Hey, all, I know this is a woodworking site, but hey-- there's 1x3" strapping under this thing and I find you guys among the most helpful and knowledgeable people out in the Google groups community, so I hope you don't mind a minor digression.

My home is a 1912 Foresquare NW of Boston. The idiots who owned it before me had installed a
Drop ceiling in the kitchen. First thing I did the very first time I walked through the home was to find a stool and poke my head above the drop ceiling. Sure enough, there was old Tin under there.

They did a good job w the house, generally. However they had expanded the kitchen and apparently there wasn't enough tin to cover the entire room. Furthermore when they installed the acoustic they added massive 6" cans, and needed to cut more holes in the tin above to get them to fit.

I am undertaking the restoration of this ceiling.

To make up for the lack of tin, I am installing a soffit in the actual kitchen "working" area. I have removed the tin from this area and I am installing a 1x3" Doug fir T&G beadboard (technically v-groove, not "true" bead, and same is present in some various other places in my home). The strips of tin I've removed are generally 2' x8' strips.

I am relocating the tin from this area, and using it to cover the voids in the walking path and eat-in area of my kitchen.

My specific question is about the areas that they butchered to make room for the can lights. In most cases, I'm snipping the tin, lining up my edges very carefully, and nailing as usual. But these areas where appx 4 1/2-5" holes are present, I could take one 1x1 "tile" portion and go straight over the top, instead of cutting the perimeter and nailing. For some reason, I beloved this will be easier than what I'm doing... but this could be a bad assumption. For example, I'm thinking the adhesive route could help me avoid the edge-lifting issue, but the adhesive could bulge instead, giving me a different perceptible issue.

Anyone ever use construction adhesive and simply adhere these symmetrically-pressed pieces together?

Keep in mind the ceiling has about 4 coats of old alkyd paint, as well as one topcoat of latex. (I could kill them for using a water-base over this...but hey, these are the things that happen when one buys a 100 year old home, right? ) The detail is intact, the paint isn't gooped up, and I have no intention of stripping it for its own sake. I am, however, concerned with adhesion as t pertains to these
Coats of paint, if I decide to go the construction adhesive route, instead of straight nails.

Any thoughts, anyone, would be appreciated.

Thanks.

On 03/25/2017 11:39 PM, Steve wrote:
....


How about http://wfnorman.com/products/ceilings/

These folks are still running the same presses/patterns from that
time...whether they have the same patterns as yours or not I don't know,
but I'd surely be checking for filling areas...

--

On 03/26/2017 9:26 AM, dpb wrote:
On 03/25/2017 11:39 PM, Steve wrote:
...


How about http://wfnorman.com/products/ceilings/

These folks are still running the same presses/patterns from that
time...whether they have the same patterns as yours or not I don't know,
but I'd surely be checking for filling areas...

PS. While the old farmhouse here didn't have any tin ceilings, the roof
corner tiles are identical to those on the barn cupola/house roof when
they were built in '15-16 for house, just after WW-I armistice signed so
could get the lumber for the barn. They told me those were, indeed, the
identical dyes from that time still in use...

--

On Monday, March 27, 2017 at 11:01:53 AM UTC-4, dpb wrote:
On 03/26/2017 9:26 AM, dpb wrote:
On 03/25/2017 11:39 PM, Steve wrote:
...


How about http://wfnorman.com/products/ceilings/

These folks are still running the same presses/patterns from that
time...whether they have the same patterns as yours or not I don't know,
but I'd surely be checking for filling areas...

PS. While the old farmhouse here didn't have any tin ceilings, the roof
corner tiles are identical to those on the barn cupola/house roof when
they were built in '15-16 for house, just after WW-I armistice signed so
could get the lumber for the barn. They told me those were, indeed, the
identical dyes from that time still in use...

--

Thanks, DPB!

yeah, I searched all over WFNorman about a year and a half ago, when I first threatened (to my wife) to rip down the drop ceiling. They have beautiful stuff, but unfortunately neither my strips nor my cornice.

I've been all over the 'net looking for this tin. I found a couple of 6x6" "tiles" a year ago on Ebay. The seller was a tin salvage company, basically selling this piece as a decorative little wall hanging. I asked her where she came across it, and asked if she had any 2x8' runs. She replied that she had never previously seen it, it had come from a 1910 private schoolhouse in Upstate NY (almost same age as my home, also Northeastern US) and that the rest of the ceiling was too damaged to sell.

I thought about salvaging/buying a simple hammered style to put around the border of the room, but the tin is on so nicely where the edges meet the cornice, that I nixed that plan pretty quickly. (Three stitches in my hand from removing the few I moved didn't help, either!!)

That's about the time I started looking into dropping the beadboard soffit. I found enough cornice to complete the job at TinCeilingXpress.com. --at least, it's relatively close-- I'm prob. the only one who would notice the difference, as long as I stop in a corner.

The T&G is about 75% done, I have 6 new can lights wired, and I'm on my way to replacing the rest of the tin this weekend.

So, I guess that leads to my question again-- anyone ever use construction adhesive as a means to 'patch' a directly over another tile, instead of cutting and nailing?

Thanks again-- I appreciate your time & reply, and hopefully someone doing a similar project some day will find this useful, if nothing else!

Slainte.

Can you show us a pic of the tin (tiles or strips) you're looking for? The more eyes, for searching, the better.

I assume you've looked, but there's a lot of samples on etsy, also.

I would think the dedicated companies, that sell this type of tile, could advise you better, as to what adhesive to use. Test some adhesive on a sample, if you have a spare sample of tin.

Sonny

On Tue, 28 Mar 2017 14:56:57 -0700 (PDT), Sonny
wrote:

Can you show us a pic of the tin (tiles or strips) you're looking for? The more eyes, for searching, the better.

I assume you've looked, but there's a lot of samples on etsy, also.

I would think the dedicated companies, that sell this type of tile, could advise you better, as to what adhesive to use. Test some adhesive on a sample, if you have a spare sample of tin.

Sonny
see:
http://www.tinceiling.com/?gclid=CLT...FQu5wAod5-gIvw
Just down the road from me -authentic patterns from the past.

On Tuesday, March 28, 2017 at 8:15:12 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Tue, 28 Mar 2017 14:56:57 -0700 (PDT), Sonny
wrote:

Can you show us a pic of the tin (tiles or strips) you're looking for? The more eyes, for searching, the better.

I assume you've looked, but there's a lot of samples on etsy, also.

I would think the dedicated companies, that sell this type of tile, could advise you better, as to what adhesive to use. Test some adhesive on a sample, if you have a spare sample of tin.

Sonny
see:
http://www.tinceiling.com/?gclid=CLT...FQu5wAod5-gIvw
Just down the road from me -authentic patterns from the past.

Thanks again folks, I have plenty of tin, since I added the soffit. (I actually now have extra.) Was wondering about adhesives instead of brads, that's all. On the other hand, I did NOT think about Etsy. I'll add that to my list of places to seek tools, salvage, etc. thanks!

Regardless, I snipped everything last week, both cleaned up the ceiling lines and prepped the pieces back going up. I have a couple of small areas of cleats to re-set, and then it's ready to line up and nail. Hopefully, this weekend, I can put it all up and also patch those danged holes from the prior owner's can lights.