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Embassy Ceiling Installation Video 2 of 3
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Apr 11, 2025
http://www.AsktheBuilder.com founder, Tim Carter, provides step-by-step instructions how to install the amazing Embassy Ceiling system. You can purchase it here: https://www.fbmsales.com/ http://www.reinkesupply.com/ https://ercoonline.com/ https://homedepot.com https://wayfair.com
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0:02
i want to remind you that this is video
0:05
number two of a three-part series and I
0:08
want you to make sure that you watch
0:10
this entire video before you get started
0:13
installing your Empasy ceiling let me
0:17
tell you what the most important step is
0:19
the first thing we have to do is we have
0:22
to find the center line of the room of
0:25
the ceiling understand this in this job
0:28
here the floor joists above are running
0:32
this direction and what's going to
0:34
happen is the main crossarss that
0:37
support this ceiling they're going to
0:39
run
0:40
perpendicular so I went ahead and I've
0:43
already chocked a chalk line on the
0:45
floor that is the exact center of the
0:49
room let's look at
0:51
it here's the chalk line all right let
0:55
me tell you how I made that chalk line
0:58
my room happens to be 177 and a half
1:02
inches wide all right that is if you
1:06
divide that by two it's 88 and 3/4 in
1:10
the wall that I'm looking at right here
1:13
that is what I call the primary wall cuz
1:15
it's nice and straight and I made sure
1:18
that this chalk line is 88 and 3/4 in
1:22
away from that wall that's parallel with
1:25
that wall very
1:26
important now here is a really important
1:30
thing to understand you can only install
1:34
this empassy ceiling system one of two
1:36
ways so that you have even pieces at
1:40
each end of the room all right so let me
1:43
show
1:44
you here is one of the panels this is a
1:47
a regular panel that comes from the
1:50
factory and they're basically 24 in
1:54
square i went ahead and made these
1:56
little pencil marks here you can just
1:59
barely see it a pencil mark right there
2:02
one here and I put that on the chalk
2:06
line i then had little scrap pieces of
2:10
these are exactly the what is going to
2:12
happen this is not a main crossbar but
2:14
it's made the same way it creates a 2-in
2:17
space between these panels so I created
2:21
the two-in space another full panel a
2:24
two-in space another full panel and
2:28
here's like a main crossbar right here
2:32
and you can see back in here back
2:34
against the wall way over there that's
2:37
going to be a main crossbar that is
2:40
along the wall and we end up with a tile
2:43
that's almost 21 in which is perfect
2:47
here's the other way here's why we want
2:50
to do it this
2:51
way the only other way you can do it is
2:54
instead of centering a panel you center
2:58
a main crossbar so imagine this is the
3:01
main crossbar it's right on the chalk
3:04
line you can see right there there's the
3:05
center point so then you put the
3:08
crossbar the panel crossbar
3:12
panel crossbar panel but then look what
3:16
happens you end up with this very tiny
3:19
piece and so you don't want to do it
3:21
that way you always want to try to end
3:23
up with as big a piece as possible for
3:27
your layout it's going to make the room
3:29
look fantastic i wanted to explain
3:31
something that could really happen to
3:33
you and could cause big problems this is
3:36
an outside corner that's in our room
3:39
it's a closet on you know on the other
3:41
side of my shoulder here's the problem
3:44
so once again imagine I've put the
3:46
ceiling upside down you know on the
3:48
floor so you can see what's happening
3:50
and this is how the layout's going to be
3:52
but imagine if when you do your
3:55
layout here's the
3:57
problem when the ceiling's finished up
4:00
above there's going to be a mitered
4:03
corner made out made out of a main
4:06
crossbar here where my hand is and this
4:09
little small section is going to be made
4:11
from a secondary crossbar that touches
4:14
another main crossbar but guess what let
4:17
me show you what can
4:19
happen let's imagine your layout you do
4:23
your layout you get it centered and you
4:26
think you know which way it's going to
4:28
happen and one of your main crossarss
4:31
crashes into this
4:34
corner that's going to look horrible all
4:36
right so you have to make a decision on
4:40
what to do on your layout you don't want
4:42
that to happen you don't want a main
4:45
crossbar to crash into this corner here
4:48
so in my case I was lucky if you
4:50
remember it was about there so you need
4:53
to make sure whatever you have to do to
4:56
make sure that crossbar does not crash
5:00
into your finished corner and just as
5:02
much you really want to try to avoid
5:05
