Cuisines Zecchinon: the first hours on site

Everything is decided before anything shows

The first day of a heating ceiling job produces no spectacular image. It produces a survey, a setting out plan and a layout, that is, the three documents on which the whole of the final result depends.

Surveying the substrate

The height is measured at several points, existing services are located and obstacles noted. A flatness variation of three centimetres is no problem for a stretched fabric, but it must be known before the rail goes up.

Setting out the rail

It fixes the final height of the finished ceiling. It is the most irreversible decision of the job, and it is taken taking account of the joinery, the shutter boxes and the clear height the client has asked for.

Setting out the heated zones

It divides the area into separately supplied zones and positions the elements relative to the light fittings and the openings. That drawing serves during the works, then in use, and it is kept after handover.

Preparing the plenum

The reflective insulation is fitted and closed before any heating element. That order is not negotiable: an incomplete air gap shows on the bill for the whole life of the building, and can no longer be corrected.

What this first day avoids

Rework. A well set out job calls for no improvised decision later, which explains why the following stages go quickly while this one seems slow.

The rest of the job is told on the second page, and the general technique on the fitting page.