need ideas to cover the ugly ceiling

[gajd33]

What about wood laminate ceiling panels? Put a few wood spacers betweent he metal bars and fasten these up. Would look nicei think.

[LaZy507]

Originally Posted by knugent

How far apart are the steel bars in your ceiling? I just did a complete ceiling tear-out on my Chieftain that became very involved. I ended up putting steel "rafters"on 24" centers (but that's for another post). I finished mine with luan that I glued to the blue-board and "rafters" with a construction adhesive called "SIKA" that I bought from Lowe's. (It appears to be safe to use on the foam. Contact cement will eat it up)
Before putting the luan up, I covered it with a nice, heavy vinyl wallpaper. I did it before putting it up so that I could wrap the paper over the ends and sides of the panels a couple of inches. I then held it up with some Tee braces made of 2X4 and 1X4 covered with old carpeting. At each rafter, I used the self-tapping, round-head screws like Phobos suggested. For proper spacing, I used a 2 inch wide piece of pegboard and marked out what looked like a good spacing.
After the adhesive set overnight, I removed the screws and covered the seams with 1 1/2 inch wide oak strips. I think it looks nice.
When I get the hang of this picture-posting thing, I hope to start a thread of my own tear-out and rebuild.
Hope this helps. Good luck.

Thanks, and mine are various distances. They start from 21 inches, about where my head would be in the photo and going towards the bedroom area.
The distance goes to max of 31 inchs apart. steel beams are 1.5 inches lower than exsisting ceiling. Idk really what i will end up doing,like i said, (my head already hits the ceiling, i kinda gotta duck already to not hit my head on the beams)
I kinda feel like if i lowered the whole ceiling, that i would just feel crouched all the time..dont know what to do.

[TQ60]

Whatever is the lowest point is the limit.

You can add stringers to allow attachment and support, use a 2x4 as a guide to keep them at same level.

Between stringers glue in foam board.

Add conduits for wires to lights.

Visit hardware department, brass screws with brass trim washers look nice, do the job well, not expensive and allow removal later.

Trick is spacing and alignment, mount panels bare to allow chauk line to make grids for screws.

Once all are done mark panels, then covering is added, rolling over edges.

If seams are good no trim needed.

Or you could try single piece seamless, or add brass inter-panel "H" trim that is flush and requires no hardware

Can use paneling, luan or padded panel, many oprions there.

Ours is padded vinyl, looks real rich, southwind has what looks like short nap carpet, others have wallpaper looking stuff.

Since you bump your head it needs to be non staining and washable

Maybe visit a well stocked wall covering store that have folks who know what they are doing...not home depot...

They may be able to give you some good ideas.

[79suncruiser]

This might sound silly, we are new to this but we are using fake tin ceiling. It comes in a lot of colors and you could glue it up and spay paint the steel beams to match. Then you don't lose any head room.