this you don't want to have a main
5:08
crossbar right next to the main crossbar
5:11
that's going to be along this wall so
5:13
you've got to take that into
5:14
consideration when you have an outside
5:17
corner like this i want you to stick
5:19
with me on this okay this is a little
5:20
complex remember I made a chalk line on
5:24
the floor that represents the center
5:27
line of the
5:29
room now I don't want you to make that
5:32
same chalk line up above and here's why
5:35
all right number one I made this little
5:38
mockup of the system
5:40
okay so this is a small piece of main
5:45
crossbar this is a rail that fits into
5:47
the crossbar and this is the anchor
5:51
when the anchor is up on the ceiling the
5:54
edge of this part of the anchor is
5:58
exactly 1316 of an inch away from this
6:02
edge of the main
6:05
crossbar so you have to do the math and
6:08
you have to determine from the center
6:10
line and this happens to be 3 in
6:13
wide you have to determine where to
6:16
chalk the line on the one side or the
6:19
other of the anchor you don't chalk the
6:22
line and try to figure out how to put
6:24
the anchor down the center of the chalk
6:26
line i want to show you exactly how this
6:28
works in the real world up in the
6:30
ceiling right here where my thumbnail is
6:33
right here that is exactly 88 and 3/4 in
6:38
from the primary wall all right and
6:41
remember what we were going to do we're
6:43
making sure that the center of the panel
6:49
is there that's the center of the room
6:52
so you do the math and you lay it out on
6:55
the ground put the parts together you
6:58
can use a little mockup like this and
7:01
what you're going to determine is once
7:03
you have it done right this is what
7:06
you're going to end up with see this
7:07
right here you're going to determine
7:10
that this main crossbar right here is
7:14
going to
7:15
be so many inches away from the center
7:19
of the room it's simple as that and you
7:21
can see exactly how I've done it here i
7:24
want to show you a very important trick
7:26
when you chalk a line this chalk box is
7:29
filled with chalk and if I pull it up
7:32
and I snap it now the line's going to be
7:35
really fuzzy so I like to pull it tight
7:38
and then I actually flick it in the air
7:41
to get a bunch of the dust off and the
7:43
chalk dust that will make a much crisper
7:46
line up on the ceiling i use this little
7:50
mockup to determine where the first
7:53
anchor is going to go all right it's
7:55
really
7:55
important and I went ahead and I
7:58
measured the distance from the primary
8:01
wall to where this anchor is going to be
8:04
located i then did the same thing at the
8:07
other end of the room and went ahead and
8:09
put up that anchor all right really
8:13
important that allowed me to chalk this
8:16
first chalk line all right so now we're
8:19
ready to install the first row of
8:22
anchors all the way across the ceiling i
8:25
want to talk about how to put one of
8:27
these anchors on your floor joist above
8:30
it's really important they have to be
8:32
straight and that's why we did the chalk
8:35
line all right because this edge of the
8:37
anchor I want it right on the chalk line
8:40
but where on the chalk line really
8:42
important look at
8:44
this if you remember when I chocked the
8:47
line the chalk line ran right along the
8:51
edge of the anchor so that means when
8:53
you put the anchor in you don't cover
8:55
the chalk line you don't put it in the
8:57
center you bring the anchor right to the
8:59
edge of the chalk line and it'll be
9:01
perfectly
9:02
[Music]
9:21
placed i want to show you how to start
9:24
your next row of anchors really
9:27
important empasy ceilings they make this
9:31
fantastic spacing template and it's
9:34
extremely important these notches are
9:37
exactly where the anchors need to be if
9:40
you don't do that the ceiling is not
9:43
going to go together correctly so you
9:45
must use this template to start each new
9:48
row look I put that up here and I've
9:52
already got this anchor in and you can
9:53
see it's perfectly spaced the next thing
9:56
you need to know is how to put the
9:58
anchors along the side walls because you
10:02
can't use the template for that but it's
10:04
very important that the anchors are
10:07
spaced perfectly out from the wall and
10:10
let me show you how to do it i made this
10:12
little mockup this is a real main
10:15
crossbar here's a rail here's an anchor
10:20
and when you have the main crossbar
10:23
tight against a
10:25
wall and you do the math you find out
10:28
guess
10:29
what that the distance between the
10:32
anchor and the wall is
10:36
1316 of an inch so I made this little
10:40
spacing jig let me show you how it works
10:44
the way I do it is I bring the jig up i
10:47
make sure it's tight against the wall i
10:49
bring it up tight against the floor
10:52
