I have an usual type of ceiling paneling in a room where I need to have repairs done. The paneling is at least 20 years old and will crack when it is removed to do the repair. We already tried and it began to break. I've attached 2 jpegs of the paneling.

The sections are 5 feet tall and have alternating width sections of 8 inches and 10 inches. It is composed of a mineral fiber material. It is custom cut by utility knife at either an 8 or 10 inch section to fit its space. The ends are shaped tongue and groove to interlock. It is only supported on the ends sandwiched between two strips of molding. Meaning you remove it from the ceiling by flexing it downward and dislodging one end and then sliding out the other.

It does not lift up nor does it slide over. You must flex it downward to remove it and that is why it will crack when I try to take it down. I need replacement sections to slip in after the repair. Any help or info appreciated.

 

Welcome to the forums!

Are the panels 4' wide? I suspect it's masonite paneling and highly doubt you'd be able to find an exact/similar replacement

What type of repair are you doing? How much needs to be removed to make the repair?

 

Dear marksr,

Thank you for your reply.

After reading your reply, I pulled down a little more on one of the panels and took a closer look.

You are correct about the Masonite. It seemed more fibrous like Mineral Fiber from a distance, but up close and sticking my hand in a little it is indeed Masonite. As best I can measure it is 0.5 inches thick.

The panels are not 4 foot wide though. They seem to be custom cut at alternating multiples of 8 and 10 inches. For example I have one section 18 inches wide, another 44 inches wide.

Each end mates up with the next as either concave or convex. The cuts look too clean to have been cut on site. It looks more like the cuts are preformed into the masonite and a thin seam is broken with a utility knife. I cannot find an unaltered section, but my guess is that the stock width would be 6 feet (72 inches= 4ea. 8 and 10 inch sections).

I need to pull down one 44 inch section and one 18 inch section. The ceiling is just under the roof and I am having a gable vent exhaust fan installed just behind the grill. I thought they would just pull out the panels, install the fan, and slid the panels back in. But the first panel they tried to pull began to crack when they applied downward pressure.

If I could get any masonite panel that could be cut to size and painted, to go in place of whatever breaks, that would be an acceptable alternative. The pattern match would be nice if it was available, but is not a deal breaker. Mostly, I want to get the ceiling closed up tight afterwards, otherwise the air movement from the gable vent will keep the entire floor cold in winter and hot in summer. Not a desirable situation. That is why I am looking for a match that has the interlocking ends.

Any guidance appreciated.

 

I wonder if they are some type of vertical siding panels ?? but the different widths don't make sense

If not matching the pattern isn't a deal breaker I'd consider just using 1/2" MDF plywood, cut to fit and primed/painted white.

 

Attic ventilation is only needed above insulation. Its primary purpose is to keep the insulation dry and effective, not to remove heat. There needs to be adequate inflow, or supply, venting for any exhaust vent to work without trying to pull air out of the house. In addition to being inefficient, powered exhausts, and their controls, must be accessible.

What are you trying to accomplish? It sounds like well-installed insulation and passive ventilation above an air-sealed ceiling might meet your needs better.

 

Thank you for the replies guys.

Maybe it was so that you could easily install a partial section at the end of the wall???

Is that something that I could get at a Lowes/Home Depot or do I need to go to a lumber yard??? Does the material outgas???

It is a cape style house that had two bedrooms and a full bath installed on the second floor by "Rube Goldberg and M.C. Escher" 20-40 years ago. Everything is installed oddly and without thought toward repair or maintenance. The other rooms (bed & bath) have solid masonite ceilings. There may or may not be insulation above. The only way to tell would be to tear out the ceiling. No access was provided for during construction. There are two passive gable vents, but it gets very hot on the second floor in the summer and a $100 gable vent fan to force out some of the heat above the ceilings is a lot less expensive and much easier to install than tearing out the solid ceilings, putting in good insulation, reinstalling new ceilings and then discovering it is still very hot and putting in a fan then. LOL !!

The roof is 2.5 - 3 feet above the ceilings, (no beams above ceiling other than the roof itself), so it is a very small area that needs to be exhausted of its heat. The fan I chose should run only briefly and my biggest concern before the ceiling panel issue arose was will the gable vent be large enough so that there is little backpressure on the fan. Otherwise the hot air will just swirl about and it will not get exhausted. Toward that end I had them enlarge both passive vent grills, both the exhaust and the intake.

I just need to find a good replacement for those ceiling panels that will close up the ceiling airtight. Then I get to see if it all works or if more work along the lines of what you were thinking is needed.

 

The big box stores should stock MDF plywood. Basically it's regular plywood with a thin slick veneer over the face that paints up nice. I wouldn't think it would have any more out gassing than other plywood type materials although for the most part the primer/paint would seal it anyway.

 

Unfortunately, something as rigid as plywood will never bend enough for me to slip the ends into the moldings that hold the panels up.

I tried to see if I could shift the panels laterally. No success and I ended up breaking off a small piece. They are very brittle from age. They are light and fluffy, not dense as you would expect from Masonite. The material that broke off looks like brown paper bags were cooked into a pulpy mass and then spread out and baked to form the panels. So even though it is 0.5 inches thick, it has the weight and flexibility of something much thinner.

Do you know of something that has more flexibility than plywood, but would still maintain a flat shape when only supported on two ends?

TIA

 

Why not remove the molding? Even if it breaks, it's not that big of a deal to replace. Would that allow you to remove and save the panels?

 

Unfortunately the molding is 8 feet long and holds up half of the roof panels and also one quarter of the wall panels simultaneously. If I could not re-seat the molding for any reason, I would have one half of the room denuded of wall and ceiling covering. The likelyhood of damaging more panels during the process of removing the molding is high. I would rather find something flexible to bow and slide into the molding to use as a new panel without removing the molding and reinforce the new panels if they sag downward by using a new strip of wood running down the center of the panels and screwed in through the center line of the panels into the wood latticework which is several inches above and is just holding up insulation currently.

There must be some paneling out there similar to what I have. I can't be the only one saddled with this odd ball setup.