Wood ceiling pyramid...?

Another thrill packed adventure begins with an amazing idea from my dearly beloved, welcome to my world.

We have a low rise roof, so to make a mini-pyramid out of a currently flat ceiling in the 17 x 13 living room, there will only be about a 16" rise to the center.

I can have a trusted contractor do that [I can only build engines], but my questions are about the options for the wood itself, or wood-appearing bits.

Is there any particular type of wood that should or should not be used in this type of application?

She wants a real wood look, and wants to clearly see the seams/joints between the boards, i.e., not a completely smooth look/feel that you may have with a floor.

I have no idea where to begin with this, and I don't know if this is even the proper place to ask this question, so any hints, clues, suggestions, recommendations or pleas to go away and pester someone else, anyone else, are completely understood, encouraged and apologized here & now.
Thanks to all.

 

Welcome to the forums!

Is it currently attic space above the flat ceiling? if so, how does your plan for a cathedral ceiling affect insulation and ventilation?

Tongue and groove boards are often used on ceilings, often 1x6s. Some are flat on one side and beaded on the reverse.

 

In addition, how does your engineer project modifying your ceiling joist/rafter system? If it is a truss set up you can't just go cutting ceiling joists.

 

Well, thanks much for the welcome, replies & input. I’ll try to clarify, but remember, I am just a car guy.

Our “contractor” [certainly not an engineer] is, I think, likely self taught by experience. He seemed unconcerned about such details. I respect his ability to some extent, as I know that he has built his own house from the foundation up. That said, that does not necessarily mean that he has this all figured out or has not overlooked something.

The house is a typical So Cal stucco-over-wood-frame built in 1962. There is limited attic space over the ceiling. The living room in question has outside walls on 2 sides, so I would guess that these would be considered Load Bearing. The 3rd wall divides the LR and the bedroom. the 4th side is open on each end with a divider wall in the center that forms the inside wall of the kitchen, and I would guess that it is also load bearing, but that is just a guess on my part.

So when you try to cut the ceiling & joist beams out of the center of this, what happens? I am sure that we are all hoping & expecting that the existing walls & structure will be held up by the remaining roof. I have no idea how this actually works. If new beams need to be added, then this could likely be done to appear to be some sort of ceiling beams as part of the wood ceiling. Well, actually that is a question. I have far more questions than answers.

Yes, there is insulation in the attic, which would all be taken out of course. The best we could do would be to hang some new insul between the rafters on the side where the new angled ceiling would be. We “think” that we are willing to take the hit of the extra heat in that room with the high btu A.C unit there, and some of the extra heat going up into the added space of the peaked ceiling. Could be wishful thinking on our part.

If I could find a way to tell the lady of the house that this is just not do-able for some structural reason, then life gets a bit simpler.

 

Without lateral support the house could implode. Those ceiling joists are there for a reason, and not only to hold your sheetrock up, but to stabilize the outside walls. Do yourself a favor, keep your friendship and call in a structural engineer and get his blessings. If he doesn't do that, then you can tell wifey it won't float.

 

Ok chandler, the warning is much appreciated, however you may be overlooking the possibility that if I can catch said implosion on video and it goes viral on YouTube, maybe I could make enough sympathy bucks to build her a new house. Who's the hero then?

 

Ok, from a quick internet search to explain the difference, it appears to me that we have ceiling joists and not any trusses. Not sure if that helps, it does seem that if we take away the ceiling/attic floor joists that the walls lose support and the whole wretched mess could collapse in a heap.

Is it then possible to build a replacement support first, before removing the joists? With no experience in this sort of thing, it appears that this would be difficult in the limited space available in the attic where the vertical rise is about 34" including the width of the joist itself.

 

You have a very shallow pitched roof. The ceiling joists cannot be removed.

Stop and think about it..... how could you build a support that you wouldn't see.
Something would have to take the place of the removed joists.

 

Would she be happy with just covering the existing ceiling with wood? My son's house has 8' ceilings that are covered with 1x6 T&G and it really looks nice. If you stain [or not] and apply a couple coats of poly/varnish prior to installation it saves a lot of time/effort.

 

The wood needs to be installed over drywall to function as a solid air barrier.
You should not and per code usually cannot skimp on the insulation.
I'm assuming the ceiling joists are running the 13' direction.

You could take all of the measurements to a truss mfg, usually a local lumber yard, and see if they can build a scissor truss that you can install from the inside. If you can lift one end high enough into that 34" ceiling to be able to slide the other end over the top plate then you essentially sister that truss next to the existing ceiling joists. A few pictures would help as there are other details needed to be sure this would work.

The scissor truss offers a possible solution, but I agree with getting an engineer to design the installation. Your building permit will probably want the engineered drawings anyway.

Bud