joist and then I put an anchor and hold
10:55
it in place tightly just like that so
10:58
that the anchor is the exact 13/16 of an
11:02
inch away from the
11:05
[Music]
11:12
wall i want to show you something that's
11:14
really important you know that you've
11:16
got the anchor in the right place when
11:19
after you put just one screw in the
11:22
tension of the anchor against the jig
11:26
makes it so the jig does not fall to the
11:29
ground so this anchor is perfectly
11:31
placed the next step is drive the second
11:35
screw and then pull the jig out of place
11:38
let's do it
11:44
all the anchors are up but before we go
11:47
any further I want to talk about
11:49
something that's really important
11:50
several things in fact number
11:53
one all of the material we're going to
11:55
put up next it's made from wood fibers
11:59
and glue and it needs to acclimatize to
12:03
the conditions in your rooms before you
12:07
install it so in other words you need to
12:11
bring the material down and that means
12:14
the main crossarss the secondary
12:16
crossarss and the panels you need to
12:18
unpackage them and you need to lay them
12:21
flat on the ground for at least 48 hours
12:25
72 hours and even a week would be better
12:29
that way you're not going to have
12:30
expansion and contraction nightmares one
12:34
of the things I love about the Empasy
12:36
ceiling suspended ceiling system and
12:38
this is what it was designed
12:40
for here's a little mockup that I made
12:43
remember all right so and this up here
12:46
would be one of your floor joist all
12:48
right so here's the anchor right here if
12:52
you
12:53
remember this is the anchor and the
12:55
anchor is attached to the floor joist
12:59
above all right
13:01
now the distance between the bottom of
13:05
the floor joist and the top of a main
13:09
crossbar can be some dimension between 1
13:13
and 1/8 in and 1 and 3/8 that's it so if
13:18
you have something like a larger pipe
13:21
that is attached to the underside of
13:22
your floor joist you're going to need to
13:24
install furring strips so that you can
13:27
make sure that the top of a main
13:31
crossbar here is below whatever the
13:35
lowest object is in your ceiling here's
13:39
how the Empasy Ceilings suspended
13:42
ceiling works to get that inch and an
13:43
eigh to inch and 38 variation look at
13:47
this this is an anchor again see that
13:50
and it's got these parallel grooves at
13:53
an angle it basically makes a French
13:55
cleat and if you remember look at the at
13:59
the rail this is the rail and it's got
14:01
these four fins well you can put this
14:06
rail in any number of these
14:09
configurations so that you either have
14:11
just
14:12
one it's supported by one
14:15
fin or you can have two fins and that is
14:20
or you can go down even one more and get
14:23
the three fins and that's how you get
14:25
the variation
14:27
but it's really important the ceiling
14:30
system weighs a big ceiling it could
14:33
weigh well over 100 pounds you can only
14:36
have a few of your anchors and rails on
14:40
that one notch position here see this
14:44
this one here you cannot do this with
14:47
the entire ceiling it's always
14:50
recommended to have at least two of the
14:53
fins engaged with the rail we're now at
14:57
the exciting part we're getting ready to
14:58
put up the main cross rails here's what
15:01
you need to know each cross rail from
15:03
the factory 8 ft long okay you have to
15:07
put up six of these rails must go in
15:10
each 8t length it is non-negotiable
15:14
here's
15:15
why these rails have been
15:19
engineered to distribute the weight in
15:22
other words when they slide in the
15:24
dovetail and they come down like
15:27
this this entire
15:30
length has got is the ta the weight is
15:33
taken back up to the anchor about where
15:35
my hand would be but what's happening is
15:38
that weight of the ceiling is
15:40
distributed across this rail so do not
15:44
cut the rails short thinking you're
15:47
saving material don't do that you must
15:50
put the rails in as they come from the
15:52
factory simple as that in a rare
15:55
occasion depending on how your floor
15:57
joist setup is on your ceiling at one
16:01
end or the other you may have to shorten
16:04
one of the rails to get it to fit
16:06
between two anchors
16:10
[Music]
16:38
before I put up the main crossbar the
16:41
first one there's something you need to
16:42
know the people at Embassy Ceilings
16:45
really smart they know that in
16:48
situations you're going to have some of
16:50
these butt up against one another guess
16:52
what they did they made one end a groove
16:56
and the other end a tongue so that when
16:59
you make two main crossarss together you
17:02
make sure that the tongue goes into the
17:04
groove i want to show you why it's
17:06
important to space the rails in the main
17:08
