The box of plasterboard on the ceiling with their own hands

19-01-2018

Useful

When carrying out repairs, there is always the choice of finishing the ceiling. High requirements for the aesthetics of the room do not allow open pipes, ventilation and other communications. You can hide any wires and highways by mounting a drywall box. This design looks impressive on the ceiling in any room: kitchen, hallway, living room, bedroom. The finished design looks like a two-level ceiling, but its installation will be cheaper. The shape of the box is selected in accordance with the overall interior of the room, spotlights will be its organic addition.

In this article we will explain how to make a box of drywall yourself, consider the various options, as well as show photos and video instructions.

The advantages of finishing

Drywall is a safe and environmentally friendly material, its use is safe for health.
The design allows you to create any geometric shape and is an important element of the ceiling decoration.
Ability to embed additional lighting.
Ease of processing and installation.
High degree of fire safety.

Types of drywall

Drywall is a building material, based on the hardened layer of gypsum with filler. Both sides of the sheet are covered with paper, which serves to protect the inside and ensures the stretching of the material during operation. Versatile and inexpensive material is widespread. Depending on the purpose, it is divided into moisture resistant, material designed for normal humidity, and fire resistant. Cellulose-reinforced gypsum-fiber sheet has excellent strength characteristics.

Materials required for installation

The basis for the installation of the ceiling box is a frame made of a metal profile, it will require:

guide profile UD;
CD carrying profile;
brackets and crab connectors;
fixing materials (screws, dowels);
sheets of drywall with a thickness of 12 mm, corresponding to the level of humidity in the room;
primer;
gypsum plaster;
mesh for seams.

When choosing a material, it is necessary to pay attention to its quality: sheets of drywall should not have chips, galvanized surface profiles should be uniform. The rigidity of the metal frame ensures the safety of the whole structure, it is better to purchase material from well-known manufacturers. Fasteners and profiles must be of the same brand.

Before installing the box, you must complete a drawing that will allow you to calculate the amount of material needed.

Until sheeting sheets stored only in a horizontal position.

Rules for installing the box

The ceiling, on which the plasterboard structure is installed, must be level, for this preparatory work is carried out.
The reliability of the design is guaranteed only by an aluminum profile, manufactured at the factory. Only high-quality material can withstand the load and provides installation of a structure of any shape.
If the frame guides pass near hot pipes, then it is necessary to increase the distance between them, otherwise the heating will cause metal expansion and deterioration of the box shape.
Before the beginning of the cladding on the sheet marking is applied.
After fixing the sheets, puttying and painting the surface of the structure is performed.

The device box will require to prepare various tools for the work:

Measuring devices: measuring tape, plumb, level.
Scissors for metal.
Perforator.
Screwdriver.
Spatulas.
Hammer.
Construction knife.

Stages of work

Before you assemble the box on the ceiling, it is necessary to conduct a markup. The lines are drawn in pencil, the parallelism of the markup is controlled by a bubble or laser level. Lines for subsequent mounting guides are drawn on the walls and ceiling. Pipes that will hide the box, you need to properly primed and painted, after mounting the design they will be difficult to access.
For convenience, you can expand the profiles for the frame on the floor and move the markup to the ceiling. Along the fastening lines, the holes for the dowels are made using a perforator.
The rails forming the top of the box are fixed to the ceiling.
Suspensions for fasteners are made independently, the guide profile is cut into segments of the desired length.
Along the perimeter screw guide UD-profile. It forms the plane of the structure, the shape of the box depends on the accuracy of the horizontal level when it is fixed. Fixing galvanized strips occurs with screws. The mounting pitch should be from 30 to 60 cm, it depends on the weight of the structure. If there are holes in the starting profile, this will facilitate installation.
Suspensions are attached to the ceiling. They are easily cut with scissors along the length of the box. A self-supporting CD profile is attached to their lower part with screws. The main load of the structure falls on this element, because drywall sheets are screwed to it. All parts must be in the same plane, any bends are not allowed.
It is necessary to prepare the wiring for spotlights, marking the place of their installation. The wires are fixed in order not to damage them upon further installation of the box.
At last, the transverse parts are screwed, they are mounted perpendicular to the wall with a step of 60 cm. The frame is ready, you can sew it with sheets.

Box trim

Before fixing the sheathing fit insulation, if provided. Sheets of drywall are cut to the size of the box. The joints of two adjacent sheets should be placed on the same CD-profile. Initially, the lower part of the structure is sewn up, and then the side one.

The material is fixed by self-tapping screws, the heads of which are embedded by 1–2 mm to facilitate the putty.

In places of installation of lamps round holes are cut out.

Finish

Plasterboard finishing work begins with priming the entire surface. After drying comes the turn of the starting putty. Putting the putty is a responsible and complicated procedure, improper finishing will spoil the overall impression of the appearance of the structure. For quality work, professional masters use two spatulas - working and auxiliary; it is worth considering their experience and making a wide and narrow spatula. The auxiliary tool is applied a layer of putty, and the main leveling.

The corners of the structure are made out of a metal angle, fixed on the starting putty. It is necessary to press the element to ensure a snug fit to the box. After removing the corners, the connecting seams are glued with a grid and filled with a putty. When the finish of the joint is dry, the entire surface of the duct will be puttyed. This procedure occurs more than once, each layer gradually removes all irregularities. The finishing layer is very thin. Another secret is the use of starting and finishing putty from one manufacturer, this guarantees the compatibility of materials. Dried putty requires grinding the surface. To do this, first use a large, and then fine sandpaper.

Installation box with backlight

Assembling the box is the same way as described above. But there are some details that should be considered. It is necessary to make racks-suspensions of the ceiling profile. For this purpose, the profile should be cut, the size equal to the height of the box. On one side, make cuts along the folds, 40–50 mm high, and fold the back wall inwards. The number of such blanks should be calculated so that they are installed every 60 cm along the length of the entire box. Insert the prepared stand-suspension into the guide profile on the ceiling with an uncut side and fasten it with a self-tapping screw.

Now you need to make a blank of the ceiling profile. From it you cut the profile along the length equal to the bottom of the box. Consider the fact that the lower length will be different from the upper one, since there should be a shelf below to install the backlight. That is, the length of the section of the profile should be more than 5 cm from the length of the bottom of the box. This distance is quite enough to place the LED strip there. At one end, insert the blank into the guide profile on the wall with the shelves up and fix with screws. The other end is fastened with a rack-suspension. It is important to maintain an angle of 90 °.

The result is a box with a protruding profile. Speakers should be silenced. To do this, paste on them cut pieces of the profile corresponding to the length. This will serve as the basis for mounting the drywall strip, and the LED strip will be mounted on top.

Now you can sheathe box. In conclusion, it remains to build the backlight. To do this, you must first purchase:

220 V power supply for 12 V LED strip
LED strip, which can be the same color or change color.

Selection of tape power

To select the appropriate power supply, it is necessary to determine the power of the LED strip. To do this, measure the perimeter of the entire niche and multiply the resulting figure by the power of a meter of tape. But this is not all, since such nuances should be taken into account:

It is not recommended to connect the tape to the power supply unit in series, as the next section of the tape will shine less.
If the power of the unit is too large, then this greatly affects its size. Therefore, when arranging the frame, consider this. There is another option, for example, to purchase a power supply for each piece of tape, it has small dimensions.

The tape must be glued to the made shelf. When everything is packed, you can connect it to the power supply.

Dimensions

If we talk about the size of the box, it will depend on what you want to disguise him. For example, it may be wiring, water pipes, gas pipes, ventilation duct, and so on. If the backlight is installed, the size should be sufficient so that you can install the power supply and LED strip.