Stretch ceilings in Batumi: profiles, mountings and hatches

What a stretch ceiling is made of

A stretch ceiling has three parts: a wall profile around the perimeter of the room, the membrane, and the mountings that will later carry the lights. The membrane is made of PVC film or impregnated fabric. PVC film is heated during installation and, as it cools, tightens in the profile by itself. Fabric is fitted without heating. How film and fabric behave when water leaks from above, and where plasterboard is the better choice by the sea, we cover in our comparison of a stretch ceiling and plasterboard.

Film comes in rolls of different widths. For a wide living room the membrane is cut from a wide roll or welded from two strips. The seam is thin, but it shows in side light from the window, so on the drawing we run the seam along the light, from the window into the room.

Profiles: with an insert, shadow gap, floating

We fix the profile to the wall along a laser line, with plugs and screws into the concrete or blockwork. The stretched film constantly pulls it towards the middle of the room, so in a plasterboard partition we build in a timber batten at profile height in advance: a screw held by the board alone pulls out over time.

A standard profile leaves a gap at the wall, which is closed with a flexible insert. It is the cheapest option and forgives a slight wave in the wall. A shadow gap profile replaces the insert with an even dark gap a few millimetres wide, and the ceiling seems to stand away from the wall. A straight shadow line gives away any deviation, so we only fit a shadow gap profile to a wall that has been trued with a straightedge and painted before installation. A floating profile hides an LED strip around the perimeter. A second level with a recess for lighting or curtains is built on a plasterboard frame, and that is work for multi-level ceilings.

Mountings for lights, curtain tracks and fans

Every downlight, chandelier, track, smoke detector and extractor fan sits on its own mounting. This is a platform on adjustable hangers, screwed to the slab and set exactly at the level of the future membrane. Once the membrane is stretched, we glue a reinforcing ring onto the film above the platform and cut the opening inside it, otherwise the edge starts to tear.

Curtains are never hung from the film. Along the window, across the full width of the wall, we fix a timber batten to the slab and mount the membrane profile on it, and in the recess between the batten and the wall the curtain track is fixed straight to the slab. We take the positions of the mountings from the furniture layout, and the lighting groups and switches are decided together with the apartment lighting, always before the membrane goes up.

Air conditioning lines and hatches in the membrane

We lay the refrigerant pipes, cable and condensate drain on the slab before the profile goes in. A straight insulated run needs no servicing. Pipe joints, where a line has been extended, and drain connections are never hidden behind a closed membrane: we put an access hatch over them. Its frame hangs on hangers level with the membrane, the film is glued into a removable cover, and from below the hatch is hard to tell apart from the rest of the ceiling.

We hang the indoor unit at the distance from the future membrane that its manual requires, because the unit draws in air from above. The positions of the units and the lines are agreed at the rough stage, during air conditioner installation, and the ceiling level in a room with lines is set from the thickest of them.

How installation goes

A stretch ceiling is the last of the dusty jobs. By that day the walls are painted, the bathroom is tiled, and the floors are laid or covered. If sanding is still going on in the next room, we close the door to it: dust that settles on warm film does not go away by itself and has to be washed off later.

The profile and mountings go in first. Then the room is warmed with a heat gun, the film turns soft, and it is tucked into the profile from the corners towards the middle of each wall. The harpoon strip along the edge of the membrane snaps into the groove, and as it cools the film smooths out with no creases.

In a bathroom we fix the profile through the tiles. We give the tiler the ceiling level before the tiles are set out, so that no narrow cut row is left under the profile, and we drill the plug holes through the tiles without hammer action, otherwise a crack will run from the hole. What is done in a bathroom before the ceiling, and in what order, is set out on the page about toilet renovation.

How much stretch ceilings cost in Batumi

A stretch ceiling costs from 78 to 120 ₾ per m², and that price includes materials: the membrane, the wall profile and installation. Lights, recesses and hatches are separate lines in the estimate. A bathroom is priced per room, from 360 to 420 ₾: a small room has many corners and pipes to go round, and pricing it by the square metre does not work well.

Of the separate items, the ones added most often are a shadow gap profile, from 42 to 54 ₾ per linear metre, and downlight installation, from 30 to 42 ₾ each, not counting the light itself. The price goes up with a complicated room shape, columns and pipes the membrane has to go round, a seam in a wide room, and hatches. The final cost is set after the site measurement and once the estimate is agreed.

What we check at sign-off

We sign off the ceiling with the lights on and a torch shining along the membrane. Our signs of finished work:

• no creases or ripples in the corners, at pipes or around hatches;
• the seam is straight and runs where it is shown on the drawing;
• the shadow gap is the same width all the way round;
• the lights are in line and do not press into the film;
• the hatch cover comes off and goes back without skewing.

Before stretching, we photograph the platforms and hatch frames with a tape measure from two walls. A few years later, these photos let you find a mounting or a line joint without taking the membrane down.