We have a partially finished basement. We are planning to have a basement contractor seal small horizontal cracks in the cinder block walls and install some sort of bracing to strengthen the wall minimize further cracks. There is also some water damage (from a leaking ice maker unit on our refrigerator on our main floor) to stapled ceiling tiles in the basement, and one of his proposals is to rip out the ceiling tiles and go with a "blackout" ceiling with can lights. Everything in the ceiling (joists, pipes, etc.) is sprayed matte black. He says this is inexpensive and adds the illusion of greater height. He said that many businesses such as restaurants also go with blackout ceilings. Does anyone have experience with such a ceiling? The alternative to a blackout ceiling is a dropped or suspension ceiling. Going back to stapled ceiling tiles is not an option because if you ever have to make a repair or alteration to the space above the tiles, you have to rip them out.

 

I really like the idea if you want a more modern, industrial look. Probably a better investment for resale. The only issue with a dropped or suspension ceiling is it may result in a lower ceiling. Basements tend to have lower ceilings, especially in older homes, which is why he probably made that recommendation. If you go this route and really hate it, you could put in the dropped or suspension later. I say do it!

 

I agree with this

 

I thought about this (or very similar) years ago in my basement. I have an 8' ceiling, and the main HVAC duct runs right across the middle of the main room.

In the long run, I chose to sheetrock the ceiling like any other room in the house, so I effectively only lost about an inch of height. Even a low profile drop would have been around 6" IIRC.

I figure that I have things between the main floor and the second floor, so the issue of 'if things go wrong' is already in the house, so this is just another space where it could happen. I also have most of the gas/water lines running in the basement located above the unfinished third of the basement.

In cases where I have a drain plug or water connection behind a wall, I added extra framing so that it was easily found and I wouldn't have to take a whole wall down. Some people make little frames for access, I chose to frame behind the wall so a stud-finder would find a stud in an unusual place which would indicate where the access was needed.

 

Interesting idea. I've seen it done in bars but never thought of it for a house. I'm with Deb on this one - why not try it.

 

A few questions:
A. how high is the ceiling?
B. how long do you plan on staying?
c. what do you plan to do in the room?
D. sis there an aesthetic you are trying to achieve?
I have done a couple of dropped ceilings, and a little experience with it.

 

Good idea. I'm thinking about refinishing my basement in the future. I do have good ceiling height though.

 

Thanks to all of you who responded with some good ideas and things we should consider. We sort of like the idea of a blackout ceiling because if we don't like it, we could still install a drop ceiling. See below for answers to Zippy's questions

 

Before we finished our basement we painted the concrete block walls and floor white, the ductwork electric blue for the intakes and fire engine red for the heat ducts, and painted the ceiling black. I was a nice, very modern store type look, but the basement never really felt finished.

About 5 years ago one of my architect friends designed a finished basement for us, including a full bathroom and bedroom. We had it done and now it feels like part of the house. My older son lives down there and regards it as his own apartment. One advantage that we do have is that we have a walk out basement.

 

I like the aesthetics of a blacken ceiling for a large open game space, but I don’t know if I could stand the lack of an acoustic barrier from the upper floor, especially in a bedroom. A sheetrock ceiling attached to the or just under the rafters will only reduce the height by 3/4 inch. Plus the void between the rafters can be acoustically insulated. If you live by yourself noise penetration may not be an issue - for a family situation it would be an issue.

gary