Suspended Ceilings

[Philipfry]

Anyone know if it is possible to obtain suspended ceilings in kit form in France - they are available in England. We did inquire in Mr Bricolage, but no joy.

We want it to renovate a grenier.

Philip Fry (56)

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Ho

I'm probably being dense, but can you describe what you mean by a suspended ceiling exactly.

Here, the usual manufacturers sell fittings with will fix to beams or concrete ceiling supports and allow you to fix metal rails to which you screw plasterboard in the usual way, at anything up to about 30 cms from the existing beams. If you need to come down further, it's probably best to fit new celing joists across. If I am misunderstanding your question, perhaps you'd like to come back again.

[Punch]

[quote]Anyone know if it is possible to obtain suspended ceilings in kit form in France - they are available in England. We did inquire in Mr Bricolage, but no joy.We want it to renovate a grenier.Philip Fry...[/quote]

If you mean suspended ceilings with metal grid, trim and "lay in" tiles  of the sort you see in shops offices and such like? Yes they are available, but not in your average DIY outlet. Last year we purchased materials to do a small ceiling for a school dormitory. The materials came from the proffessional builders merchant called "Pinault" ( now called "Reseau PRO"). I would imagine that Point P also can order them.

Paul

[Philipfry]

>I'm probably being dense, but can you describe what you mean by a suspended ceiling exactly.

No, obviously my fault. Thinking about it, "suspended" ought to have been replaced by "false".We are trying to close in the upper floor of our cottage - called a "grenier" in France I understand. At the moment it has just a void between the floor and the roof. Closing this off would create an extra storey, also of course help with insulation.

Thanks Paul and Ian for taking the trouble to reply, we will investigate your suggestions.

Philip.

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi again

Yup, having converted two greniers into habitable areas, I think I have a fair idea of what they are. (I'm winding you up gently!).

Will you want to be able to walk on the new floor area?

If so you will need to be sure your existing roof rafters are solid enough to take the weight. (They usually are).

I'm assuming that your existing upper area is a little like an inverted V and you want to create something like an A, blocking off the top of the roof space with a horizontal ceiling.

When we did this, we bought timber roughly 8 cms by 16cms, long enough to stretch across the roof space at the height required. Two per roof rafter. These we clamped in position, one on each side of the rafters, and drilled through (3 off 12mm holes) before through bolting with 10mm bolts. Without being manic about it, we did our best to make sure that the horizontal timbers were pretty well at the same height, which allowed us to put a light duty floor there.

Anyway, with the beams in position, you can then use standard french hangers for steel rails. Make sure they're spaced at exactly 60 cms so that 120 cm sheets of plasterboard fit nicely, and that the corners are perfectly aligned and co-planar, to eliminate twists in your ceiling. We used a water level for the 4 corner hangers and then stringed (highly tensioned) between for alignment. Once all the hangers are up, you can you can insulate, put up rails and steel cornices around the walls and then screw plaster board into position. That's how we did it anyway. Worked fine.


Good luck.