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If you want to have a perfectly flat ceiling quickly and without dust, there is only one way out – to make a stretch ceiling. You are unlikely to be able to make the film itself, but it is possible to stretch the finished one yourself. This may become relevant somewhere far from the city, where the installers will not go or their arrival will be too expensive. In this case, installing a stretch ceiling with your own hands is a way out.
Species, their comparative characteristics
There are two types of stretch ceilings: PVC film and fabric. They differ in properties and appearance. The film does not allow water to pass through, which in an apartment can serve as insurance against a flood from above. But there is no guarantee that it will withstand the weight. In addition, the film has holes for lamps. This fact is only with the “side effect” that the material gives, as well as the fact that it does not allow vapor and air to pass through.
The advantage of fabric ceilings is precisely their ability to pass air and water vapor. This is important, for example, for a wooden house, where this quality is in demand. It is possible to make PVC film ceilings in a timber or log house, but due to temperature or pressure differences, folds and wrinkles may appear on it. There is a solution – to carefully seal the gaps that are always present in such buildings, and install a ventilation grill (or several), which will unite the space from below and above, eliminating an unpleasant phenomenon.
The second plus of fabric ceilings is their large width. Cloths are up to 4-5 meters. You can also find 6 meters, but on special order and the corresponding – special – price. However, for most rooms, this width is enough for the eyes. Therefore, this type is often called seamless: there is no need to stitch the canvas.
The disadvantage of fabric stretch ceilings is their higher cost, as well as a more limited choice of colors. But there are much more textures: there are leather, velvet, frosted glass imitation and others. Also, on this basis, photo printing of any type looks great. But if you want a bright gloss, it can only be in PVC film. A woven surface has either a matte or slightly reflective surface.
With bright gloss, by the way, you need to be careful. He, of course, visually makes the room higher. Due to the reflection of light and objects. But it is the reflection that can play a trick on you. Everything is reflected in the ceiling. And what is on the cabinets too. And trash and dust. Literally everything. So take that into account too.
Another comparison parameter is the operating temperature. PVC stretch ceiling can be operated only at positive temperatures. At 0°C it becomes brittle, after -40°C it collapses. If you install such a ceiling in an unheated room, it may survive a winter or two (if the doors are not opened sharply in a cold house). But then it will inevitably break. Fabric stretch ceilings are undemanding to temperatures, so they can be frozen.
Preparing for installation
You can install a stretch ceiling in a few hours. But the preparation, as well as the connection of lighting, sometimes require even more time. So let’s start.
First, we clean everything that can fall from the ceiling. This is very important for aesthetics. All that after stretching the ceiling to shine through.
If the film is white or light, dark spots can be seen through it, if any. The same problem exists in a log house: the dark ceiling will be visible. In this case, you can pre-sheathe it with some kind of material (plywood, drywall, etc.) which is covered with white paint. As an option – shoot some white material (at least vapor barrier).
At what stage of the repair to put
Installation of stretch ceilings is carried out after the main “dirty” stages of repair have passed, while the walls are aligned. It can be before wallpapering, or after. Both options are not ideal. And that’s why:
- If the walls are already covered with wallpaper, they get dirty when installing a baguette. To avoid pollution, you have to close the walls, and this is extra time.
- If you glue the wallpaper after installation, you need to work very carefully: the films (if you pulled it) are very easily torn. And with such work, it is very easy to break it.
What is the lesser evil for you – choose. At other times, this is not possible.
Where and at what height is attached
There are two types of profile – on the ceiling and on the wall. Ceiling ones are used in cases where, for some reason, it is impossible to fasten the supporting structure to the walls (wiring passing in the required place, very unstable material). In other cases, a baguette is mounted on the walls.
At what height is the baguette attached? If there are no distortions, at a level of 4-5 cm below the joint with the ceiling. Why not at the very top? Because the strength of the wall is lowered above, and it can crumble. Loads when using PVC films are created decent, so the load-bearing capacity is important. In addition, wiring is often laid in this place and it can be damaged. So be careful with the wiring, mark the area where it is located. Another such margin of height allows the use of a wider range of fixtures. As you can see, there are enough reasons.
