Help Building Boxes around Vents or Pipes in Basement

[roger]

Hello,

We are putting drywall on the ceiling in our basement. Most of the basement will be no problem, however there is a section where there are a lot of mechanicals runing that we need to "box in". This area is at the least two ducts wide, and there is one area where a diagonal drain pipe make it even more challenging. Any suggestions for the best way to tackle this? I had read about using OSB and creating mini "walls" on either side of the area to be boxed and then running 2/4s underneath the vents. Any experience with this? What is the longest span this would work on? Any help would be very much appreciated!!

[Carlos]

Hi, I know its been a few years and figured by now your done with everything. I'm in the middle of doing this right now. Yes OSB board is a good way to do longer spans and keep things rigid. Many people have suggested always using OSB then covering with drywall on "boxed-in" areas but its not really needed. I used it on areas over 16 inches to make it rigid, then just made sure where the drywall went alone I had cross members inplace.

Sure your an expert on this by now, if you have any pictures of your old project post them up!