Clever hidden-but-accessible ceilings?

[puntloos]

Especially with "Smart Homes", there are a bunch of things I'd prefer to be IN the ceiling rather than ON the ceiling.

 

Air quality detectors, Wifi access points, motion detectors, temperature and so on. I'd prefer them to be hidden for obvious reasons (maybe not always a great idea, can't have an air sensor be enclosed in a ceiling, but you get the idea)

 

But, if they break... what do - redo the entire ceiling? Not ok, I'm afraid. 

 

Instead, of course 'office ceilings' could work but are ugly

 

Are there non-ugly office ceilings?

 

[nod]

I do a lot of these Grid ceilings 

Mainly commercial 

[puntloos]

5 minutes ago, nod said:

I do a lot of these Grid ceilings 

Mainly commercial 

 

Yup, I don't think residential owners will accept them. Even though objectively they might look 'okay' people associate them too much with stark offices so I don't think I would want this. 

If instead there is some elegant near-seamless solution that does roughly the same thing, we can talk

[ProDave]

When I laid our floor boards upstairs, I left a strip at each end that should be easy to lift, tongues cut off etc and screwed down.  So in theory i can thread a new cable along from one end of the room to another, so if I wanted a new light fitting I should be able to pull a cable through to it etc.

 

What more access do you want?

[puntloos]

17 minutes ago, ProDave said:

When I laid our floor boards upstairs, I left a strip at each end that should be easy to lift, tongues cut off etc and screwed down.  So in theory i can thread a new cable along from one end of the room to another, so if I wanted a new light fitting I should be able to pull a cable through to it etc.

 

What more access do you want?

 

Doesn't work with non-wood-floors  - although I was indeed considering leaving some gaps in the concrete..

[joth]

Where possible hide the stuff in the ceilings in more utility like areas (cloakrooms, utility rooms, back corridors etc) and use oversized light fittings in those areas

https://www.ledkia.com/uk/buy-placas-downlight-led/400-round-24w-ultraslim-led-panel.html

https://www.wholesaleledlights.co.uk/600x600-40w-led-panel-light.html

 

If you need to access the stuff in the ceilings there, you can pull the light out and get good access. I've already found the ones in our utility room useful for this on a number of occasions.

 

As a variation, I've nominally thought to retrofit panels like that, or basic access panels, in any locations we do have to do future maintenance in, rather than re-plasterboard the entire ceiling.

 

Warning: those cheap panel LED lights are not safe to connection/disconnection while powered up (at least, mine weren't). I had a pack of 10 of them, and my contractor blew up 7 before realising the issue. (The constant current drivers were over capable, and whack out a really high voltage when disconnected that fries the panel on contact)

 

In fancier areas, I reckon something can be done with dropped coffer/pelmets concealing some access, but we didn't manage to work that in. 

 

Ceiling and wall speakers can also provide improvised access hatches. (Nominally my stud wall installed subwoofer doubles as access to the main bathroom soil stack, but I'd have to bust through the back box of the speaker to do that so reluctant to, but would in a pinch. It was only a cheap sub, so it'd double up as an upgrade opportunity)