High-quality repair in the room is what every owner of this room dreams of. The ceiling is what everyone pays attention to first of all, once in the room. Today we’ll talk about the Armstrong cassette ceiling and everything related to this issue. It is worth saying right away that such a ceiling is a fairly simple, stylish and modern solution. This option is suitable for various types of rooms.
The history of the appearance of this ceiling in Russia
Such ceilings came to us from Europe and the West, however, like almost everything that appears in our country for repairs and not only. In Europe and in the West they can be found strictly in office premises. Our people very successfully and quite often enter some varieties of this ceiling into living quarters.
Moreover, we note that Europe and the West do not always offer us really worthwhile materials and technologies, but in the case of this ceiling, everything is different. This is a really great option for solving many problems in different types of rooms.
Armstrong ceiling: tile dimensions
The main component of this type of ceiling is the tiles that make up the ceiling. There are many different styles of Armstrong ceiling slabs. 600x600 is the standard tile size (the size is given in millimeters). The size is standard, but it is not the only one; there are also other sizes of ceiling tiles of this type on the market (595 millimeters by 592 millimeters and 600 millimeters by 1200 millimeters). Accordingly, all components are also designed for these sizes. It is very convenient and practical.
Frame
Ceiling tiles are mounted on a special frame. During installation, the frame is first assembled. Armstrong suspended ceiling frame is a crate. Consider in more detail the options for the frame for this ceiling.
Typically, the suspension structure is fixed to a rigid frame made of wood or metal. And the frame itself is attached to the existing ceiling of the room. The frame is attached using suspensions. If the frame is fastened without suspensions directly to the ceiling of the room, then the Armstrong ceiling is sometimes called a false ceiling. Five different types of ceilings can be distinguished by the various design of the frame and its material. Let us consider them in more detail below.
Modular ceiling and its frame
Modular ceilings are some kind of construction, which is made up of separately existing modules that can have different shapes (most often there is a square shape of the ceiling tile). This is the most common and easiest option. This option was at the forefront when Armstrong ceilings were just emerging. You can meet such a ceiling everywhere today. Most often, it is found in budgetary organizations with repairs such as an economy. Under such a ceiling, a metal frame is made of special profiles.
Cassette ceiling and its frame
Sometimes it is called raster. The frame for this ceiling is made of T-shaped metal profiles, the frame forms rectangles, and ceiling modules (plates, cassettes) are laid on top of them already. The advantages of this type is the ability to clearly repeat the contours of your room (any recesses, convex parts, niches, etc.). The minus is the relatively large weight of the ceiling and a noticeable decrease in the height of the room (from 10 to 20 centimeters). This is a stylish version of the Armstrong ceiling. The thickness of the plates (cassettes) varies from 8 to 15 millimeters.
Slatted ceiling and its frame
Modules for this ceiling consist of long and relatively narrow panels (rails). They are usually made of metal or plastic. The joint of the panels between themselves occurs through curved edges. Most often there are slats for a given ceiling with a length of 3 to 4 meters (the width of the lath is equal to 10 centimeters). Pros - This is a simple easy installation on curved surfaces. Such a ceiling reduces the height of the room by 4-20 centimeters.
Slatted ceilings are extremely rare to find in living rooms, as they look too strict and not very comfortable. There are varieties that are resistant to water, fire, withstand frost. If we talk about apartments, then such a ceiling is most logical to do, for example, in the bathroom or in some unheated room at home.
Sometimes, for a variety of appearance, special profiled rails are used (“layout” - inserted between adjacent main panels, as well as between lamps).
But Armstrong plastic ceiling slabs are sometimes still found in apartment interiors. Most often, white panels are chosen for such purposes or panels that simulate the appearance of wood in their appearance. It is more correct to make a metal frame from special profiles for such a ceiling. But there are also wooden frames from bars.
