Installing a radiant stretch ceiling, part one

What gets decided before anything is drilled

The survey sets the final height, the position of the downlights, where the supply points go and which way the lengths run. Those four decisions are irreversible once the profiles are fixed, and they govern everything that follows.

The awkward points to identify

A beam, a service duct, a shutter box, an access hatch, a smoke detector. Each one calls for an adaptation of the layout. Discovering them during fitting costs a day; spotting them at the survey costs nothing.

Fixing the profiles

The perimeter profiles take the tension of the fabric, which is far from negligible. Their fixing therefore depends on the nature of the wall, and a plasterboard wall on a framework is not treated like stone or concrete.

The question of height

This is the moment when the five centimetres of the system are weighed against the height you want to keep. Under 2.40 m the trade-off is discussed room by room, and it is better done with a pencil than once the profiles are screwed on.

What follows is on part two, about the insulation and the heating films, and the overview on the installation page.

The record that will matter in ten years

During the survey, every supply point, every circuit and every awkward point is marked on the drawing. That document outlives the job. It stops a tradesperson, years later, drilling blind through a fabric with live cables behind it. It is also what allows one element to be replaced without opening the whole ceiling.