Lifting metal to ceiling

A drywall installer frame possibly, or rent one of those lifting baskets that come on a small chassis, allow you to operate one-handed and balance the panels on the basket as you rise. JR Dweller in the cellar

stryped wrote:

The 2' x 12' corrugated panels are easy enough to handle alone on a stepladder. My father installed sheetrock on ceilings by himself after I left for college by making tee-shaped braces from strapping, slightly longer than the floor-ceiling distance. He leaned one against a wall and slid the sheetrock up onto the top, then lifted the other end and wedged a second brace under it. Then he readjusted the one at the wall.

I'd consider attaching them to a light framework hinged at the walls and latched in the center, so you have access afterwards. They should be short enough to hand vertically, otherwise you can't put a ladder everywhere. In the center you can have two widths permanently attached and still be able to reach in to wire a light fixture in the middle.

I built the roof overhanging my deck that way, suspended from large strap hinges attached to the rafters. The plastic panels won't support my weight but the screws are easy to install or replace when the roof hangs vertically. The outer support posts are attached with loose-pin hinges top and bottom.

On my 6 panel shed roof the 2nd and 5th panels are removeable hatches so I can reach every point on the roof while standing on the framework inside. The top tucks under the ridge cap.

jsw

Wont the t shaped braces not work because the metal "bends"? It does not stay straight like drywall.

I haven't seen 16' ones but 12' 29 ga corrugated panels don't sag that much. I shuffled three of them on and off a roof several times last week. They can be lifted with one hand in the middle.

Given a choice the 8' ones are easier, the corners bend if they accidentally hit anything which is hard to avoid indoors.

jsw

Here in the middle of the country we call the guy next door to help for a while and then set out some cold ones to celebrate success. On the left and right coasts people aren't like that so you might just nail a bailing wire loop across the rafters to hold one end while you tack up the other end. Panels are light enough that even SWMBO could lift and hold one end easily. It's really not at all a big deal.

Joe

We still are in NH. Maybe we don't have enough coastline.

jsw

That ain't a coastline, it's a fair sized beach. The town I live in has considerably more shorefront than NH.

But we still help our neighbors here in Maine as well.

Drywall doesn't stay straight. I don't know where you got that idea.

You're installing corrugated metal right? It'll stay just as straight as drywall.

The T-shaped braces are called "dead men." Singlular is "dead man."

Place a large electromagnet on the floor under where you want the panel, energise the magnet. If the panel stays on the floor, swap the polarity of the magnet.

Here on the right coast, I'm the guy next door.

Stryped, your best bet for hanging those is to pour concrete up to about

18" from the ceiling. Then you can just slide the sheets into the remaining gap, slide yourself under them, and screw them up. Very little danger of them buckling -- they'll take an 18" bend, end-to-end over 16 feet with no problem.

Afterwards, just jackhammer all the concrete out, and you've got a finished ceiling. Or you could use dirt to fill it up, if you don't want to rent the jackhammer.

But why are you using "short sheets"? That stuff can be custom-cut in any length up to about 48'-50'. The fabricators roll-form and shear it in a continuous operation from flat roll stock. Your 30' span is neither too long to hang, nor too long to transport on a decent flat-bed. You could do the whole 30x30 with ten pieces. You'll use up extra metal (waste it) if you have to overlap end joints. And you'll have all those ugly lap joints showing.

LLoyd

Like I said in an earlier post, you can get them cut to the inch in length. Unless your garage is only 16 ft, you'll have to overlap them anyway, just start at the back and work forward and you won't notice the overlap. The panels are 3' wide, not 4' like drywall, they are MUCH lighter than drywall per sq foot. You'll want to order a few inches longer thanyou need to compensate for the overlap.

I am sure you could hire a someone (think teenage boy) to help hold one end. OR, just hire someone to do the ceiling that is experienced and they will have it done in a day or less. You may even learn something form them.

Where are you located?

Hank

You may be trying to solve the wrong problem.

Aluminum foil is much easier to work with than sheet metal and is just as effective as keeping out alien mind-reading radiation.

You could probably use "radiant barrier" material.

[...]

If you need to force the middle up, can't you just add a third brace once the sheet is basically in position?

Frank McKenney

stryped fired this volley in news:0e123097-8dd7-49ce- snipped-for-privacy@c36g2000yqm.googlegroups.com:

I was left wondering what sort of DIY-er couldn't figure out on his own how to do a task like this.

Then I realized what sort it was...

LLoyd

Frnak McKenney fired this volley in news:fYqdnXR4Gd8qRkvWnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

YOU could, Frnak; This fellow doesn't think like that. If it bends, it bends. If it buckles, it gets screwed up to the ceiling with a buckle- mark.

Someone mentioned to him about using two dead-men to support a sheet, so another dead-man wouldn't even come to mind.

LLoyd

It appears that you had a typing error, while setting up your usent account, Frnak.

Yes we do...Midcoast area near the moon bat haven of Belfast here...You ??