Drop ceilings use large, lightweight tiles that hide the structural ceiling. The main difference between other ceiling tiles and drop ceiling tiles is that drop ceiling tiles do not lie directly against the ceiling's surface. Instead, a grid system supports the tiles, sitting several inches below the structural ceiling. If you want to install drop ceiling tiles, you must first install this grid, which is comprised of metal pieces called T-bars.
Instructions
1. Mark a perimeter for the ceiling a few inches below the current ceiling. Begin in one corner and measure down 4 to 6 inches from the ceiling on both adjacent walls, depending on how low you would like the drop ceiling to be. Repeat the measurement in all four corners.
2. Snap chalk lines down each wall from the mark at one end of the wall to the mark at the other end. This leaves a level line around the walls.
3. Go along the line you made around the room with a stud finder and find each stud. Mark each one by the chalk line so all are easy to find during the installation process.
4. Install wall angles along the lines you made. Secure the angles, driving screws through the screw holes into the studs.
5. Locate all the joists above the surface of the ceiling with the stud finder. Mark the joists and then start at the mark for the first joist on one side of the room and measure 4 feet across the room. Mark the 4-foot distance, which should fall on a joist, then continue measuring every 4 feet and marking it on the ceiling. Go to the opposite end of the room and repeat the 4-foot measurements.
6. Measure 4-foot intervals perpendicular down the ceiling, and repeat on the opposite walls. Snap chalk lines between the 4-foot marks on opposite walls to create a grid with 4-foot sections on the ceiling.
7. Twist an eye hook into a ceiling joist at each point on the grid. Once the eye hooks are in place, push wire through all the hooks that line up from one side of the room to the other. Do this in both directions across the room and you end up with a wire grid exactly like the ceiling grid.
8. Rest the end of a T-bar into the angle at the wall to support it and line the T-bar up with the lines on the ceiling grid. Anywhere that a pre-drilled hole exists in the T-bar, wrap a piece of wire around the wires running across the ceiling and wind it through the hole in the T-bar to secure the T-bar to the ceiling. Use pliers to tighten the wire connections.
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