Blind nailing nickel gap cedar on ceiling
Hey all. I’m doing a ceiling for a client with nickel gap cedar. All cedar is to be stained so I’m thinking of blindnailing each piece. My local supplier has T&G nickel gap that looks like (I’ve only seen pictures because they’re 50 miles away) it could be blindnailed but because of the nickelgap I think holes would still be visible in those gaps unless filled before adding the next course, which would be very labor intensive. I was thinking I could mill my own shiplap to blindnail, which I’ve done before with oak and make the rabbet deep to have enough meat on the board to nail it and have the next piece cover the nail but milling so much wood would also be very time consuming. My one concern here would be splitting the wood because nails would be so close to the edge but softness of cedar should help here. I’m planning on gluing every piece to strapping so that nails are really just there to tack in my place until glue dries. Any thoughts on blindnailing T&G versus shiplap? Supplier can mill shiplap but it’s so much more expensive than the T&G, I would rather spend a day milling it myself and save the cost difference if this will result in a better look than T&G.
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Blind-nailing shiplap would require very narrow boards or else they will curl, which I think would look much worse than just seeing some carefully placed and filled 18-ga nails.
I was thinking of gluing every piece to prevent curling. But it's an interior ceiling in a conditioned space so there shouldn't be much temp / humidity changes that would cause curling. I worry about the nail gun marring the face of the board if I facenail. I could facenail with finish nails but still think it would look better without filled nail holes.
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There are clip systems out there that grab the groove side. Works with standard T&G. Ie:
https://www.rapid.com/en-gw/products/rapid-tools/stapling/rapid-combi-clips-3-mm/
This is a great idea. Thanks
Related question: there's currently sheetrock on the ceiling. Normally, I would strip it down to strapping. But given the mess this would create, I'm considering adding another layer of strapping on top of sheetrock screwing through it into the original layer to provide nailers for T&G. Can anyone think of any reasons this should not be done? I've seen this done on ceilings I've demoed before and thought it was lazy but if there's no reason not to, it seems like a big time saver and a good way to keep dust down.
Code requires a non-combustable surface on all walls and ceilings in habitable spaces - i.e. drywall, so leave the sheetrock up! Also better for air sealing.
There are building codes regulating flame spread index and smoke-developed index; for 1- and 2-families, it's a flame spread index of 200 or less and a smoke-developed index of 450 or less (https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IRC2018/chapter-3-building-planning#IRC2018_Pt03_Ch03_SecR302.9)
All types of cedar, and most or all other commonly installed woods, fall well short of those thresholds--see p. 4 here: https://awc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/AWC-DCA1-FlameSpreadPerformance-1906.pdf.
Unless there are other concerns about the assembly, I would leave the sheetrock in place.
Thank you. Will do