How to make ceilings from plastic panels with your own hands: instructions, recommendations and installation features

Today, there are many methods for finishing ceilings in residential and public buildings. This is a classic whitewash, and gluing this surface with wallpaper, and stretch and pendant structures, including multi-level ones. Suspended ceilings can be rack and pinion (metal and PVC), plasterboard, plastic panels, tiled (like Armstrong), cassette.

Each of these types of ceiling structures, of course, has its merits. If you want to choose the most budgetary, but practical and having a certain aesthetic merits option, you can stop on the suspended ceiling of plastic panels. Such constructions are especially popular in bathrooms, kitchens, vestibules, loggias, garages. On how to make ceilings from plastic panels, and will be discussed in the article.

Features of PVC panels

Decorative PVC panels are a hollow structure, arranged in the honeycomb type, with a large number of stiffeners and, accordingly, air cells inside. Plates are equipped with locks along the edges, which are on one side a comb, and on the other a groove. Thanks to such a device, you can easily and qualitatively join them together.

The main advantage of this material is moisture resistance. In addition, plastic panels are hygienic, since they do not contain pores on the surface, and therefore they can not be cured by mold or fungus. Mistresses very much appreciate how easy and easy it is to care for this material: it is enough to wipe them occasionally with a rag soaked in soapy water. That's why making a ceiling in the kitchen with plastic panels is a very attractive option.

Manufacturers guarantee the service life of plastic panels for at least 10 years. In fact, if everything is done correctly, the ceilings will last much longer without losing quality. Plastic frost-resistant, able to withstand significant temperature changes, is not prone to rot, it is not afraid of pests.

Advantages of PVC ceiling

If it's time to update the repair in the apartment, but you want to do little money and effort, do not plant a lot of dirt, you should think about how to make a false ceiling from plastic panels, because the installation process is quite simple and does not require any special tricks. In the process of operation, if there is such a need, it will be possible to easily replace one or more panels with new ones.

Another advantage is the wide choice of panel colors. They can be matte or glossy, with a pattern or monophonic, to imitate natural materials: metal, stone, wood and even a mirror. There are plastic panels for both the ceiling and the wall. Confusing them is not necessary: the latter are more stiff and weighing, so piling them on the ceiling is not recommended.

Plastic panels - finishing material, which has a very democratic value. Plus, you can save on the repair team: the material is light in both processing and weight, and the idea of how to make a ceiling from plastic panels is very real in execution. If you make the construction hinged, then the resulting gap can be fully used to hide communications, the arrangement of additional noise and heat insulation, spotlights. In addition, in apartment buildings there are such significant defects in ceilings - cracks, cracks, level differences - that than trying to level this disgrace, it's better to think seriously about how to make ceilings from plastic panels.

Environmental safety of the material

Plastic, of course, the material is not natural, but it is considered absolutely safe for humans. Indeed, PVC has found a very wide application in everyday life, industry, medicine. Nevertheless, making a ceiling in a room with plastic panels is not the best idea, especially if it's a bedroom. The advantages of this material will be more appropriate in other rooms. For example, you can make the ceiling in the toilet plastic panels. If you choose glossy light models for this, it is able to visually expand the dimensions of the bathroom.

The drawbacks of ceilings from plastic panels

Before seriously thinking about how to make ceilings from plastic panels in an apartment, you need to have an idea not only about the merits, but also about certain shortcomings of this material.

Plastic combustion does not support and damps, but at the same time it smokes and emits toxic substances. It is not for nothing that in public and administrative buildings and premises it is forbidden to finish with it the ways of evacuation in case of fire. Plastic panels - the material is brittle enough, it is easily damaged by impact loads. In principle, such an effect does not threaten the ceiling, but one should bear this in mind during transportation and installation.

Another drawback of finishing the ceilings with decorative plastic panels is that you can not build an original design from this material, but it looks rather simple. However, if you carefully plan your design and combine various materials in the process of repair, you will not be ashamed for the result.

The joints between the panels will always be visible, even with the most accurate installation. But sometimes it is even welcomed: for example, if you use material that simulates wood. Economical models of plastic panels have the property of fading over time, so it's better to choose a better material.

How to make a hanging ceiling from plastic panels: preparatory works

In fact, no special preparatory work is required. It is enough to brush off the ceiling dust and cobwebs, clean out those places where the plaster flakes off. You can zashpatlevat the deepest cracks. But there is no need to be particularly zealous: a new ceiling will cover all the defects.

What is really important is to make sure that there is no mold and fungus, and to primethe surface with special antiseptic compounds that prevent their occurrence. For convenience, it is necessary to maximally free the room from furniture, remove the cornices with curtains, remove the carpets. However, there will be no special dust.

