The ceiling of plasterboard backlit own hands

According to the location and specificity of the installation of fixtures, gypsum board ceilings are usually divided into structures with open illumination and hidden illumination. In ceilings that are of the first type, the lighting is suspended or built in by means of specially prepared holes. It is necessary to say that the skeleton and the covering of the ceiling, made of plasterboard, has a low bearing capacity. Therefore, if this method of installation is used, then the selected hanging lamps should not weigh more than ten kilograms.

LED strip As for the second type of ceilings, in this case the lighting is located inspecially made for this niches, which are located between two levels of sheets of plasterboard. At the same time, light enters the room by reflection from the surface. With the help of hidden illumination of the ceiling from gypsum board, with the right approach it is possible to create a unique cozy atmosphere. On the installation of such structures and talk in this article.

Selecting the backlight

If you want to build a ceiling from gypsum board with backlight, then, first of all, it is worth considering choosing the most suitable lamps for use as a backlight. In most cases, the choice falls on fluorescent and LED lamps. Here we will talk about LED lightings.

Backlighting with such lamps has a number of obvious advantages:

1. First of all, it's their energy efficiency, which is almost one and a half times higher than other lighting options.
2. Diode lighting of the ceiling made of gypsum board, made of LED lamps - is an economical and very practical option for any home. At the same time, such lamps allow to provide a sufficient level of illumination in the room.
3. These lamps are usually installed with a self-adhesive tape. Therefore, the ease of installation is also their undoubted advantage.

Today, there are control units that allow you to control the illumination of the ceiling from plasterboard at a distance. The photo below shows this clearly.

To date, there are several different LED lamp options available. Each of them is distinguished by a set of parameters:

1. One of these characteristics is the type of LED.For lighting the room most often used models such as SMD-3528 and SMD-5050.The latter is more powerful.
2. Quite an important parameter for the design of the room is the color of the LED lamp on the tape. Most often, single-color tapes are used, but there are also RGB-tapes that can change colors. If you want to install such designs for lighting, then you need to buy special controllers that provide sufficient brightness of the glow.
3. Another weighty characteristic of LEDs is the density of diodes. By this is understood as the number of light elements located on one meter of tape. For lighting, tapes with different density are used, for example, structures with density of 30, 60 and 120 are actively used. Moreover, if the first two are suitable for contour lighting, then the third one is not used for this purpose.
4. No less important parameter of any LED lamp is their protection from moisture. It is provided by special silicone insulation.

Stages of works on installation of ceiling lighting from gypsum board

1. To begin to establish a ceiling with illumination it is necessary from its marking.
2. Next, you need to assemble the frame. For the frame, the same metal profile is most often used, which is used for any false ceiling from gypsum board. To make the framework you need to perform the following actions:

• first you need to indent about 100 millimeters from the ceiling and spend at this distance in the mills of the room the center line. This line will run along the entire perimeter and determine the level of the future ceiling. To test the line we use the building level;
• then, on the drawn line, the start profile should be fixed;
• now need to fix the hangers, and they need to attach the frame from the main profile;
• frame is securely fastened with conventional screws and special crab connectors;
• to dry with drywall sheets.

How to install a box frame with a niche for lighting

Drywall can not be considered a durable material. Therefore, if you do not use other structural elements, then it will not be able to withstand the weight of the second tier. It is usually in it that the illumination is mounted.

For this reason, the frame of the second tier of the ceiling is usually fastened through the plasterboard to the top-level guides. To achieve this, such fastenings should be located in the same place where there will be a guide in the future, which forms a box with illumination. Two guides running across the longitudinal profiles of the main ceiling are usually fixed without problems at a distance of 400 millimeters from each other. The situation is different with the process of fastening the other two guides, especially if they do not have a longitudinal profile above them. Such constructions are very unstable. Therefore, it is necessary to lay this profile specially when the main frame is being installed. Sometimes it is necessary to design a second level, based on the existing design.

Not a problem if the mortgage was forgotten. After all, the longitudinal profiles are usually located quite close to each other, and this makes it possible to choose any of them to use it as a base.