crossarss before you bring it up to the
17:10
ceiling look at this so I space them so
17:14
that the rails as you can tell are in
17:17
between the anchors really important
17:20
that allows me when I go to install the
17:22
rail I just have to put it in position
17:24
like this and you can already see it's
17:27
partially suspended and then I start to
17:30
install the other ones and just march my
17:33
way down and engage the rails with the
17:36
anchors i always install my first main
17:39
crossbar i always make sure that down
17:41
here against the wall that it's the
17:44
groove part of the crossbar if you make
17:47
the tongue down here you'll end up with
17:49
a very ugly gap i've got the first main
17:52
crossbar in it's now time to cut the
17:54
next piece here's what's really great
17:56
about the main crossarss i'm going to
17:58
take a measurement it's going to be
18:00
somewhere around 50 in or so and
18:02
whatever piece I have left over that's
18:05
the piece that's going to start the next
18:08
row i'm getting ready to install the cut
18:10
piece of main crossbar but before I put
18:13
it up we had to install an extra rail up
18:17
here on the first one and the reason why
18:20
is this rail is going to connect the two
18:25
crossarss together but it needs to be
18:27
back out of the way before we install
18:30
this next piece of crossbar
18:47
all of the main crossarss are in it's
18:49
amazing the only ones we have left to do
18:51
are along the walls and here's a trouble
18:54
that you're going to run into when the
18:56
drywall finishers finish the inside
18:58
corners they're almost never a pure 90°
19:02
angle so you have you'll end up with a
19:04
gap if you just do a square cut let me
19:06
show
19:07
you this has been square cut this is a
19:10
scrap
19:12
piece and I'm tight in a corner but you
19:15
can see here is a gap so I have to cut
19:18
some off of here and not so much here
19:21
and you can do that by just taking a
19:23
pencil and making a scribe
19:27
line earlier in the video I talked about
19:30
this outside corner if you remember it's
19:33
now time to create that miter i want to
19:35
show you how it's done this is a little
19:37
trick that you might not have ever heard
19:39
from anyone
19:40
else first and foremost you might think
19:43
that this is a 90° angle it almost never
19:47
is the addition of the corner bead on
19:50
this drywall causes it to be not 90°
19:54
believe me so what I do is I took some
19:57
of the scrap leftover templates and I
20:01
made different cuts at different angles
20:03
i did 46 45 47 you might even do 44 but
20:09
you'll typically find that outside
20:11
corners are some combination of 45 and a
20:15
higher number inside corners if you ever
20:18
miter those they're lesser like 44 43
20:21
all right look at this so I already did
20:23
it i already checked things out and it
20:25
turns out that on the long wall we need
20:28
a 45 piece and on this short piece up
20:31
above we need a 46 and you can see
20:35
that's a perfect miter just like that i
20:37
want to show you what's happening up
20:38
here at the ceiling level we have to put
20:41
a main primary crossbar all along this
20:45
wall here and it comes to the outside
20:48
corner and then we have to use a piece
20:51
of secondary crossbar that's eventually
20:54
going to fit in like
20:55
this to make the miter out here i want
20:59
to show you how to mark the secondary
21:01
crossbar to get the exact miter here's
21:04
how you do it i put the secondary
21:06
crossbar up here i hold it to the corner
21:09
and I'm holding the crossbar tight
21:12
against the main crossbar i slide my 45°
21:16
miter that I know is going to work right
21:18
here and then we're going to make a
21:20
pencil mark i want to show you how to
21:22
mark the main primary crossbar here we
21:26
went ahead and put it up and I put a
21:28
couple of rails in just to suspend it at
21:31
the right location all right and it's
21:33
tight in the corner down there i already
21:35
cut it the right length and cut the
21:37
angle off now I take and I know it's the
21:41
46° angle on the right side here
21:43
remember so I slide this
21:46
up i had made a pencil mark where the
21:49
two miters meet here and now all I need
21:52
to do is make a pencil mark here and
21:55
that's my cut line
22:00
[Music]
22:30
i thought you might want to know how you
22:32
finish along the one wall here are the
22:35
primary crossarss that come in and they
22:37
die into the wall you might think you
22:40
frame the whole wall the entire room
22:42
with main crossbarss you don't the way
22:45
you do this is you just take a regular
22:48
secondary crossbar and it just fills in
22:52
to create the finished look and then all
22:55
we have to do is put a cut panel right
22:58
here and when we do the cut panel we're
23:01
not going to do it tight it's really
23:02
