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Remove drop ceiling, paint remaining wood and joists black.......no question on this one!

remove drop ceiling, put your lights in the way you want. you could always install sound deadening insulation to reduce noise.

What’s the reason for the drop ceiling as opposed to drywall. Is there pipes/or anything hanging below floor joists? If there isn’t then I would remove drop ceiling and drywall it. If there is a few things below the joists you still may be able to do drywall just have to frame around lower obstacles. Doesn’t look like that big of a room so it would be fairly easy IMO. Could even put rockwool insulation batts in the ceiling cavity to greatly reduce sound to the upstairs.

Install OSB and paint flat black. No mud, no tape, and you can drop a panel if you have to get at anything by the joists...wires, plumbing, etc. Lighting could be external, plugged into electrical outlets on switches. Put insulation between the joists for sound proofing. (My pins are upstairs...play them more that way).

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Ceiling I did myself with can lights + another area that needed an access panel for plumbing, painted cold air return, 1 exposed heating pipe, and a boxed in heating pipe. 9FB0144D-E800-4C44-846E-60BD15E53ADD (resized).jpegF90CE440-C236-42AA-977C-86E49B7F739D (resized).jpeg

Yep. 100%

I like having accessible ceiling in the basement. Take out the awful 2x2s, put in some recessed LED cans with dimming, maybe split into a couple zones.

Couldn't agree more. Get rid of the drop...paint the ceiling black.

Run a row of industrial track lighting. The whole project will cost ya a few hundred and it'll look awesome

Remove and drywall

If you have 6" of clearance above you could just raise it? Not really that hard and would only cost you time and possibly some touch up pain when you raise the perimeter angle. Drop ceiling are simply suspended with wire. Remove the panels, remove the attached perimeter panel "I" rails, and raise the perimeter angle a few inches. While your at it moving the lighting would be a snap. Just another low cost option to consider.

I know a suspended ceiling isn't for everyone, but I love mine. Lots of cool things you can do with it. I've also added switched outlets above the ceiling for my neons. Can't do that with a drywall ceiling.

I also prefer the 2X2 tiles over the 2X4.

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Drop ceilings are pure garbage. I like spraying flat black but Drywall if you got the cssh/skills.

I would take out the drop ceiling and sheet rock it and use recessed lighting.

I don't understand why people suggest painting a basement ceiling black.

Basement walls and ceilings should always be light colored so the light reflects and creates some ambient lighting.

Colored walls are for accents, a whole room should not be painted with dark paint, it makes the room look gloomy.

Notice that when a professional decorator uses dark paint, it's always as part of a overall decorating scheme and is always in a room that has lots of big windows with a trillion candlepower of sunlight lighting the room.

A windowless room with dark paint is a BAD idea.

I'm not making this stuff up, there is a science to painting and decorating.

Because it makes the room seem taller, it's just that simple.
My basement has windows... Like most others.

Sometimes people think that you need a drop ceiling to get access to water pipes and stuff.

But how come you don't need a drop ceiling in the upstairs rooms? You think there is no water pipes and electric wires running through your upstairs ceilings and walls?

If there is an actual maintenance item in your ceiling, like a sewer cleanout plug, then leave a hole in the sheetrock and use a trap door. I used heating vent covers over stuff like that, just screw it to the wall or ceiling and it looks like a heater vent.

It’s because most plumbing etc runs like horizontal arteries in a basement like a map to the perspective drop point. Most plumbing etc shoots up straight including vents within walls with few turns. I have installed new plumbing as well as electrical in older homes from the basement without remove a single upper floor wall. Not saying drywall is bad for a basement just that it limits future service repair to upper floors in the future. While not beautiful drop ceilings can look nice with modern tiles, can lights where ever you want them or in creative directions like Bryan illustrates. Cool look #Bryan!

I would say that 90% of the finished basement ROOMS that I have been in, have either no windows or small windows near the ceiling.

Often, the small windows are in a window-well and get no direct sunlight.

So when people talk about what color to paint a basement, usually they are addressing the concern that the room must be illuminated with electric light.

When you google "basement paint ideas", the vast majority of the pictures show rooms with little or no windows.

Since DARK paint absorbs light, it makes rooms look DARKER.

