HomeTalkUSA with the Cajun Contractor, Michael King
Today on HomeTalk – Decorating Solutions with Industry Experts Milan Jara
MK: I’m the Cajun Contractor, Michael King, and this is HomeTalkUSA. Today’s topic is all about ceiling tiles. Today we’re going to show you how to install it yourself. My guest today is going to be Milan Jara; he’s with DecorativeCelinigTiles. Milan is also going to be a guest on my radio program, so we’re going to take a short break and we’re going to come back right here at the HomeTalkUSA workshop. I’m the Cajun man, y’all come back now, you hear? Today’s topic is all about ceiling tiles, and my guest today is going to be Milan Jara. Now, Milan’s with a company called DecorativeCeilingTiles and he’s going to be talking about and also a little later in the show gonna be demonstrating how easy it is how you can install ceiling tiles yourself. And Milan is with us right now, from DecorativeCeilingTiles. Milan, you’re no stranger to my radio audience, you’ve been on my show mnay times and I want to welcome to HomeTalkUSA TV. How you doing my friend?
MJ: Hey, Mike. Thanks for having me.
MK: Give us a little history about your company.
MJ: Sure. So 2008, I got into installing tiles for someone and I was very hesitant. Anyhow, I did try it and the results were amazing. We covered a popcorn ceiling, these tiles went up super easy, they were lightweight, they were able to be painted. So I got hooked and I bought a website. DecorativeCeilingTiles.net and within 11 days had my first order. And so I was hooked.
MK: So you started off as a customer, basically.
MJ: That’s it!
MK: Wow. And you actually found it by accident.
MJ: That’s right.
MK: Wow. Now, what does DecorativeCeilingTiles specialize in? Obviously ceiling tiles is in your name, so we know you do ceiling tiles, but I’m sure there are some other products that you specialize in.
MJ: Sure. So, as you said, we do decorative ceiling tiles – anything from Styrofoam to solid copper; we have hundreds of pallets and colors. But we also do backsplashes, we do wall panel, wainscotings; we also have a line of chrome moldings and any type of architectural elements: medallions, domes, all that kind of stuff.
MK: So if you’re really looking to change, maybe enhance the interior of your home with ceiling tiles, wall panels, moldings – come see you?
MJ: Yeah, absolutely. We’ve got, you know, over 40,000 different options and our products are really the cherry on the cake, they dress everything up basically.
MK: And where do people use your products? Where do they actually use it?
MJ: Well, mostly ceilings. Commercial, residential, we can do anything, we can cover anything from popcorn, to cracked plasters. We also do drop ceilings in restaurants or basements, where you have the regular drop ceiling tiles which is really easy to replace and refinish. But also people use ceiling tiles as wall panels. They use them on walls, sometimes they put it as a headboard. We have metal tiles, they put them up and they do an entire accent wall. There’s a lot of different options you can do with ceiling tiles.
MK: So your products really can cover popcorn ceilings?
MJ: Yeah.
MK: That’s difficult to do.
MJ: With these tiles, I like to use the Styrofoam. PVC is also really good for this because they are lightweight as well. All you have to do is basically just glue it up there. So the glue spreads between the popcorn ceiling and it just stays up there and you can transform the entire ceiling in a matter of hours, and no mess. That’s the nice thing.
MK: When you hear that word, Styrofoam, okay King, hold on, you’re telling me that there’s a material that I can put on my ceiling that’s Styrofoam, and when people think Styrofoam they’re actually thinking ice chest, you know? But it’s classified Styrofoam, but it’s a different type of material, it’s a poly…
MJ: Sure. It’s an extruded polystyrene. And I think the name is just, you know, has a bad rep out there. But it’s basically…
MK: It has plastic properties too.
MJ: Yeah, it’s plastic. It is lightweight, it adds insulation. So I think it’s an excellent product for this type of thing. Because it has all the properties – it is affordable, it’s lightweight, it’s easy to work with. It’s paintable. People always ask – is it durable? But on the ceiling, I have it in my house for the last 8 years and 3 houses I moved through, I had these tiles and never, ever had a problem with damage or anything like that.