Lattice ceiling and its frame
It is sometimes called the "grilyato ceiling" (from the Italian word grigliato, which translates as "grill"). This ceiling is essentially a variety of tile and cassette options. The difference lies in special cavities (cells). They are closed on their back with a background substrate. The shape of the cell openings allows a certain variety (this is not only a square, but also an oval, and even a circle).
The modules of this ceiling are assembled into a coherent metal grid. This is a relatively expensive view of the Armstrong ceiling. The sizes of the ceiling tiles (modules) are usually in the range of 5 × 5 centimeters to 20 × 20 centimeters. Most often, such a ceiling is found in offices, various shopping centers, shops, restaurants, train stations and other premises of this type. Under it, a frame is made of special metal profiles.
Continuous ceilings and their frame
This is an extremely distant version of the Armstrong ceiling. Just talk about it, we will not consider it in detail. Such a ceiling is made of drywall. It can hide the base ceiling unpleasant for the eye, hide the wiring and some engineering communications of the room underneath. Also in such a ceiling, you can integrate spot lighting elements and even create any form of ceiling space (multi-level).
The peculiarity is that it requires special hatches, which are necessary for access to communications, which remain on the base ceiling. The loss in height of a room with such a design is only six to eight centimeters. A metal frame made of special profiles is suitable for this ceiling, but there are also wooden frames made of bars.
Armstrong ceiling: calculation of material consumption
This is an important question, but not too complicated, if you delve into it. Ceiling tiles - this is not all you need to buy in order to make this type of ceiling in any room.
You will also need to purchase frame elements and fixtures, this is if you take only the basic elements. To make it clearer, we will consider the calculation of the consumption of materials on a specific example. We will consider “consumables” for the Armstrong ceiling, the tile dimensions of which will be 600x600 mm. The size of our premises will be 6x6 meters.
In one row we will need to lay ten elements of the ceiling, we will also have ten such rows, that is, we will need one hundred elements of the ceiling. But in this room (arbitrarily deciding) we will install ten lamps in the form of a standard module for this ceiling. Thus, we need ten models with lights and ninety ceiling modules.
The perimeter of the room you need to go through a special frame corner. The perimeter of our room is twenty-four meters, that's how much we need a corner.
Bearing structural elements will pass from one wall to another (opposite). They will pass between all rows of tiles. In total, we will have nine rows of a bearing profile of six meters each. Total fifty four meters of the bearing profile.
Two other opposite walls are connected to each other through a transverse profile, which is supported by a supporting profile. It follows the same pattern, that is, again we need nine rows of a transverse profile of six meters each. A total of fifty-four meters of the transverse profile.
The dowels for fixing the corner are calculated based on the rule that two dowels go out per meter of the corner. We use twenty-four meters of the corner, that is, we need forty-eight dowels.
Suspensions are needed to fix the frame structures to the existing ceiling. The number of suspensions is calculated based on the rule that for one square meter of the frame 1.2 suspensions are needed and the same number of special dowels with a half ring for attaching the suspensions to the ceiling. The area of our premises is thirty-six square meters, we multiply the area by a factor of 1.2 and get the number of dowels with half rings and suspensions equal to forty-four pieces (round up to an even number in a larger direction).
Many people prefer to always take the necessary materials with a margin, and some people buy in the store exactly the amount of materials that they need according to calculations. We can’t recommend you exactly how to act, you must make your own decision that is right for you.
To summarize
Today we examined in detail all questions about the Armstrong ceiling, tile sizes, learned all about the frame for such a ceiling, and examined all types and varieties of such a ceiling. In creating this type of decoration in any room there is nothing complicated, as it turned out.
Such a ceiling is universal for many rooms, except for this it cannot be said that this ceiling is a relatively budget option. With the installation of such a design, you can cope on your own, without resorting to the qualified help of paid specialists. To install the ceiling, a minimum of basic tools and a minimum experience with them are required. The result will live up to all your expectations. Good luck in the repair!