Laying Ceiling Tiles: As you know, it can be a modern stretch ceiling, aluminum panel or slat ceiling, and the ceiling can also be whitewashed or painted with a special paint. But, each of these methods is quite laborious and requires certain skills to perform this type of finishing work. It is difficult for a beginner to take and make a stretch ceiling with his own hands. The same can be said of the ceiling made with plastic panels or with moldings.
Even bleaching and painting without some skill can give a not entirely high-quality result. The ceiling can turn out to be stained, stained, uneven colored areas. Yes, and a lot of dirt is formed in the process and after such work.
But there is a way to decorate the ceiling, which is available even to an absolute beginner who has never been involved in renovation and decoration before. This method: glue the ceiling in the bathroom with foam tiles.
Let’s take a closer look in this article on this option for decorating the ceiling in the bathroom.
How to choose a ceiling tiles for a bathroom?
Modern industry produces a large variety of foam tiles that can be combined with any style of bathroom: rural, Provencal, modern, high-tech. You can find foam tiles for sale with a smooth surface and a raised textured surface. The tiles can be colorless (white) or painted in light shades of different colors: pink, beige, cream, greenish, light blue, etc. The variety of options is nothing less than plastic tiles for wall decoration.
The tile itself, depending on the manufacturing method, may have a different density. If you pay attention in the store, some tiles are quite soft to the touch, they bend easily. These mosaics have the lowest cost. They are manufactured by stamping from solid pieces of expanded polystyrene.
Patterned tiles have low strength, break easily, the porous structure can help absorb moisture, dust adheres well, and collects as unsightly dark bumps on the ceiling. Other tiles are more like light plastic products: they have remarkable strength, in terms of weight and density, they look like light wood or plastic. These are extruded polystyrene foam products.
Such tiles are made by forcing high pressure Styrofoam through a gap. As a result, the material acquires high density and strength. Extruded foam ceiling tiles have the most attractive appearance and the longest service life.
How to calculate how many tiles you need on the ceiling?
Before heading to the store for tiles, you need to determine how many tiles you need.
To do this, it is enough to know the size of the room. So, for example, if it is necessary to glue the ceiling in a room measuring 3 m by 3.5 m, the counting can be done in the following ways.
Draw a rectangle proportional to the size of the room on a scaled sheet of paper (for example, 30×35 cm).
Knowing that the size of the tile is 50 cm, draw the image of the ceiling with squares that represent the tiles to scale (in our example, these will be 5×5 cm squares). And after that, calculate how many squares you get, depending on the design.
The design can be staggered, offset, diagonal, or even in rows. The number of tiles that will be cut out will depend on the design you choose. Usually most cuttings are obtained when stacked diagonally and less when stacked in straight rows.
In our case, exactly 6 tiles will fit on the 3 meter side and 7 tiles on the 3.5 meter side. Then, multiplying 6 x 7, we get 42 tiles in total.
If you do not want to paint the tiles on paper, you can count their number based on the area of the ceiling. In our example, it will be 10.5 square meters. To cover this area with tiles, you will need 10.5: 0.25 = 42 tiles (the area of a tile is 0.25 square meters). You can also quickly calculate the number of plates using the Tiles calculator.
Preparation of the ceiling for gluing tiles.
Preparing the ceiling for gluing the ceiling tiles (photo) Before proceeding directly to gluing the tiles, you need to prepare the ceiling. As a general rule of thumb, preparing the ceiling for gluing foam tile comes down to cleaning it of lime, debris, cobwebs, and dust.
If there are very noticeable irregularities in the ceiling, it is better to pre-level such a ceiling with putty, and only after that proceed to gluing. Immediately before gluing the ceiling tiles, it is advisable to treat the ceiling with a deep penetration primer to improve the adhesion (adhesion) of the adhesive to the ceiling.
How to glue foam tiles to the ceiling?
Polyfoam is afraid of any solvent-based glue, it just melts. If you drop a drop of Moment glue on the Styrofoam, you will see the drop burn a hole in the Styrofoam.
The best way to glue foam ceiling panels is to use “liquid nails,” a clear glue that can be found at any hardware store.
Henkel’s “Moment – Montage” glue, “Titan Wild” and “Eco-set” differ in good quality.
They have approximately the same adhesive power and setting speed of the glue. At the same time, “Moment – Montage” can be bought in special tubes and used with a pistol, which can also be convenient. Also, “Moment – Montage” sets a little faster than “Titan” or “Eco-Set”, but it costs a little more and its consumption is slightly higher.
How to properly glue the tiles to the ceiling?
Many people ask the question: where to start gluing the ceiling tiles? There is no definitive answer here. Depending on the design and the need for trimming, the tiles can be glued both from the center of the room and from any wall or corner.
- Having marked the ceiling, you can proceed directly to gluing the foam tiles.
- The glue is applied to the back of the tile along the perimeter and diagonally across.
- The tile with the applied glue is pressed against the ceiling and fixed for a few seconds.
- While the glue hasn’t set yet, the tile can be moved around a bit if necessary.
- Excess glue is carefully removed with a cloth.
- After that, move on to the next tile.
- After gluing the ceiling, you need to carefully examine all the seams, and if it turns out that somewhere you have a gap, you can immediately put it on.