MK: And the Styrofoam ceiling material has really become one of the more popular items because it’s affordable.
MJ: Yeah, absolutely. That’s the reason why – it’s a really affordable product.
MK: Now, you mentioned you had products for popcorn ceiling, but what about drop ceilings?
MJ: Sure, so for the suspended ceilings, usually the grid system it’s either 2 feet by 2 feet or 2x4s. We have a product for both. We have anything from plastic, we have tin-plated steel which is the original tin ceiling, then we have aluminum and we have also solid copper. And all you have to do with these is just basically put them into your great system and it takes seconds to replace a tile.
MK: How easy it really is to install?
MJ: It is very easy, as a matter of fact.
MK: What makes it so easy?
MJ: Number one, you only need very little tools, which we’ll show later on the show. Then, the product is very light. Then, the nice thing about it is that all you’ve got to do is glue it up and you’re pretty much done.
MK: And I think we used that…
MJ: The power grab.
MK: The power grab glue. It came in a tube and it was very easy.
MJ: That’s it. Just apply the glue and put it up there. Can’t get any easier than this.
MK: And it was easy to cut, cause you just use a box cutter.
MJ: A box cutter, yeah. You can use box cutter or scissors in some cases and glue these tiles up and amazing results.
MK: And you also have wall panels, right?
MJ: Correct. Yes, you can use these on walls, they come in different designs and colors. But we also have 4ft x 8ft MirroFlex products which can be glued to a wall.
MK: Now you said something that the majority of these ceiling tiles can be painted, right?
MJ: That’s right, yeah. You know, these Styrofoam tiles, they require water-based paints. But anything else, you can use any paint you want. You can spray, roll it, brush it – whichever way you want and, you know, match your décor.
MK: All the homes, ceilings get a lot of wear and tear due to ventilation, mold, turn yellow, people punch holes in their ceilings to put hooks so they can put drop flower pots. It gets very expensive to repair these ceilings, because basically you’ve got to get in there with some mud and spatula it out and repaint it, re-blow it. If you have popcorn ceiling, you have to… this can really cost. A little later in the show we’re going to get a testimony from a customer of yours that installed it and had a roof leak down his fireplace, and he had popcorn ceiling. And he was very hesitant in putting the product in, but he had nothing to lose. He was watching the show and hearing you on radio talking about it, he placed the order and he did it himself. He was very impressed. And that’s what basically happened to you – same situation, right?
MJ: That’s it, that’s the reason I’m in business.
MK: Can your products be installed, say, in commercial spaces? I know this is a home improvement show, we talk in residential, but can you help them?
MJ: Absolutely. We’ve got thousands of products for them. Class A fire rated, and that’s the only thing we require, it’s the class A fire rating on these products which the PVC, the metals, they’re all class A fire rated, so they can be used in commercial spaces. Mostly, in drop ceilings, but also glue-up.
MK: In this studio here we have some suspended ceilings, and we did a couple suspended ceilings in the design that we have. So again, you’re not just talking about gluing it – if you have suspended ceilings, it just changed, it advanced the whole studio.
MJ: Yeah, no I know. You were quite impressed, weren’t you?
MK: Yeah, I was. Now, Milan, your company is really evolving. You started off with just the ceiling tiles and now you’re into wall panels, so you know, you’re looking basically if somebody wants to remodel the interior of their home, you can change it and do it affordable with these products.
MJ: Yes, we’ve got a lot of affordable and innovative products for people that… we’re quite unique in what we carry and offer to people. So, you know, we have these wall panels and ceilings and people can do headboards with our four other panels. We also have a product called lumisplash, which it’s illuminated surface; you can put it as a backsplash or on top of a counter. It’s scratch-resistant. You can choose your own graphic, from our larger library or you can give us a custom image and we can do that for you. It’s a quarter inch thick. So that’s another product. We also have these metal laminates that can fold by panels and we’re actually getting into full wood beams, as well entrances. So that’s another product that’s coming out. And also have an artist who hand paints our tiles and medallions and whatnot. Beautiful for finishing so there’s quite a bit of options out there for people that are looking to do something different to their home.