If the walls in the room were not leveled, but you want to install a stretch ceiling, level the area in which the baguette will be attached. If this is not done, it will bend, which will be perfectly visible from below.
On the walls of foam concrete, a beam is mounted to the wall, and a baguette is attached to it. Thus, the tension created is transferred mainly to the beam, and the wall experiences less stress.
For the normal tension of the ceiling, it must be stretched in a strictly horizontal plane. Therefore, they find the lowest point of the ceiling, lay those same 4-5 cm from it, and then beat off the horizontal along all the walls. So, relative to the existing ceiling, the height difference may be different.
It is most convenient to apply the line with a masking cord (a thin cord “stained” in loose dye such as blue).
If it is decided to make a two-level stretch ceiling, it is attached to the plasterboard structure. If the mount falls on one of the horizontal rails, everything is fine and there are no problems. If lower or higher you need to add reinforcement. This can be a profile fixed in the right place or a strip of plywood 5-6 mm thick. Both methods have been tried and work well.
When installing in a room whose walls are tiled, a baguette is fixed 2 cm below the edge of the tile. At the same time, it is important that there are no voids under it.
Electrical wiring and fixtures
Since more low-power lamps are used in stretch ceilings (no more than 40 W for incandescent dumps and 35 W for halogen ones), more lamps are required. In addition to the main chandelier, peripheral lighting is also made in the center. In this case, usually built-in lamps are used.
It turns out that there are a lot of wires going along the ceiling. They need to be well and properly fixed. If a stretch ceiling is made in a wooden house, all electrical wires are laid in fireproof pipes, a special corrugated hose or a mounting box. In other cases, it is enough to fix them on the ceiling with mounting tapes or with clips.
Embedded elements are made for the installation of fixtures in a stretch ceiling. Their design depends on the type of lamp and is selected separately each time. It is only desirable that the shades be either directed downwards, or located no closer than 40 cm from the ceiling. Otherwise, after a while, yellowish spots from overheating will appear on it.
Perhaps the best way out when choosing fixtures for a stretch ceiling will be LED. They give a powerful stream of light, serve for a very long time, “pull” very little electricity and practically do not heat up. The downside is the high price. But it justifies itself quickly – saving on electricity.
Installation procedure
In this section, we will talk exclusively about the installation steps, without all the other points, which are many (about them below). A stretch ceiling of any type is attached to a special profile, which is attached around the perimeter of the room. The method of fastening is chosen based on which walls:
- for brick and concrete take dowel-nails;
- for wood – self-tapping screws;
- for fragile materials (shell rock, aerated concrete) – first a mortgage wooden beam is attached, then a baguette is attached to it.
The baguette is fastened by installing fasteners every 15-20 cm. For stretching films, it is better to take a step of 15 cm, for woven ones it is possible and 20 cm. Profiles for fabric and film are different, but the essence of this does not change. But further in the installation there are differences.
For PVC film
It should be especially noted that the material must be handled with care, as it is easily damaged by sharp objects. According to the technology, heating to high temperatures is used, which means that everything that can be damaged from this is taken out of the room beforehand.
How to install
After installing the profile, there are only four steps left:
- The film is straightened, suspended (without tension) on technical clips in the corners. First, the first two corners of the diagonal are fixed, then the second.
- With the help of a powerful heat gun, the film (and the air in the room) is heated up to 50-60°C.
- The film that has become elastic is stretched, the harpoon is tucked into a baguette. This is done with a spatula (spatula) with rounded ends (the film is easily cut and this is one of its drawbacks).
- While the temperature is still high, if provided by the technology, the technological gap is closed with a decorative overlay.
Stretch ceiling installation procedure
On this we can consider the installation of a stretch ceiling finished. All this can be done with your own hands, but with helpers. But this is only the process itself, and there are a lot of related ones: preparing walls, connecting lamps, installing bypass rings for lamps and pipes, if any.
