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Triple Groin Vaults

If someone told you that you could spend a day having fun with triplets, what would you think? It’s probably not groin vault ceilings, but maybe it should be. Three groin vault ceilings together create a pretty spectacular effect – and installation couldn’t be easier.

Our prefabricated groin vault ceilings are so easy to install that virtually anyone can do it. No need to hire a professional contractor. This is a DIY project.

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How can this be done?

Here’s how we had fun with triplets. Yes, we mean installing multiple groin vault ceilings :

1. It all began with one frame – It is possible to install three groin vault ceilings by completing one step three times and working through the instructions until they are complete. However, this is not recommended. It is much more practical and efficient to complete one at a time, so we framed the cross brace down the center of our desired location.

2. Snapping lines – If you watch the video above, you’ll see that the next thing we did was to snap lines to the underside of the cross brace. You’ll see us literally snapping red chalked lines on the brace.

3. Nailing struts – Starting with the outermost struts, we lined them up in the appropriate spots along the cross brace, and then tacked them in. Then, we repeated the process for all the whole struts on every side and worked our way inward making sure to nail in all the struts accordingly.

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4. Nailing the corners – Next, you’ll see us nailing together the corners of the groin vault ceiling with a brad nailer. Now each row of struts are securely fastened to each other. Almost like rows of picture frames.

5. Finishing steps – After toe-nailing the outermost struts into the wall and adding bracing to the backside of our groin struts, we performed a visual inspection. Then, for the fun part: the strength inspection!

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Now, you don’t have to perform the strength inspection quite like we did, but we do recommend it. It’s an easy way to ensure that your groin vault ceilings can hold enough weight, and it’s an amazing stretch. So, yeah. Go ahead and hang from them.

6. Rinse and repeat – We’ve talked in great detail about how we installed the first groin vault, but there are two more to go. Installation for each of these groin vault ceilings was exactly the same. So, we rinsed and repeated and came out with a seriously stunning ceiling that took about 4 hours to install.

We filmed this installation with our GoPro camera because we wanted to show you that installing multiple groin vault ceilings isn’t any more difficult than installing one, and to bring a cool new point of view to the install. It’s a little more time consuming, of course, but if you can install one, you can install three. Or eight. The choice is yours.

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Now, go out there and have some fun with triplets. Or octuplets. We’re not judging.

Oh, and if you are up for it, remembering to strike a pose in front of the finished project is a great way to show off your handy work! We like to do the “Christ the Redeemer” pose courtesy of friends from Precision Taping. It’s more fun then planking!

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