Shop ceiling

[Nathan Callender]

Hey folks, I'm finishing up my garage and I can't decide what to do with the ceiling. As you can see it is currently a plywood deck. I'm going to insulate over the plywood but I'm can't decide what to do under it. Should I leave it natural, stain it darker, or white wash it? The walls will be drywall painted white. And I will have a decent number of florescent fixtures installed as well.

[Nathan Callender]

Pic attached

[John K Jordan]

If you paint it white the room will be brighter and the space will look larger.

JKJ

[Bill Dufour]

I would insulate and drywall then paint it white. Do you have any plans to store stuff in the attic? I miss the open joists of the basement I grew up with, a few nails and instant hammer storage up out of head hitting height. Lots of levels, saw blades, welding helmets, old pulleys, wheels etc hanging up to collect dust and stay off the floor.
Bill D.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

A simple solution is to buy 4x8 prepainted wainscoting. It looks great, and will create an insulating air gap- or put added insulation if you have the $$$. One finish coat of white paint is all ya need.

[Charles Wiggins]

I would put up OSB on the walls and ceiling. Cheaper than plywood but will still hold a screw so you don't have to find a stud or joist to hang something as long as it's not too heavy. That's what I did for the stud wall in my shop. Painted it bright white.

[Jim Becker]

A simple solution is to buy 4x8 prepainted wainscoting. It looks great, and will create an insulating air gap- or put added insulation if you have the $$$. One finish coat of white paint is all ya need.

I like this idea a lot...

[Bill Dufour]

Unless it is drywall I would paint whatever you put up first while it is one the ground. Plywood, OSB whatever will soak up paint and it is easy to do a quick job outside and not worry about a few drips on the lawn.
Firecode would say only use sheetrock but people here will say use plywood so you can screw into it to hang stuff like lights. I would install outlet boxes for lights before hanging the sheets. My shop I use 4' led tube lights with cords plugged into ceiling boxes. this allows me to move them around as needs change. When I installed the dust pipes lights had to be moved around so no shadows on the machines.
I aslo have a 240 outlet above the bandsaw. It also has a 120, light switched, outlet for the task light on the bandsaw.
Bill

[John Ziebron]

When I was setting up shop in my new pole barn a couple of years ago I used a Eucalyptus product from the orange box store. These were 4 x 8 sheets I believe 1/8 inch thick and I stapled them to the bottom of the rafters. I didn't want to have to paint a 12 foot high ceiling and these sheets have a somewhat shiny white finish on one side. They are strong enough to hold the 12-15 inches of blown in insulation. I have 20 four foot florescent fixtures in this 30 x 32 foot space and the reflected light off the ceiling is great. The fixtures are all hung from the rafters though; I wouldn't trust hooks in these sheets. And the sheets were less than $8 each.

[Wayne Cannon]

Most traditional fluorescent lights get hot under (over?) the ballast and are not supposed to be directly against flammable ceiling materials.

[Charles Wiggins]

My shop lights plug into ceiling outlets as well. I just have no sheathing. Just joists and insulation. All of the outlet boxes are on the same circuit, with a light switch at the entrance to the shop so I don't have to walk around and turn them all on individually.

[Nathan Callender]

Thanks for the feedback. It seems like painting or whitewashing the ceiling is the way to go.

[William Batdorf]

Hi Nathan
There was a good thread on shop ceilings started by Steve Goetz around Feb. 2017. I don't know how to link it to this discussion but it might be worth looking up. There was some good dialog in that thread.