Fix for a Droopy Ceiling

Today's project involved looking at a client's ceiling that was sagging a little bit. They told me that they had had a small leak, which had been repaired, but now they needed to fix the ceiling.

The leak had been enough to moisten the ceiling drywall, but not enough to make any major spots, or damage other than the sag.

My first thought was to try and screw it back up. I knew this wasn't the solution when I was using 3" screws and still not hitting the rafters. I got into the attic and moved all the insulation out of the way and saw what we were dealing with. It was sagging at least an inch away from the rafters.

To further complicate things, this house had ceiling radiant heat, though it was no longer in use. This meant that the ceiling was made up of two layers of drywall with heating wires sandwiched in the middle. I'd say that the wires were actually helping it all hold together. The drywall nails certainly weren't holding anything.

The solution was to remove the worst section and replace it with new drywall. Around the section I replaced it took a 2 1/2" drywall screw every few inches to tighten everything down again, but this process seemed to fix the problem. I added some nailers to hold my new drywall and got it all back together.

Now to clean up my mess... :)

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com