I have a fairly large opening going from the kitchen to the dining room. Can anyone tell me how i can construct an archway. I mean the specifics. the area is 6 ft wide by 8 high.
thanks in advance
Bill

 

Hi Bill. It depends on what you are picturing, and what your current opening is like. You say it is 6' wide, 8' high. As you stand in that opening, are there already walls there, on your left and right, that form the doorway? (I would assume that you have a wall that separates your kitchen and your dining room, and this 6' wide opening is in the middle of this wall.) Do you want a perfect semi-circle that is the maximum size? If so, you likely want the peak of the arch to be 6" lower than the ceiling. This means the arch will start about 4' 6" from the floor, reach a peak that is 6" below your current ceiling, and end again on the other side, 4' 6" from the floor.

I don't do this every day, but here's how I'd do it: I would start by removing the cornerbead or trim on the doorway, and take off any sheetrock you need to in order to expose the studs. Then rip a couple 2x6's down to 2 1/2" wide, and nail 3 pc to the ceiling (provided you can find the joists up there- if not install backing).

Then get 2 pc of 1/2" OSB, cut them as wide as your opening is. Half that width is your radius. (make a square mark on both pieces of OSB denoting the center of the opening) You want to leave 6" on top, to separate your kitchen ceiling from your dining room ceiling. So from the top of your pieces of OSB, measure down 6" plus your radius, and make another mark- the intersection of those 2 marks is the center of your arch. (I use the nail, and pencil on a string technique for drawing arches.) Put a nail where X marks the spot, attach your string and pencil, and mark the OSB. Once you cut them out with a jigsaw, you should be able to nail or screw ONE of them onto the 2 1/2" wide framing you attached to the ceiling. Next, rip more 2x6's down to 2 1/2", and screw them to the OSB on 16" centers as if they were studs. (but leave them exactly 1 1/2" up from the bottom edge of the OSB- this will be filled in later). Once all your framing is screwed to one side of the OSB, you are ready to install the other piece of OSB on the other side. Your sandwich is almost complete.

Next, rip some 1/2" OSB into 2 1/2" wide strips. 3 of these strips should fit inside your arch... if you left the framing exactly 1 1/2" up, these strips can be screwed right onto the ends, and they should bend around the curve. If they don't want to bend, you can either use thinner material, or cut some kerfs in the back side every couple inches so that it can flex.

This should complete the arch, and it should be level with your 2x4 framing and ready for drywall.

 

Check out easy-arch.com. I used two of these of different sizes one of which was 10ft wide.

I removed the drywall on the ceiling and walls where I nailed a false header across the top and down the sides of the opening to where I needed them.

I then nailed the easy arch to that. Next I covered the arch with drywall and it came out beautiful.

Took me all of about 4 hours work. After making sure all my measurements were correct.

Important thing is making sure that you get the right measurements when you talk to the easy arch people.

I used the eyebrow arches because that's what fit in with the front windows but they have other arches.

They also make custom fit arches.