If lighting is minimal, then making a room look darker can make it look GLOOMY.

Just like a black car, dark paint on walls shows a lot dirt and wear, so it can quickly start to look SHABBY.

That's why the vast majority of rooms in houses are painted with lighter paint colors, and dark paint is mostly used for accents.

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What year is the house? My biggest thing would be asbestos depending on age. Did you have the house inspected? It should be on there.

I went with drywall in my basement because I wanted it to look like another living space and not a basement. It wasn't the cheapest thing to do, but in the end, it was the right choice for me.

Now I just need to get the damn floor and bar done so I can finally move the pins downstairs.

No shit.
Dark colors make things dark and light colors lighten them...what would we do without you?

One of the most important things you can do is correct any moisture problems in a basement.

A lot of basements have fiberglass batt insulation behind a plastic vapor barrier, which is a big mistake. And they have water problems from surface rain runoff.

You peel back the drywall and the insulation is full of black mold, which can make you sick as dog. And the collected moisture can rot out your framing above the basement wall.

Basements are not ideal living spaces and you need to use proper construction methods to avoid mold problems.

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I like my dark painted basement. The use of accent lighting and color in the art really pops. I wanted a totally different space than my upstairs...which is mainly floor to ceiling windows. Playing a pinball/arcade in a darker environment reduces glare as well. As far as it showing dirt...nope...but the idea was to create a barcade atmosphere. I’ve never been in a light painted barcade.

Your entire HGTV decor theory makes sense if this wasn't a Pinball forum. For living areas or extended living spaces Yes you want it bright, no so much for a Game room! I wouldn't paint my dining room black as its not a game room. Colors also can depend on the theme and ambiance you are trying to accomplish. In this case a game room is my guess.

It would ALSO make SENSE if he TOOK the time to actually LOOK at the first FIRST post.

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A lot of what you do to the ceiling depends on what the room is for and also your particular circumstances. With mine, I've got a family room above with the TV in one corner and the receiver, etc. in the other. I can't tell you how many times I've replaced the cables between the two. I wouldn't have been able to do it without the suspended ceiling. I've also added speakers in the gameroom, which I wouldn't have been able to do with a drywall ceiling.

I also don't think a suspended ceiling looks that bad in a gameroom, as compared to say a bedroom or family room. You can actually make a suspended ceiling look fun. Here's a pic of mine from about 10 years ago.

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I pulled out the old drop ceiling and panel walls, put in light cans with four zones so you can dim the theater side or both depending on the situation. Flat black ceiling, was nervous until I went for it and so glad we did.

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I would just use dimmers on the lighting. I don't think you need to use dark paint to get the proper effect in a basement arcade.

The proof in the pudding is the tasting of it. My suggestion would be to look at pictures, there are plenty of pictures to look at on the internet.

This thread has a couple pictures of a basement room painted black, I'm not a huge fan but maybe other people will like it.

"Rudeness is the way that weaklings imitate strength."

I have to make a mental note not to respond to your posts anymore. You're one of those bicker guys.

No actually we get along quite well in another thread, you just didn't really read the point of the thread and started on your own tangent. No worries, it happens.

Hot dam that is an Awesome game room!! For my setup, I also like that since game room content change Often I can very easily move the lighting with minimal effort and even add/subtract them as needed based on the layout. Not something I would do in a family room but a game room does tend to change over the years so a drop ceiling really isn't a bad choice.

Regarding black ceilings -- when I built my first theater, my wife and I were debating whether to paint the ceiling black or not. The concern was that it would feel too closed in, gloomy, etc as has been noted in this thread. We went to visit someone else's place that had black ceilings and loved it - the ceiling just "disappears" and you don't even notice it's there.

Since you're concerned with sound, I'll put my vote for "remove drop ceiling, put regular insulation in the joists, and put up some drywall. If you want to get crazier (like I did), you can -- I built backer boxes around my lights, decoupled the drywall from the joists, used two layers of fire-rated drywall, and used green glue between the two sheets), but for a simple game room, that's probably not necessary.

I agree with others in that if you decide to go with drywall you really need to think ahead.

I ran conduit between unfinished sections so if I needed to pull low voltage, I would have that option. I also have two soffits I can use to chase wires along with a gap between the concrete wall and the studs. It would be a pain, but I could probably run whatever I wanted if necessary.

