# Strapping on ceiling, no header to screw into for walls



## Bud Cline (Mar 12, 2006)

What is "strapping" and where's the header? Yet another great close up photo but useless. How about a landscape photo?


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## Bud Cline (Mar 12, 2006)

Okay wait I see.

Strapping is "hat channel" and header is "top plate".

So install some blocking between the studs to catch the drywall nails at the top, what's the big problem?


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## toobhed (Aug 3, 2011)

Whats hard about that, hehehe, lotta extra work. :/

I am so close to drywall , i just want to get it done. If you were doing it on your own home, is this a must do step?


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## Ironlight (Apr 13, 2011)

Anything that cuts down flexing and movement at joints is a good thing. It's going to be easier to put the blocks up now than it is to retape and sand every few years when cracks keep developing.


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## Bud Cline (Mar 12, 2006)

Then don't do it! Doesn't matter to me. You came here for advice, we didn't come looking for you.

If the drywall isn't backed up cracks could develop, but maybe not.


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## toobhed (Aug 3, 2011)

Bud Cline said:


> Then don't do it! Doesn't matter to me. You came here for advice, we didn't come looking for you.


Alright alright...just trying to gauge how important it is. Sometimes you get holmes on homes answers here when a guy might cut a corner doing his own house if it was not a big deal. I will just buck up and git er done.

Thanks for the advice!


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## mikey48 (Dec 6, 2007)

So what is hat channel?


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## Ironlight (Apr 13, 2011)

mikey48 said:


> So what is hat channel?












It has several uses, chief among them the hanging of ceiling tiles. I used it however to level out the ceiling in my kitchen/dining room when I pulled down the plaster and lathe ceiling.


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## Bud Cline (Mar 12, 2006)

> So what is hat channel?


Every place I've ever been it has been called "Hat Chanel"...note the shape of the profile.



> Sometimes you get holmes on homes answers here when a guy might cut a corner doing his own house if it was not a big deal.


Mike Holmes and all of those ruffians he rode-in with are idiots when it comes to common sense approaches to remodeling!


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## titanoman (Nov 27, 2011)

No different than no nailer between the studs on the top edge of horizontally-run lower sheet. Code may say different.


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## Bud Cline (Mar 12, 2006)

> No different than no nailer between the studs on the top edge of horizontally-run lower sheet.


This is true if it weren't for the fact that this is at a "plane-change". On a flat wall all of the same plane blocking wouldn't be required but I think this is a different story.


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## titanoman (Nov 27, 2011)

Bud Cline said:


> This is true if it weren't for the fact that this is at a "plane-change". On a flat wall all of the same plane blocking wouldn't be required but I think this is a different story.


Oh. I thought a wall just meets a ceiling w/no t/p or header to screw to. I didnt fully understand. I can't tell what I'm looking at in the picture.


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## Gary in WA (Mar 11, 2009)

4.6.4.1 Treated or untreated gypsum panel product joints oriented at right angles to wall or ceiling framing members *need not be located *over framing or other solid backing.

4.6.4.2 Gypsum panel product edges or ends, oriented at right angles to wall framing, that occur above ceilings when the gypsum panel product is terminated at less than the full height of the framing *need not* be located over framing or other solid backing. Page; 10, here: http://gypsum.org/pdf/GA-216-2010.html

The board has plenty of flexural strength, more/less depending on the orientation: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q..._w2ARf&sig=AHIEtbT3-jS_UFfs-iaiU1o3kfoOlKl-7Q

Long as you are not playing baseball there……

Be sure to air seal the new drywall, required by code now if part of your thermal/air barrier.
If worried about cracks/movement, use paper tape rather than mesh.


Gary


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## swarren (Jan 3, 2012)

Can someone explain to me why you would use hat channel? For flat surface for ceiling or sound isolation?


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## mae-ling (Dec 9, 2011)

Hat channel can be used as a furring strip (More costly then 1 by 3 though) usually used for sound isolation.


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