Has anyone ever painted a suspended ceiling black for your HT? (1 Viewer)

[Curt Luther]

I am going to be using a suspended ceiling for my soon to be completed HT. I want to go with black but found out today that to order the grids black, it will cost an arm and leg because you can only buy it by the case and not the each. They also said that the panels are not available in black unless I am buying thousands of them!! ( Home Depot ). Has anyone had any experience with this?
Thank you for your feed back.

Curt

 

[John Avanti]

I am a painting contractor, yes you can paint the metal grids. Hire a painting contractor to spray a primer first, using a commercial sprayer. Then have him spray black flat paint 2 coats over that. good luck john avanti

 

[Jared Neumann]

Curt Home Depot and Lowes told me the same thing. Its totally not true. I have a armstrong drop ceiling with the grids and they cost the same as the white ones at Home Depot. Here is what I did. Go to the Armstrong web site and get there customer service number, ask them for a distributer in your area and call them directly. If you have any problems feel free to email me for some more info.

By all means you do not have to go through the trouble of painting grids and tiles.

If you want take a look at my ceiling tiles, the are Armstrong factory black

MY THEATER

Jared

 

[Glenise]

Yes, my ceiling was painted black.

 

[John Perry]

When you call the distributor, I think that 1728ABL is the 2'x2' armstrong tile and 1728BL is the 2'x4'. I have no experience with black traditional suspended grids - I used black Ceiling Max for my theater. I wanted to save the couple of inches in ceiling height.

 

[Curt Luther]

Thank you very much Jared for your reply. I do not want to paint. I wiil take your advice and look into that.

John what is Black ceiling max??? Never heard of it.

Thanks
Curt

 

[John Perry]

Check out ceilingmax.com it's pricey but works well, and come in satin black.

 

[Clay M]

Mine will be painted black (probably). The price difference
was about $350 with painting vs black armstrong tiles.
I would spring for the black tiles, but when the ceiling runs $1000 over budget already, you tend to look for ways to pinch pennies.

 

[John Perry]

I paid about $40 or so per box of 16 2x2's (64 sq. ft.)which I think was cheaper than most of the Home Depot white tiles. Not to mention paint cost and the time to paint them. Also IMO none of the "paint it yourself" black tiles look as good as the factory ones.

 

[Lee L]

Look in the yellow pages under acoustical ceiling contractors and call around. Just about any ceiling contractor who has been in business for a while has a storage building full of leftovers from jobs. You can probably get some real cheap.

 

[Clay M]

Where are you guys buying the tiles at a good price?

 

[Jack Ferry]

For what it's worth, I'm painting my tile ceiling black. I've done a few samples and they look good.

(And this was my buy of the year for this project: a gallon of Lowe's best paint for $1 from their clearance rack.)

 

[JayPo]

Jack,

Are you just rolling it on or are you using a brush? I assume once you put it up there will have to be some touch up.

 

[Curt Luther]

Jared....thank you for the advice. I did call Armstrong and I did find a place locally that sells the black grids and the black panels and they are the same cost as white. I appreciate the info.

Curt

 

[Jared Neumann]

Curt
Two more things they make them in 2x4 and 2x2 the 2x2 look much better(in my opinio) I have seen both. Also if and when you get them be sure to check all of the grid work for scratched and scufs I have a pack the was all scuffed up and actually had to paint about 10 white ones black.
And by the way your very much welcome glad I could help.

Jared

 

[Jack Ferry]

JayPo,
I used a brush for my sample tile, but I'm planning on trying a roller when I do the whole ceiling. However, it wouldn't surprise me if I wind up using a brush - the tile seemed to really suck up the paint.

And yes, there's ALWAYS touch up.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

I painted my ceiling tiles a dark grey color and it was a a nasty experience. Those things soak up paint like you wouldn't believe so it ended up being quite expensive as I poured gallon after gallon of paint into them. I also tried painting then while they were in the ceiling but that failed so I had to take them all out and paint on the floor...while that works ok it means when you go to put them back they've now expanded a bit and are a tight fit and you'll end up scratching some quite badly as you fight to get them in place again. The good thing though is that they won't rattle much if at all now that they're heavyier and larger. I stuffed the space between the celing and the above floor with insulation and it works really well for cutting down the noise. So my advice is if at all possible buy black tiles its much less work and not that much more expensive once you factor in paint and time.

 

[Trevor_J]

For all you guys that are painting your tiles, be advised that doing so will ruin their acoustical properties (if that's of any concern to you). I went with black grid and tile in my HT and equipment room. Just find a local distributor of either Armstrong or USG (UGS's tiles are _MUCH_ higher quality) and order them in black. It shouldn't cost anymore and in fact, it was $30 a case CHEAPER to go through the distributor than to go through HD and that included the white tiles that I used in another area of the basement.

 

[Ryan Tsang]

Do drop ceilings move/shake/rattle if the subs are competent? Say...if a room was 2500sq/ft and you had 2 bigger SVS subs and run them loud but not reference, would that shake things up?

I'm curious because I'm playing with ideas for a future room and this question came up.

 

[Trevor_J]

It depends on the tiles and how they're installed. I went with USG 'Frost' for my Theater. The frost tiles are quite a bit heavier than your standard fibreglass tile The Frost tiles are made of a different compound and feel and look like ashphalt. I have 2 SVS 20-39's which hit pretty hard and I have cranked it up to reference volumes and the tiles do not rattle.