In the end, I decided if I needed to chop a hole in the drywall to fix something, then so be it. I wanted the look of a drywall ceiling and wasn't going to not use drywall because of what "might" happen. I'll deal with those issues if I run across them.

I built my theater the same way. It gets expensive really quick. Did you decouple the walls or just the ceiling?

I did the walls as well as the ceiling. I also did stuff like putty pads on all of the electrical/low voltage boxes, extra weight put on the ducts in the ceiling to stop them from vibrating, etc. And you're right, it was way more expensive than I was thinking - but ultimately it was worth it because I can watch a movie (or play pins) in the basement and my wife can't hear anything in the room right above unless the subwoofer is really rocking - then she says that it sounds like "thunder off in the distance." Win!

I also didn't connect the room to the house's HVAC system, instead putting in a dedicated minisplit for heating/cooling, and a dedicated air exchanger to get fresh air in the room. Ultimately, the air exchanger is probably the weak point in the room for sound escaping. Most people think I'm a little crazy for going to this extreme, but hey, I'm happy with it and it works well!

1. Look above the drop and see why it's 6" below the joists. Is there ductwork or drain pipe runs? Because in the pictures, it does not look like 6" of space between the joist bottoms and the top of the Ts.

2. Generally, you only leave 2.75" below to allow the tiles to be tilted in.

3. Probably the cheapest fix would be to screw (don't nail) the drywall to the existing Ts. You already know they are level.

Insulate between the joists with Rockwool to absorb the sound of the games.

Ceiling tiles actually don't absorb much sound, even though they have "acoustical" in their name.

Tapped drywall with rockwool will have 1000x the sound blocking/absorption

Throw out any aftermarket toppers now!

How did you guys paint the ceiling? What paint sprayer? I would need to cover all my pins and furniture. I have an exposed ceiling and have been wanting to do it.

If you paint the joists, you’ll need a sprayer. If you’re painting drywall/osb, a roller. Yes, you will have to cover everything. Plastic painting sheets are cheap. You’d be amazed how much paint spatter there will be. Wear old clothes, and strongly think about eye protection. A baseball hat is a good idea too.

Not sure what sprayer...you local rental (lumbar) store can help you with this, and what they have.

Wow, I wouldn't want to paint the joists of a already finished basement for starters, but I'm sure it could be done.
Like above you'll have to plastic every inch of the wall as it gets everywhere.
If you're going that way you'd need to rent an actual big ass sprayer professional style to get it done quick.
If it's not complete yet, I just used a $50 wagner sprayer. It took a long time, but it was cheap.

I'd put wood paneling on all the walls and spray some of that acoustical popcorn on what you have now to give it that vintage look.

Harbor Freight has a really nice 'professional' sprayer in the $150 range.

I bought 5 5 gallon pails of black fence paint from Central Tractor. It was ready to spray

I took me about 10 hours..split up across 2 days.. to sprayed the ceiling of a 1700SQ FT basement. I moved everything to one side..sprayed. Then the next day moved the stuff to the other side and sprayed.

You would have to cover EVERYTHING!

Painted my drop ceiling flat black and installed can lights behind the players as to not cast a reflection on the glass.

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Wagner Paintready Sprayer, cost $68 I think. As others have said, you're going to have to cover everything, especially the floor dont leave any part showing or you will have cleaning to do. Daunting task, but the covering and spraying was a one day project.

I'm not sure it's so much about sound absorption as it is about sound reflection. The ceiling panels will help cut down on echo, which may be why the drop ceiling was preferred over a drywall ceiling (hidden plumbing/electrical notwithstanding). Adding texture to drywall can also cut down on the sound reflection.

I have a lot of plumbing and electrical above my ceiling (read: 1926 plumbing and electrical), and I've changed the configuration of my basement several times, as well as cable routing to upper levels. I couldn't imagine having a fixed ceiling either.

I would roll it. Unless your good at it a paint sprayer can leave dry spots. A roller is pretty hard to mess up.

Roll a ceiling of joists? Man that's A LOT of hand brushing in the corners.
Don't know aboot "dry spots" with flat black.

My bad. I thought he was talking about painting a drywalled ceiling.