The installation process consists of the following steps:

1. Make an indent from the main ceiling to the height of the box, which will be laid later. And at this distance, place the tags.
2. Then connect these labels with a horizontal line.
3. Next on the perimeter it is necessary to perform the marking, while retreating from the walls of the room at the required distance. As a result, the lines connected together should form a figure in the form of a regular rectangle. If you know that the walls in your room are perfectly flat, and the corners are only straight( strictly 90 degrees), then you can do not equal the entire perimeter of the distance from the walls. Otherwise, the markings should be drawn using a square.
4. We now turn to the process of mounting the suspended structure with illumination. It is best to start with fixing the guide profile on the previously marked out markup. The profiles fixed to the ceiling should be placed downward, and the structures on the walls are directed towards the parallel( opposite) wall. Guides on the ceiling must be screwed into the profile of the main frame.
5. Next, you need to create a rack-suspension structure from the ceiling profile. For this purpose, cut the material into small pieces. In height, they should be equal to the size of the box. On the one hand, you need to make small incisions on the folds, and then bend the back wall inward. To calculate the amount of material, be sure to keep in mind that the suspensions will need to be fastened approximately in increments of 500-600 millimeters.
6. Then you should insert the previously prepared rack-suspensions, which were previously prepared, in the guiding profile. After that, screw them with screws for metal.
   Next you need to make blanks from the profile. For this, it is cut into pieces equal to the length of the lower part of the box structure.
7. It is important that their size is different from the distance between the wall and the ceiling profile installed on the ceiling. The fact is that on the lower plane of the box for attaching the LED ceiling light from the gypsum board, you need a shelf. Thus, the length of the profile must be greater than the specified distance, at least 50 millimeters. This should be enough to accommodate small lamps or LED strips.
8. Then the resulting blanks are placed at one end in the guide profile located on the wall. Then fix it with screws.
9. The second end of the workpiece should be secured at an angle of 90 degrees with the suspension stand.
   As a result, you will get some framework with protruding profiles. Now the projecting parts of the material must be muffled. To do this, cut from the ceiling profile pieces of the desired length and then insert them inside. These segments will play the role of the basis for fixing gipsokartonnyh strips, forming a shelf, intended for installation of ceiling lighting.
10. Next protruding ends of the frame must be closed. To do this, fix the guiding profile along the perimeter to these ends, and then screw it with the usual screws. The preparation of the frame is completed.

How to trim the frame

1. The cladding works of the box are not difficult to perform. The most important thing here is to cut the drywall and in the right order to do the necessary work. The material should be cut using a hacksaw. Thanks to this, the gypsum board ceilings with illumination will look more neat.
2. After that, you need to process the edges of the plane and cut off excess paper from them.
3. Before starting the lining work, be sure to provide all the electrical wiring necessary in the future for lighting.
4. First, it is necessary to screw the strip to the shelf of the niche. If it turned out that the distance between the first level and the distance is too small, then the screws can be screwed in using the corner bit.
5. After this, it is necessary to carry out the lining of the vertical part of the box. For this purpose, it is necessary to attach the drywall to the suspension hangers, and then to the ceiling guide. It is important that the joints of the attached strips fall on the racks.
6. Next, proceed to the lining of the horizontal part of the box.
   Then screw the flange to the end of the structure. Due to this, the flap will not be visible illumination, which in the future will be located on the shelf of the niche. It is important that the distance between the upper edge of this edge and the main ceiling is not less than 50 millimeters. To strengthen the upper edge, you must wear a U-shaped profile on it before starting work.
7. The backlight setting is almost complete. It remains to install the lighting elements. This will require an LED strip. Today they are offered in different capacities. More tapes can be monophonic or change colors. It also requires a 12-volt power supply. When the type of LED strip is selected, it is necessary to calculate the power required for it. For this purpose, measure the perimeter of the niche that was prepared for the installation of the future illumination. Then calculate the product of this value and the power of one running meter of the tape.

Important nuances:

1. LED strips can not be connected to the power supply in series. Otherwise, each subsequent tape will not shine as brightly as the previous one.
2. In addition, you need to know that the higher the power rating of the power supply, the more it is larger in size. This should be taken into account in the manufacture of the rim, which is necessary to hide the illumination. Alternatively, you can purchase a separate power supply for each tape.

Installation and subsequent connection of LED strip

1. Such tapes are usually offered in building stores in the form of five-meter bobbins. On the back of each of them an adhesive substrate is applied, allowing it to be installed on the surface of any orientation - both horizontal and vertical. Therefore, when working on gipsokartonnymi structures, in order to attach a diode illumination, you can use a shelf in the niche or the inner wall-edge.
2. When connecting the tape directly to the power supply unit, it is important to use the correct circuit.
3. For the second tape, the wires must be laid in a recess parallel to the tape that was laid first.
4. The power supply unit should be installed in the gypsum cardboard niche in the place where the wires were previously removed. Then it can be connected to the network. This will be the last stage of the ceiling installation with illumination.