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Exterior Ceilings – Here’s an idea for you

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Exterior Ceiling with wood slats

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In the picture above, you are looking up at the ceiling of  an exterior patio. More specifically, you are looking at 1×1 ipê wood strips attached to medium density overlay board that has been painted black, and a ipê wood trim ring around a light fixture. This is a lot better way to finish out a ceiling over a space you plan on using than paint.

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Exterior Ceiling CAD Detail

I know that not everyone reads drawings but for those of you who do, this is a detail through the section of the roof that covers one of the patios on the large modern project I have been working on for the last 2 years (it’s a big house…). Most of the notes above can be ignored for our purposes today but the ones worth paying attention to is the 1×1 WD @ 2″ O.C. (on center) with finish nails right above the one that calls out for 1/2″ MDO (which stands for Medium Density Overlay) board painted black. These two things coming together are what will make this ceiling something special.

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Medium Density Overlay

I thought I would include a little photo montage showing what MDO looks like. It’s basically plywood but it has a smooth weather-resistant resin overlay bonded to the wood by heat and pressure that is suitable for taking a finish (in our case, the finish is paint and then 1×1 ipê wood strips). The resin surface helps the wood resists water, weather, wear and degradation over time … we don’t always use it on our exterior patio ceilings but since we were planning on nailing wood strips to it, it was an obvious choice.

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Medium Density Fiberboard being installed

I took the picture above one day during a site visit when the MDO panels were getting installed. On the right, the MDO panel, and on the left you can see the underside of the metal decking from the floor above the patio ceiling.

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Exterior Ceiling - wood strips being installed

This picture shows the MDO panels after they have been installed and have been painted black. You might have noticed that we did not call out for a particular wood species for the 1×1 wood strips – that’s because we were going to take our cue from the landscape architect and match wood species. The final selection ended up being the ipê, a FSC certified cultivated Brazilian hardwood noted for its durability and resistance to rot and insects. It also happens to be gorgeous wood and we use it frequently whenever we use wood on the exterior of our projects.

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Exterior Ceiling - Ipe wood strips

Here is a look at the almost finished product – it stills needs to receive a final finish coat to help even out the tonal variations in the strips. We generally don’t add too strong of a color, and in this case, the final product will have a slight honey tint added to the finish coat. I would like to point something out that you might not notice unless you are me (because if you are, why aren’t you writing this post?), take another look at the spacing of the wood strips in relation to the wood rings around the recessed can lights … did you happen to notice that the ipê wood strips are tight to both sides of the wood rings and the spacing between the wood strips is still consistent? That isn’t on accident and was figured out early on before the MDO was installed.

I suppose that’s why I get to design and do construction administration on these sorts of projects … I am a fanatic.

Cheers – and thanks for reading.

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  • Calvin Wright

    Mr. Borson,

    I know this is an old post but I am trying to eventually get through every post on this site. I love this look and the consideration of the lighting layout is impressive. My question is this: do details like this ever bother your “modern architect” sensibilities? You aren’t expressing the structure, and are adding materials that offer a purely aesthetic function. I am in my ‘formative years’ and am trying to decide how I feel about this kind of detail. It looks excellent but isn’t “real”. Maybe I am still in student mode.

    Keep writing, I’ll be reading. Once I get through your archives, it would be nice if you wrote something every day. 🙂

    -Calvin

    • Hi Calvin,
      The detail does not bother my modern aesthetic – I like to incorporate texture and materiality that is introduced in a detail like this. If I was of a mind to do so, I think I could successfully argue that this is a modern detail, but I can’t think of how I would do that at the moment.Maybe I’ll come back and either defend my detail or concede that it is pure ornamentation. Either way, it’s a good question for a a young architect in his formative years to be asking.

      • Calvin Wright

        Mr. Borson,

        Thanks for the reply. I love the detail and the texture it provides. It was more of an academic question I guess.

        -Calvin

  • That detail is nice but the construction and wood work really makes it.
    Tim

    • Thanks Tim – craftsmanship definitely makes a difference on these sorts of details

  • Las

    Hi Bob, What a great design concept. I like that this is not a traditional ceiling cover. I am finishing a new construction in south florida and have been looking for something different to put on ceiling other than all wood slats. However I am at the finishing stages and would like to know how I could implement this design into my project. The underneath patio has a soild concrete ceiling and is stuccoed over. So how could I attached the MDO boards to celing. Concrete screws? I am courious to know how MDO would hold up to south florida’s humity, rain and elements etc. have you ever had any issues using this type of material outside? So would this be the best material for me to use. Thank you again for posting this project as it is exactly what I have been looking for. Now I have to try and figure this all out so it can work in my project.

