ᐅ Installing a suspended ceiling using the existing furring strips

Hello dear professionals,
I have a question regarding suspending a ceiling.
I removed the old wooden ceiling, and underneath, there were 24x48 mm (1x2 inch) battens spaced 60 cm (24 inches) apart, screwed directly to the concrete ceiling.

The old wooden ceiling will be replaced with drywall, so I wanted to reuse the existing drill holes and, ideally, the battens. I am planning to screw counter battens or support battens spaced 40 cm (16 inches) onto the existing ones, and then attach my drywall boards to these.

However, I have a question: if I put the 38x58 mm (1.5x2.3 inch) counter battens on top of the existing 24x48 mm (1x2 inch) battens, I will only have about 2 cm (0.8 inch) of screw penetration into the wood. I don’t think this would securely hold my drywall boards.

My idea would be to remove the 24x48 mm (1x2 inch) battens, use the larger ones as primary battens fixed to the existing holes in the concrete, and then screw the 24x48 mm (1x2 inch) battens as support battens onto those. The drywall boards would then be attached to the support battens.

Is there a flaw in my plan, or would it be better to do it differently?
I’m open to any suggestions.

Thanks in advance!

yorolf87 schrieb:

Screw a secondary batten or supporting batten with a spacing of 40cm (16 inches) onto the existing structure, to which my drywall panels will be attached.

Why? Can’t you work with the existing battens?

The existing battens have a spacing of 60cm (24 inches). During my research, I read that when installing drywall with a suspended ceiling, the supporting battens should ideally have a spacing of 40cm (16 inches), and 50cm (20 inches) is still acceptable. However, the current setup has a spacing of 60cm (24 inches).

This is at least what I have read, and to answer your question.

yorolf87 schrieb:

The existing battens have a spacing of 60cm (24 inches).

I would risk going with 10cm (4 inches) spacing (Knauf recommends a maximum of 50cm (20 inches)).
Apart from that:

yorolf87 schrieb:

However, I wonder: if I have counter battens measuring 38x58mm (1.5x2.3 inches) on top of the existing 24x48mm (1x1.9 inches), then I only have about 2cm (0.8 inches) of screw thread gripping the wood, so surely my drywall board won’t hold.

Why shouldn’t it hold? Try hanging yourself on the main battens and see how it feels. I’m more of a practical person who tests things first rather than over-discussing before starting. After all, a full wood paneling seems to have held up fine.

That’s why I started this topic. If someone says that 60cm (24 inches) is not an issue and they might even have that themselves and everything holds up, I would trust that.

The main battens alone hold very securely, at least for me. It was more about the fact that if I go with the counter battens and screw them into the existing screw, I can’t go very deep—only about 2cm (0.8 inches) before reaching the concrete ceiling. I was wondering if a 2cm (0.8 inches) screw depth in the counter batten still provides the same load-bearing capacity as a batten fixed directly to the ceiling. I can’t really imagine that it does, but I’m also not an expert.

yorolf87 schrieb:

When installing drywall with furring strips, the supporting battens should ideally be spaced 40cm (16 inches) apart, and 50cm (20 inches) is still acceptable.

Does this apply to all drywall thicknesses—10, 12, and 15mm (0.4, 0.5, and 0.6 inches), whether single or double layered? I assume 60cm (24 inches) spacing might work as well, but not with single-layer 10mm (0.4 inch) drywall.