MK: Easy to install, affordable, can really enhance the interior of your home. Now, Milan, can you show us today some of the popular decorative ceiling tiles?
MJ: Absolutely, Mike. I brought the most popular one, which is our R24 design. Simple, square padding, but it’s just the most popular one.
MK: Now this is the one you’ve been talking about on my radio program for what, about the last year.
MJ: Oh, yeah.
MK: This particular one.
MJ: This is it. And this is the miracle piece right here – feel how light it is. Unbelievable.
MK: It’s hard to believe this is Styrofoam.
MJ: I know.
MK: And you have different patterns.
MJ: Sure, we have about 50 patterns.
MK: And you said it could be painted.
MJ: Painted, absolutely. Water-based paint.
MK: Now, how does it come again?
MJ: It comes like this. This is how it comes. Some people leave it in plain white like this, just put it up just that way. Then I also brought, Mike, some of the PVC product right here. Comes in many designs and colors as well. Not only can this be glued up, but it also can be dropped into a grid system.
MK: On a drop ceiling.
MJ: That’s it.
MK: Wow. You do nothing but just place it.
MJ: Just drop it in there. So again, it comes in different designs and colors. Here’s our antique copper finish, got some fleur de lis on it here. This is also a popular padding.
MK: You have another one here.
MJ: Here we’ve got antique gold.
MK: This is beautiful, man.
MJ: Yeah.
MK: This can totally change the interior of your home.
MJ: Absolutely.
MK: Can I custom-make this, a little bit?
MJ: Yeah, sure, you can custom make it. We can do any design for you you like. Just tell me what you want, give us some pictures or ideas. We’ll give you a design within 2-3 week and get your own design.
MK: Now, once you pick your color and design, what kind of tools we need?
MJ: We need few tools.
MK: Brought some today.
MJ: Some glue, power grab glue. Caulk to caulk the seams for the Styrofoam.
MK: A good box knife.
MJ: Box knife is good, yeah. Or scissors. And then a straight line.
MK: Right here.
MJ: Measuring tape.
MK: Measuring tape.
MJ: And that’s it.
MK: I have a demo wall. So we’re going to pretend this is the ceiling, okay? Now, you can see that the ceiling is kind of scuffed up a little bit. This is kind of popular, people hang plants in the ceiling, they’ve got holes. So instead of spending all this money and have to patch it up, we’re gonna go right over this.
MJ: That’s right.
MK: So now you’re saying we have to remove the fixture.
MJ: Yeah, you want to remove the fixture.
MK: Now, why the fixture? I guess we use it as a starting point, right?
MJ: Yes, usually the fixture is the center of the room. So we start, we take it off and then we check the lines and start from there.
MK: I’ve already removed the light. Now, for demo purposes, we’re going to pretend that this is the electrical outlet right here. I drew the line so there would be an outlet right here that the fixture holds unto. What’s our next step?
MJ: Okay, our next step, Mike, is to figure out where we’re going to start our line. So this is our center, here’s where we’ll start regardless. So we just measure…
MK: We’ve already done it; you see the line. We’ve already measured so we can run the chalk line. Go ahead and get the middle of it. We’ve got one. So I have it centered. Alright – go ahead and work your magic. Now we run our chalk line.
MJ: This is our starting point. We have two options here. We can either start in the middle of this tile.
MK: Like that, okay.
MJ: But in our case, we decided to start here, do it like this.
MK: Where the fixture would be. Excuse me, the electric socket.
MJ: So here’s our center, so we start here. And all we have to do, Mike, is just put a little glue on the back, just butter it up and stick it to the wall. What I usually do, you want to put some in the corners – you don’t have to put a whole lot. And you butter it up like this, just little dots. It’s very light, as you know. And then depending on your surface, the amount of glue you put.
MK: I’m gonna start it from where the lines meet. Right there, okay. So when I’m finding the line, put a little pressure.
MJ: The nice thing is that you can move it around and get it right where it needs to be. You adjust it, once you find the spot, you go to the next one.
