Suspended Ceiling in basement

I'm firmly in the suspended ceiling tiles camp - our basement's ceiling was drywalled when we bought the place but a reno 2 years ago meant needed access to plumbing, ductwork, and electrical. Rather than cut and patch, I had it pulled out and installed a suspended ceiling myself. It depends on what look you're going for, though - ceiling cove mouldings, etc. would look out of place with tile. That being said, it still looks quite good...

If there are no major renovations still outstanding I much prefer a drywall ceiling. Not sure how many valves one thinks they need access too? We had maybe one and had a trap door for it.

Never a problem for us...

Really no different that having pipes in the wall or on other floors.

Looks wise I prefer a drywall ceiling but ended up doing a drop t-bar ceiling for access purposes and made the right choice. Remember that most of your services such as hydro, water, natural gas, phone, cable etc come in from the basement and even though our basement is finished as well as most reno's I still needed to open up the ceiling in order to replace our phone line couple years ago as well as run new Internet/TV cable lines this year. Couple years ago I ran an extra electrical line to the garage and needed to remove a couple panels and I'm sure I will again and again even for non reno situations.

If sound is an issue, and without taking into account any special costly soundproofing measures, a basic suspended ceiling makes a huge difference over a basic drywall install. My son plays drums in the basement and we have areas of both. I've compared the two side by side and the difference is really quite dramatic.

I went with a drop ceiling as as well when I finished my basement, but to give a nicer look rather then the office look consider doing a 2'x2' patteren ( which I did). I found some nice 2'x4' tiles and cut them to 2'x2', it's cheaper then the costlier 2' drop in tiles.
I've used this place for both personal and for my work for tile needs, they have a good selection always in stock. Also if you want to go drywall they will deliver and for extra small charge( i think it's a buck a sheet they will carry it down to your basement). They are near Pearson Airport.

http://www.arrlin.com

one more thought, junction boxes are legal with suspended ceiling, illegal with drywall, so if you see the junctions, redo the ceiling with better/modern suspended. There are nice choices of panels out there now a days then there were years ago.

Another, possibly cheaper, option is to paint the tiles and tracks. Make sure you prime them with something like Zinnser Bullseye 1.2.3 first though. Otherwise you'll have bleed through. Those things are goo magnets.

While I'm not a huge fan of the tile look, I have to agree on the accessibility aspect. I've done enough renos to understand the mess and labour involved in dealing with a DW basement ceiling.

MrFrugal1 wrote: ↑Another, possibly cheaper, option is to paint the tiles and tracks. Make sure you prime them with something like Zinnser Bullseye 1.2.3 first though. Otherwise you'll have bleed through. Those things are goo magnets.

While I'm not a huge fan of the tile look, I have to agree on the accessibility aspect. I've done enough renos to understand the mess and labour involved in dealing with a DW basement ceiling.

If you choose to paint, make sure that it doesn't void your warranty. I know Armstrong (they sell at Home Depot) voids the warranty when ceiling tiles are painted.

Painting Precaution: Armstrong cannot guarantee that the published surface burning characteristics, fire resistance ratings, acoustical performance, dimensional stability/sag, or light reflectance will remain the same after repainting. Field painting will void the ceiling's warranty.

diggler649 wrote: ↑If you choose to paint, make sure that it doesn't void your warranty. I know Armstrong (they sell at Home Depot) voids the warranty when ceiling tiles are painted.

Read the OP:
"...the tiles are old and ugly..."
I don't think a warranty even comes into play here.

My daughter bought a place with the basement ceiling dry walled and I am concerned about what is hidden based on other things we have found in the house. And they don't have any cold returns in the basement and to do so would be much easier if it had a suspend ceiling. I finished a basement once and instead of the t-rails used a system of strapping and cedar boards for supporting the tiles.

I used a nice dark laminate floor for downstairs bedroom ceiling, and bought quarter inch 4x8 white sheets and got rona to cut it in 2x2 squares to use in rec room.....looks great