Types of profiles for films
In general, there are two systems for fixing PVC ceilings: harpoon and wedge (glazing bead). Recently, exclusively harpoon has been used, since it allows you to better and more evenly stretch the canvas, and also makes it possible to mount / dismantle it many times.
With the wedge system, when attaching the film, there were complaints: it sagged, and the constriction was a problem, since the excess material was cut off after installation. Therefore, this method of fastening for vinyl (PVC) stretch ceilings is practically not used, but it performs well when installing fabric ceilings.
With a harpoon system, a special plastic profile is welded at the factory along the edge of the web, which is inserted into another – screwed around the perimeter. The shape is designed so that they have excellent grip. But at the same time, after installation, a technological gap remains around the entire perimeter. Its special narrow plinth (baguette), which can be white or to match the film.
There is another form of the same system – “gapless”. Here the harpoon is made so that the film adheres to the wall tightly, without gaps. It looks neater, but its disadvantage is a higher price.
Minus harpoon mounting in a higher cost of the system. Another unpleasant moment: high accuracy is required when measuring the room and making the canvas. Inaccuracies lead to sagging, wrinkles and folds.
Frame material
The profile that is attached to the walls can be aluminum, or maybe made of durable plastic. Good quality plastic is no less reliable, but weighs less, is easier to install (you can immediately mount it on self-tapping screws without pre-drilling holes), and also weighs less. Because many installers prefer it.
The consumer is attracted by plastic profiles at a lower price. So they are rarely opposed.
For fabric fabric
We can immediately say that fabric ceilings are not afraid of sharp objects and you can’t be too silly with them. Even if they are torn, the hole does not diverge. It can be well “patched up”, so that nothing will be visible. But the fabric is heavier than the film, therefore only aluminum profiles are used: they are able to withstand the weight without difficulty. But they are more expensive, which adds to the higher price for the fabric itself (compared to PVC).
Another feature is that the fabric does not heat up. It is simply pulled well and fixed in a baguette. Therefore, special accuracy when cutting the canvas is not required. It is cut with an allowance of 10-20 cm: for ease of installation. The excess is then cut off.
On the one hand, this is a plus – simple installation. On the other hand, a minus: you can pull it unevenly. Before trimming, there is an opportunity to fix everything, but after … you can only pull it into a smaller room.
How to install
As before, the profile is first screwed around the perimeter of the room. Then the fabric of the stretch ceiling is brought in and unfolded.
It is first laid out on the floor along a short wall. Raising the edge up, in several places (after about 50-60 cm) they are fixed by simply inserting it into the profile. They try to start the edge evenly so that there are no distortions.
Pulling the canvas away from the wall (step 2 in the photo), they are tucked into the side profiles alternately: either on one side or on the other. Lastly, the second short side is fixed. It turns out a ceiling with sagging, but more or less evenly spread (step 3).
The next step – the fabric is finally straightened and tucked into the profile with a special spatula. If the perimeter of the room has good geometry, you can focus on the remainder: it should be the same length. But even with careful alignment, small creases remain near the baguette. They are straightened by heating – with a building hair dryer, but at medium temperatures. After everything is aligned, the excess fabric is cut off.
Profile types
As already mentioned, the fabric stretch ceiling is fixed in with the help of glazing beads or a wedge-shaped system. The cross section of the baguette is very similar to those used for film.
There is another system – clip-on, developed by the manufacturer of fabric ceilings Clipso. It is much more convenient to install, but also more expensive.
Photos of some interesting options
There are so many variations and design options for stretch ceilings that you can easily make a unique development. The material is plastic, combined with almost all materials. Even with those that do not seem to fit in texture, like wood, for example. But that’s just how it seems. A few photo examples of stretch ceilings in a wooden house are given below. As you can see everything fits together well.
This, perhaps, is the technology that allows you to realize really any fantasy. If you want gold on the ceiling – easily, you need velvet – no problem, photo – choose which one. The number of levels and their shape is limited only by imagination.