
> 
> Jay- if the customer wanted flush bottom beams, would you still do it the same way? Mitre the edges, or just bring the sides down flush and hope for a tight fit?
> 
> Edit: he's back... woohoo!


I'd steer them out of it with a $1k upcharge. :laughing:

Paint grade...fill and sand. Stain...probably use a wider 1x for the "bottom" of the beam.


----------



## Hank Walker

Hey Splinter I am here. I build custom cabinets and home entertainment systems for my customers. Full trim packages for entire home. Middle to high end work. Custom bars and basements, kitchens and baths. If they can dream it, I can build it!!


----------



## Splinter

Well, then google up the Gary Katz article and see how it all goes together... If you're capable of cabinetry, you should be able to knock out the ceiling in just a couple days... 

Make an accurate materials list... I often use pre-primed finger jointed pine, and that stuff adds up quickly on coffered ceilings.


----------



## txgencon

When we were building our personal home, my wife showed me a picture from a magazine. The "coffered ceiling" in it was simply multiple layers of decreasing dimensioned strips. I knocked it out in about 6 hours. Yeah, the light isn't centered in one of the boxes but its location wasn't determined until the table and furniture was in place.


----------



## Ashcon

This is one we just started on Friday, been waiting for the cabinet guys to get in and finish. 

Builder put the 2 x material up for backer, I have 6 hours on Fri with setup and 7hrs on Sat. with 2 guys each day. 

We will start crown on Mon. we are set up in the same room and using a baker scaffold so its a bit crowded.


----------



## PrestigeR&D

*------*

I am not letting this one get away... game ON!








B.


----------



## Jimmy Cabinet

Ashcon said:


> This is one we just started on Friday, been waiting for the cabinet guys to get in and finish.
> 
> Builder put the 2 x material up for backer, I have 6 hours on Fri with setup and 7hrs on Sat. with 2 guys each day.
> 
> We will start crown on Mon. we are set up in the same room and using a baker scaffold so its a bit crowded.


 
I love your work. But I beg of you to cover that aweful inch gap at the top of the cabinets. I'm not picking on you, I have also slammed others for doing the same. Sorry but that aweful gap takes away from all the other wonderful woodwork. My eyes just can't leave it alone.


----------



## Jrickard

just finished a coffered ceiling last week on a house I framed. The room was 40x20 with 18ft high ceilings. Took 2 days to frame it with 2 other people. As for a price i dont have an answer.:no:


----------



## srwcontracting

Ashcon said:


> Found some pics of a ceiling we did a couple of years ago.
> This one is stain grade, the beams and panels are plywood the crown and other molding is poplar.


Very nice......I would have been arguing about cutting that speaker in that beautiful ceiling!


----------



## Ashcon

Thanks SRW I had the painter colour the speaker covers and the potlights 

to match the ceiling.

I set the saw on a rolling scaffold and worked off of another one.

It was my first attempt at a coffered ceiling.:thumbsup::whistling

I think we did OK.

Chad


----------



## Magnettica

Of course the only work here that's mine are the recessed lights. We installed new work, than a change order to install them after the finished ceiling. I have to say that worked out much better even though we had to set up the scaffolding several times to accomplish this. Coordination is the key to getting it right, but on this one there was very little of that. All change orders got paid so what do I care?


----------



## blackbear

ill play too.


----------



## Ashcon

Nice work Blackbear.:thumbsup:

Ok as promised here are the pics with the crown, I think the crown is a bit 

big for the beams but the HO is happy. HO happy=Ashcon happy:thumbup:












The ceiling was crazy out of level painter is going to have his work cut out for him. I hate the cold air grill under the crown, but no one asked me.
Thanks Chad


----------



## Ashcon

Blackbear, I like the embelishments in the corners. Was that in the design 

or something you came up with? It is a nice touch, they talked about 

doing that on this job. We are still designing.

Chad


----------



## PrestigeR&D

*interesesting..*

:shutup:


----------



## blackbear

Ashcon said:


> Blackbear, I like the embelishments in the corners. Was that in the design
> 
> or something you came up with? It is a nice touch, they talked about
> 
> doing that on this job. We are still designing.
> 
> Chad


Thanks Ash,

I came up with them on the fly, I hate doing the same crap over and over so needed to spice it up a little. Here is a pic of the first design I came up with, they didnt like it so went with something a little more conservative.


----------



## SSC

Tcleve 

nice work . it looks like you leveled your boxes and the ceiing in some areas was not level. my question is where do you lose the difference so it is least visible when stained/painted? im assuming you use the crown to hide as much aas you can. . . is this correct?
thanks Erik B 
Everyone - some real nice work here! gives me inspiration to get up and go to work:notworthy


----------



## csv

Might sound kinda fem but all those pics show some beautiful work.


----------



## Ashcon

blackbear said:


> Thanks Ash,
> 
> I came up with them on the fly, I hate doing the same crap over and over so needed to spice it up a little. Here is a pic of the first design I came up with, they didnt like it so went with something a little more conservative.


 I like it it would be great in a 2 story foyer with lots of space that it would stand out. Maybe a couple of them. I remember a pic in fine homebuilding of a ceiling done at Harvard or something like that it had alot of embelishments. Makes the whole thing really stand out. :thumbsup:
Thanks for sharing. 
Chad


----------



## Cairncross

Coffers on my current job :thumbup:
We used african mahogany as wide long lengths were available.
For better production, we built a temp work platform across the whole room, threw all the tools and men all up there, then moved the platform to the next room.


----------



## Cairncross

Trying to attach some other pics but having trouble...


----------