MK: And then you find the next one and you can do the next one, I’m gonna get a nice little line. And we can move it a little bit. Place it. Look how easy you can do this yourself. Then I’m butting it up against the string line, right here. Look at that, okay. Alright. Now, obviously this is a demo wall. Push it up a little bit. Alright. This is a demo wall and now we’re gonna keep going up. Now, when we get to the edges, that’s when you want to go ahead and do your custom-made cuts. Cause you’ve got to remember, you’ve got molding right here.
MJ: Yes, sir.
MK: Okay, now we have it installed. Caulk it.
MJ: Caulk it.
MK: Alright. And you would just continue on and one. Now, what I need to do right now is cut for the fixture. So it’s Styrofoam, it’s gonna cut, you don’t have to be pretty. We’re gonna remove it.
MJ: Take it all out.
MK: There it is. Again. You would have the electrical socket right there. And we’re gonna go ahead and install the fixture. Milan, this really looks good. Alright, what I want to do right now, I want to go talk to a homeowner that already had the decorative ceiling tile installed. As a matter of fact, it was over popcorn ceiling.
MJ: Excellent.
MK: We’re at the home of Chris Lee. Hey, Chris, tell me why you decided to go with the decorative Styrofoam ceiling tile.
CL: Well, Mike, to be honest, I had a roof leak, right? And after checking to see how expensive it was going to be to fix, you know, I listened to your show and I heard about DecorativeCeilingTiles and I think you had mister Milan Jara on your show, so I was like man, I’ve got to give that a shot cause I don’t have a lot of money, but it seems like it would be a good fix for my ceiling. I’ll tell you what – it was the easiest thing I could do, the most inexpensive thing I could do and it solved my problems.
MK: It looks very expensive.
CL: And it’s not. It was so cheap to do and it actually took no time at all. All you do is you grab the sheets, you cut what you need, put some glue on it, put it up top and you’re done.
MK: Wow. And I noticed you had some of these tiles on your kitchen wall.
CL: Yes. Well, the great thing is that I bought a little too much. So what I had left over, I was like you know what? I’m gonna make this room look just as good, so that’s what I did.
MK: Can we go check it out now?
CL: Let’s check it out.
MK: Now, Chris, I need to tell you – this really looks good. What gave you the idea?
CL: Well, I was done with the ceiling, I came in here and my wife has been telling me ‘You’ve got to make the kitchen look amazing’ so instead of going on, get us some kind of raise paneling, spend a fortune on it, I was like I can just use these leftover pieces, put them on top and make it look really good.
MK: And you just do it the same way.
CL: Exactly the same way. You cut what you need, you glue it right to the dry wall and you’re good.
MK: Chris, would you recommend DecorativeCeilingTiles?
CL: I would say if you’re looking for something inexpensive and you want something to look amazing, this is the product.
MK: It’s something you can do yourself.
CL: You can do it yourself, it’s amazing.
MK: You know, Milan, he was very hesitant at first. He had that fireplace leak, and he was listening to the show and decided to do it.
MJ: And he did it. Covered popcorn ceiling. Unbelievable – just like me, about 8 years ago. Same thing and this is the reason I’m in business today.
MK: Before we close, what I’d like to do is do mention, say in the installation process we’ve got some scruff marks on this.
MJ: Sure, you just take a wet towel, clean it up right off, and you’re done. As a matter of fact, you can replace one of these tiles in case you break it.
MK: Maybe have some gloves on or something.
MJ: Sure, yeah, you can wear gloves to protect it, absolutely.
MK: Milan, we’re out of time, my friend. Wow, what a great segment. And I want to thank you for being our guest, and thanking you for coming down here to our television studios, giving us a demonstration on how easy the ceiling tiles are easy to install. Give us a website – how can we learn more about DecorativeCeilingTiles?
MJ: It’s DecorativeCeilingTiles.net.
MK: Say it one more time.
MJ: DecorativeCeilingTiles.net.
MK: Milan Jara, thank you for being our guest.
MJ: Thank you, Mike.
MK: Now, so that about does it for this week’s edition of HomeTalk. Stay tuned – next week, you can go to HomeTalkTV.com; we have a complete archive of shows. Till next week, I’m the Cajun Contractor, y’all come back next week, you hear?
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