Couple of Questions about Installing Drop Ceiling Grid

fiveomar

1) Where the grid pieces hit the wall brackets, should I bend back the interlocking tabs?

2) To attach the grid pieces to the wall brackets, every tutorial mentions riveting them together. I bought a hand riveter but this seems cumbersome and time consuming as I have to drill holes (I don't have a grid punch). Also, rivets seem permanent, so if I make a mistake there's no going back. Is there an easier way to securely attach the grid to the wall brackets?

As you can tell, this is my first time doing this. Thanks!

Hardway

I have a grid punch to make holes in wall rails. I did not bend any tabs.
I just looked up in two rooms, I did not use any rivets.
The panels will hold the grid rails in place.
I used one rivet in an outside corner of the Chimney!

Maintenance 6

First you need to decide which direction your main tees are going to run and then cut them so that they are centered in the wall angles. Your cross tee locations will determine how much to cut off of each end in order to be centered. Depending on the size of the room, you may want a main tee in the center or a tile in the center. Best thing is to draw this ceiling on paper and decide where cross tees and mains should fall before you cut. Some areas require attaching tees to wall angles for siesmic reasons. After you have the ceiling grid in place and most of the tiles dropped in, you can go back and make those attachments.
If you've cut your lengths correctly, the tees should not fall out of the wall angles after the tiles are dropped in. Any lights that you drop into the grid need to be suspended from their own tie wires.

danpik

I rarely rivet the tracks at the walls. When I do though, I do it after I have all of the field tiles in place and the grid all squared up. Then I will rivet one or two along each wall. I rarely do this though.

fiveomar

Thanks, good info!

brucem609

I generally use pop rivets and only rivet in the mains. This wa you will always have a secure position. But once again ONLY afterimage the panels in

coupe

I have done thousands of square feet of drop ceilings. including, 7 super walmart stores, 12 W.L. Gore plants, 27 floors of Hyatt Regency hotel in Nashville,Tn., 6 Big K-marts, and 5- 3 story Kohl stores. I don't like the looks of rivets, do have a Whitney punch.

I prefer, to use lighter gauge tie wire to hold grid in place. I like my grid cut no more than 1/4" from walls on both sides and ends, allows for expansion/contraction. I find grid, laying on edge of wall channel, the weight if tile will turn channel downward showing gaps in framing. I use fence staples driven above ceiling height, and 27 gauge wire to tie the ends of mains tight at straight using a laser. strings will keep straight but sag for level.

as for cutting off the tabs, I've never ran into that. or simply changed layout to prevent it from happening.

good luck

__________________
as always, just my thoughts
good luck....coupe/Larry
take what helps? ignore the rest.