    • Hi Las.

      I don’t work in South Florida so I can’t speak to how well MDO would hold up in that environment. Without opening myself up to any sort of liability, and since I don’t know how your stucco (if it is real stucco or not) is installed, I would think that in the limited exposure, you could paint out the stucco black, epoxy seal the penetrations where you would install wood furring strips, and then attach your finished strips of wood to the furring strips – forego the MDO altogether.

  • Larkins

    Please inform me where the wood strips can be bought. Thank you.

    • your contractor can cut these down themselves or order it to size from the lumber yard (where they will cut it down).

  • John

    Bob, great work.  quick question…does the steel in this overhang continue to the inside, and how did you resolve the thermal break since the fascia and soffit do not appear to have insulation (but the roof does) in the detail?

    • John,

      That is a complicated answer so I am barely going to try and answer it for you. You can actually see the roof when you are standing on the opposite side of the courtyard so the roof thickness is really there as an extension of the roof from above the interior living space. We have insulation at the vertical face of the perimeter wall and the steel frame that holds up the canopy stops at that point.

      This is why drawings are better …

      Cheers

      • John

        makes sense.  thank you!  if you had to put horizontal insulation in that ceiling system, would your ceiling simply mount to zee-girts in line with board insulation, which are mounted to studs (in lieu of a suspended system)?

        • if I had to put in horizontal insulation here (i.e. there was interior living space above this outdoor space), I would have simply used spray insulation to adhere to the deck. It would be considerably easier to install.

          I’ve only used board insulation and zee-girts when I have vertical insulation needs.

  • Kate

    Beautiful detailing, man.

  • bubba

    “tonal variations”. I wondered what y’all called that.

  • Wdeckley

    Bob, Good post, nice informative details. Thanks,

  • Very much appreciate that little attention to detail.  As tile manufacturer’s we hate it when we see a shower that doesn’t have the the tile’s grout joints not lined up with the shower head and controls and moving away equally in both directions.

  • David

    Of course I noticed.

  • *joink* That’s the sound of me stealing this detail.

  • Bob

    stealing….

    • hah!

      if that’s the case you would be restealing because I don’t think I was first

      Cheers

  • Bob, nice detail, thanks for sharing; and thank you for
    mentioning the all important Construction Administration phase. As architects
    we not only have to conceive the detail, draft it properly, and specify
    materials correctly, we must also see that it gets built that way. The latter often
    seems to be the most difficult. 

  • Mike

    Excellent look and article. A question: When you do construction administration do you hire subcontractor or are you on-site to instruct them. The details make this ceiling great but you would have to be there all the time to get it right. Be there with Electrician to place box and carpenter to lay out the correct spacing.

    • This is all through the contractor. I will have a conversation about the intent and what we are trying to accomplish and the contractor will coordinate the rest. 

      I don’t mean to offend some of the contractors out there but it takes a certain skill level to build these sorts of projects. Even if I hadn’t mentioned anything, this contractor would have asked the question. 

    • It’s rare that we take on a project where we don’t have construction administration as part of our base services. It sends up a red flag when someone argues against this service and we easily save our fee for this portion of the project by coordinating items before they show up and have to be redone. People may think that when errors or coordination items happens and the contractor foots the bill that it doesn’t cost the owner anything – time actually does have a dollar value associated with it.

      Cheers

  • architectrunnerguy

    Actually, when first booting you up this AM, I did notice upon viewing the very first photo that the wood strips where exactly tangent to the wood circling the light. I was impressed even though then I thought then it was maybe a single light or row of lights, not a grid. I’m impressed that someone was paying attention when the fixtures where being installed.

    Nice work!

    Doug

    • Thanks Doug,

      This is a complicated project but luckily we have an amazing contractor working on the job. He is constantly asking questions and suggesting solutions – we try really hard to foster a team environment on the job site – that way, everyone cares about the finished product … and it shows.

  • Mila

    beautiful…would love to see that on a daily basis

    • When everything gets finished, I’ll be able to show the patio ceilings in context with the rest of the project (including the landscape features) – hopefully it will still look great.

      Cheers

My “Serious” Disclaimer

The complimentary advice provided on ‘Life of an Architect’ is based on an abbreviated examination of the minimal facts given, not the typical extensive (and sometimes exhaustive) analysis I conduct when working with my clients. Therefore, anything you read on this site is not a substitute for actually working with me. Following my casual advice is at your own peril … if you want my undivided attention, I would recommend hiring me. Cheers.

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