Hiding Flex Duct work in basement ceiling

Okay, so I have a great basement that is ready to be tikied out but it has a maze of duct work all through the ceiling, both the hard kind and the flexible kind. This isn't just one or two pipes crossing in a straight line, we're talking a spiderweb of the stuff, plus all kinds of pipes. I'm trying to come up with some creative (and safe) ways to hide these. I can do a little with thatch, using the high areas without pipes/ducts as the peaks of hut ceilings, but that only goes so far. Doing a complete drop ceiling that covers all of this would make it way too low, so it's a bit of a challenge! Any suggestions? Thanks for your help!

[ Edited by: ThePolynesianPope 2015-01-19 13:38 ]

Black paint.
Lots and lots of black paint.
Good luck.

Yep...black paint. As flat and as dark as you can get...paint it all, everything.

Then all your ceiling lighting must light down, instead of up or around..... don't let light bounce off the black.

You could always do fishnet across the ceiling. Get the tan or greenish color..which will stand out from the black ceiling.

Erich

Empty everything out, mask out and cover everything not being painted and hit it with a spray gun. You can rent them for cheap from Lowes/Home Depot/etc.... Use Flat finish black and do several coats plus a couple of more over the flex-ducts.

Then as you build out the space... over any areas when you have lights going up, put stuff to take up the light so it distracts from the ceiling. Put stuff like netting, thatch, matting or fabric above the area of the light so it looks like you have ceiling and your eye is taken away from the ductwork or pipes or whatever is up above.

And please take as many process pictures as you can!

Flat black is the conventional wisdom, but what about covering them in burlap? Inexpensive, easy to work with, and somewhat "Tiki" (natural). Maybe burlap and green vines? Or burlap and camo netting? 40% off coupon on any single item at Michael's every day for vines and 40% off Joann's for burlap too.

thanks so much guys! This is all really helpful. I have little to no experience in handy-man things so I wanted to make sure to go with a tried and true method that is safe. Should I be concerned about fire hazards when covering anything with fabric? And I will definitely post progress photos, but this is going to be a long term project, will probably happen over years. It is my sanity project to keep my job from taking over my life!

You should always exercise caution when working with a flammable material, there are discussions on here TC about flame retardant sprays. I can't imagine that those insulated ducts would get hot to serve as an ignition source but touch them when the furnace has been on a while and see if they get hot, especially close to the furnace.

On 2015-01-21 07:28, ThePolynesianPope wrote:
thanks so much guys! This is all really helpful. I have little to no experience in handy-man things so I wanted to make sure to go with a tried and true method that is safe. Should I be concerned about fire hazards when covering anything with fabric? And I will definitely post progress photos, but this is going to be a long term project, will probably happen over years. It is my sanity project to keep my job from taking over my life!

If I were you, I would call an AC guy to come out and look and see if he can more efficiently run your duct work. You may be able to route a lot of it on the edge of one wall or a couple of walls of the room. You could just drop the ceiling there and preserve your height everywhere else. You could make it a heck of a lot nicer looking than just painting everything black.

"And please take as many process pictures as you can!"
"mask out and cover everything not being painted"

Yeah do take pics as I for one want to see 3/4ths of your whole basement
wrapped and taped.

Let us know before you start so we can buy stock in 3M.

It does take many coats to cover ceilings like those.
Good luck!!

I hang this type of duct nearly every week. Flex duct should never be longer than four feet in a single run. I would recommend having someone come out and have them reroute the duct work up in the trusses. Rigid duct work with an insulated jacket is way more efficient. Paint on flex duct will look good for awhile but in my experience the paint will begin to flake and peel after time and it's not a good look. Also the flex duct work was never meant to take paint. If you do use paint in the basement be very careful with the fumes. A gas furnace and hot water heater have pilot lights and that could be a bad mix.

oh, good point! I'll be sure to open all the doors and windows down there if I do paint, but I was concerned about the same thing, the paint flaking off of the flex duct. I'll see what can be done and start with the bar build first then deal with the ceiling further in once I've had some people out to look at it. I appreciate all the help guys!

On 2015-01-22 03:15, uncle trav wrote:
I hang this type of duct nearly every week. Flex duct should never be longer than four feet in a single run. I would recommend having someone come out and have them reroute the duct work up in the trusses. Rigid duct work with an insulated jacket is way more efficient. Paint on flex duct will look good for awhile but in my experience the paint will begin to flake and peel after time and it's not a good look. Also the flex duct work was never meant to take paint. If you do use paint in the basement be very careful with the fumes. A gas furnace and hot water heater have pilot lights and that could be a bad mix.

What he said. This looks like the equivalent of using garden hose to run your plumbing. It may seem like lots of money to get it redone correctly, but you are certainly wasting a LOT of money sending your air through those messed up flex ducts. Doing it right will make a lot of it go away so you have more space to work with. It will certainly save you a lot on heating and AC bills over the years.