important you have to have a little bit
23:04
of expansion room what happens is
23:07
normally the panels would lay on a half
23:10
inch ledge here so I'm going to take the
23:13
dimension between this secondary
23:15
crossbar and the secondary crossbar
23:17
that'll be here and then I will add 7/8
23:21
of an inch to cut the line i wanted to
23:24
talk about the pendulum effect what can
23:27
happen if you're not careful is once you
23:29
have the primary crossarss installed
23:32
they can wiggle they can wiggle up here
23:35
and it's because of the flex between the
23:38
rails and the anchors so you have to
23:41
make sure that you put in the secondary
23:44
crossarss and keep them tight so that
23:48
you can get the accurate measurement
23:50
between this main crossbar and the one
23:54
along the wall that's going to be a cut
23:57
secondary crossbar i cut this secondary
24:00
crossbar to fit tight as can be here
24:03
it's really important to begin to put
24:06
these things in as you install the
24:08
panels so that you keep everything nice
24:11
and tight so watch how this goes in it's
24:14
really simple this was the factory tenon
24:18
that was created i had to make my
24:21
own so that it will lap over and rest up
24:24
on top of this primary crossbar back
24:27
here watch
24:29
this so I just slide it up into there
24:32
get it in line push it and tight and
24:35
there it is it is beautiful i want to
24:38
show you how to create a tenon when you
24:41
cut a secondary crossbar there's a
24:43
couple things you could really make a
24:44
mistake on look down here here I've got
24:47
a small scrap piece of primary crossbar
24:50
with a small piece of rail in it it's
24:53
really important to do this i also use a
24:56
piece of cardboard to protect the
24:58
delicate finish of the material so what
25:01
you do is I've cut the secondary
25:04
crossbar to length it's exactly what I
25:07
want so I butt it in here and the
25:11
manufacturer says out of scrap pieces of
25:14
your panel to cut a 2x3 in block here's
25:17
what happens you have to lap it over on
25:20
top of the secondary crossbar but the
25:23
reason I want the rail here is you never
25:25
want it to extend if you by mistake just
25:28
put it like this when you go to put this
25:32
up it's going to hit a rail and you
25:34
won't be able to get it in that's why I
25:36
like to have a small piece of rail here
25:38
to act as a guide and I bring this up
25:41
and hold it about an eighth of an inch
25:42
away and then all you do drill a pilot
25:50
hole take one of the last screws that
25:53
are 3/4 of an inch long
25:56
i'm holding it in
25:58
place nice and tight i check to make
26:01
sure it's parallel i'm making sure that
26:04
this is tight against
26:08
here it's time to drill the second hole
26:23
it's that simple to create a tenant just
26:26
do this all the way around the entire
26:29
ceiling on the edges and you're good to
26:30
go we've got all of the secondary
26:34
crossarss cut and installed and we've
26:36
installed a lot of panels the full ones
26:38
are all in now it's time to finish
26:41
cutting all of the cut panels let me
26:44
take you on a tour
26:46
we've already cut a few right here but
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you can see we just have the outline to
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do we have to cut this little one here
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it's going to have a notch cut out of it
26:55
to go around the outside corner and then
26:57
we're going to finish these right here
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we're going to be done in just a few
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minutes it's It's so exciting
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[Music]
27:20
[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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i have to tell tell you it's just an
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amazing ceiling system it's really
27:43
simple to put in the biggest thing you
27:45
have to make sure if you want perfection
27:48
is those anchors must be in a straight
27:51
line and you must check every one with
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that special template that's included
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because that's going to ensure that your
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secondary crossarss are tight you're
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going to love your Empasy ceiling
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suspended ceiling system
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if you want to discover more home
28:11
improvement tips go to askthebuilder.com
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[Music]
#Construction & Power Tools
#Home Improvement