# Dropped soffit over shower?



## StevePax (Nov 8, 2009)

I'm remodeling my bathroom. Gutted it to the studs, and today even took out the shower pan and everything (it's a colossal mess in there still!). But I'm wondering about the ceiling - I think I'm going to have to put new drywall on the ceiling for a number of reasons:

1. There was damage to the ceiling when removing drywall from the walls - 30 years worth of paint layers peeled off with the paper corner tape in some areas, and took some drywall paper with it from the ceiling in large areas (is that easily repairable to make it smooth again?).

2. I want to install a new ventilation fan. The current one makes tons of noise and is obviously very old. I know I can do it through the attic, but it would be easier to get a nice new vent cover and everything.

3. The big question - there is a dropped soffit just over the shower area. The ceiling drops down about 8 inches or so there. It's there in my other bathroom, too, just above the tub area only. There's no ducting up there, because this house has no ducting at all (no central air, and heat is zonal electric wall units). I knocked a couple of holes in the soffit above the shower area and insulation is there from the attic. So I pulled some insulation out and shined a bright light up at the hole and went up into the attic, and couldn't see the light coming through at all anywhere. Could mean this is a closed soffit on the top, but I suspect it means I didn't pull enough insulation down through the hole, since there's a ton of insulation up in that attic. I hate the dropped soffit, though. I want to tear it all down, put up the drywall on the ceiling all at one level throughout. Is there any reason not to do this? Does the soffit have to be there for some reason? If it does have to be there, I have some work to do to repair the drywall on that, since I knocked a hole about 8 x 4 inches in it!

Help, folks!

--Steve


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## pyper (Jul 1, 2009)

The only way to know for sure is to pull out the rest of the insulation and have a look.

Drywall is really cheap right now, and if you're doing all the walls it seems like you'll likely get a better finish if you do the ceiling too.

Besides, tearing stuff out is fun!

:laughing:

The ceiling over our shower is low, but that's because the roof is low. I've noticed that the fan does a super job of pulling the steam out of the room. I think it's because there's so little clearance between the shower door and the ceiling. Don't know if that actually makes sense or not.


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## bjbatlanta (Jul 16, 2008)

I've got a soffit in my kitchen that I hate too, but it is because there's a 2' (approx.) "bump out". Sort of a square "bay window", but the roof framing wasn't modified to compensate for the inside ceiling height. That may be the reason in your case too, but further demo is necessary to find out, as stated above.I thought about doing a slope as opposed to the square boxy look (and may do so in the future), but will wait until ready to do a full blown kitchen remodel (which I'm told by "THE BOSS" is in the near future....)


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