Purchase of ceiling panels

Before you figure out all the nuances of how to properly make a ceiling from plastic panels, and translate this knowledge into practice, you need to calculate the amount of materials for the future ceiling. Knowing the values of the areas of the room and one plastic panel (this value is indicated on the package), it is not difficult to calculate the number of plates by dividing the first number by the second and rounding the resulting value to a larger side. It is unreasonable to purchase materials without a stock: after all, the panels will have to be cut off, or a marriage will occur, or something may not work out the first time - so it is better to provide such moments. Typically, standard plastic panels have a width of 24 cm, and a length of 3 m, but other options are possible.

When choosing PVC ceiling panels, you need to pay attention to their quality. The edges should be even, without chips, burrs, and the pattern - applied evenly. A quality panel can withstand repeated bending at the same place without cracking. The stiffeners should not be visible on the front side of the panel. Be sure to check how easy and fit together between the two plastic bars and whether there is still a gap between them.

Materials for carcasses

In addition to the actual PVC panels, the ceiling will need metal profiles or wooden beams. Of these materials, it will be necessary to build a crate, to which the panels for the ceiling will be mounted . Profiles or beams are fastened both along the perimeter of the room and parallel to one of the walls in steps of 50-60 cm. If you decide to arrange the panels perpendicular to the window opening so that the joints are not visible, then, therefore, the ceiling strips must be fastened along the wall with the window .

The number of the guide profile is easy to calculate: this value will be equal to the perimeter of the room. With ceiling slats is more difficult. It will be necessary to draw a diagram of the room on a scale, on which to draw the necessary number of parallel lines denoting the skeleton for the ceiling slabs, and make careful calculations.

You will also need a decorative PVC baguette (demountable or monolithic): with its help you can close the joints of surfaces. In addition, the grooves of this plinth are filled with the ends of the ceiling panels.

Fasteners and tools

For fixing the frame and plastic ceiling slabs, dowels and screws will be needed, the number of which is calculated taking into account that for every half meter of the profile or panel one fixing element is needed. Ceiling laths are fixed by means of straight hangers, located on average 70 cm apart, and this will also require dowels.

Now about the instrument. It is necessary to have: a drill, a perforator, a screwdriver, a hacksaw for metal, a building level, a tape measure, a ruler, a pencil and, of course, a stepladder.

Mounting the supporting frame

It should be noted that the entire installation process can be divided into two phases: the frame structure and the actual assembly of the ceiling. First, you need to determine the size of the gap between the base and suspended ceilings. It depends on what is planned to be placed in this gap. Perhaps, these will be spotlights, and then it will take at least 10 cm. To lay the wiring, there is enough 3-5 cm.

Having determined the lowest angle of the ceiling with the help of the level, from this point you should conduct a report, after finishing the line along the perimeter of the room. This marking will be a guide for fixing the guide profile, which needs to be drilled very tightly to the wall, without cracks and voids. Bearing in mind that the ceiling frame bars (for them a less rigid profile than that fixed around the perimeter) will be located perpendicular to the plastic panels, they are installed in steps of 50-60 cm, inserting the ends into the guide profile and fixing on the suspensions every 70 See Orientation during installation can be done through a tight line across the room.

In principle, it is possible to build a supporting frame from a wooden beam, which is attached directly to the base ceiling, but only if it is not about rooms with high humidity. In any case, the wooden elements of the frame should be pretreated with an antiseptic. If we consider that the ceilings in modern apartments are often uneven, it will not be so easy to set each wooden rail strictly horizontally.

At the stage of mounting the frame, you should think about the electrician and do not forget to bring the wiring in the right places. The frame must be strengthened at the location of the lighting fixtures. Further along the perimeter of the room, a decorative PVC baguette for ceiling panels is attached to the guide profiles: entirely, if the model is monolithic, or its removable bar if the plinth is demountable. In this case, the decorative part of it is installed after the ceiling assembly.

Installation of PVC panels

When the frame is ready, begin assembling the ceiling from the wall. Preliminarily remove the protective film from the ceiling panels. The first plate is introduced into the grooves of the skirting boards - both longitudinal and transverse, after which fasten it with the help of screws to the frame. The next is set similarly, with the exception that instead of the longitudinal groove of the plinth, the fastening occurs to the adjacent panel. Each subsequent panel easily snaps into the groove of the previous one, after which it is attached to the crate by screws. The plastic panels are pre-cut in such a way that their length is 5 mm less than the corresponding size of the room. The holes for the lamps in the plates must be made in advance. If the mount is made on a wooden crate, you can use staples instead of screws, but this is not a very reliable option.

When assembling the panels, care should be taken to ensure that they are not bent too far to prevent curvature. The last panel, most likely, must first be cut to the desired width. It is not necessary to fasten it with self-tapping screws - it will be enough to fix it in the grooves of the previous panel and PVC skirting. This work with a sufficient degree of skill is carried out quickly.

There is another way of how to make ceilings from plastic panels-skeleton. In this case, the panels sit on the liquid nails directly to the ceiling. But this option requires a perfectly flat base surface, and therefore it is not always acceptable.