Ever wonder how to frame-away the UGLY obstacles overhead in your basement? You know… the low hanging “fruit” that seems to be everywhere in your basement? Well there is really only one way to hide all this ceiling insanity and that’s using a framing method called Soffit Framing! The Soffits as we call them in the biz, hide the main ceiling obstacles that protrude down from the floor joists. These obstacles generally include the main heating and cooling duct-work, main load bearing beams, main sewage lines, water lines, wires, etc.. The soffit creates a lower ceiling in your finished basement that is then drywalled.
Soffits are the perfect solution for hiding all of this “stuff” that crowds the “ceilingscape”(that’s my word) of our basements! I find that most homeowners do a good bit of head-scratching when they are looking over-head in their basements for the first time! It’s a little overwhelming for a lot of us when we first try to devise a framing solution to hide all of this stuff, after-all we don’t want it to look like an amateur framed our basement.
I have a 3 video soffit “idea” training series that will shine some light on just soffit framing. Part 1 for soffit framing practices is here on this page. This series continues in the next 2 videos (Basement Ceiling Framing Part 2 and Basement Ceiling Framing Part 3). Make sure you watch all 3 of them so you get a real good feel for how to tackle your basement soffits.
In the first Basement Ceiling Framing (Part 1) video you will learn how to:
- decide where the best locations will be to install your soffits
- How to figure-out the correct size soffit “Ladders” to build
- How to frame soffit ladders
- How to “square-up” your soffit ladders in each room using your tape measure
- how to hang your first soffit ladder to the bottom of the floor joists
Framing soffits is a very simple operation that anyone can do themselves with just a tiny-bit of basement framing training! Good luck framing your soffit “Ladders!