Wood Ceiling Support Structures

Decorative Ceilings are an interesting design element utilized in many new construction and renovation projects. Many new ceiling types have been introduced to the market in the past few years ranging from faux wood ceiling to fabric baffles. The new decorative ceilings are being used as design elements in lieu of the standard acoustic ceiling tiles. While aesthetically pleasing they can cause issues from a design point due to the short spans the materials can span. If a wood ceiling can span 48″ on its own but the roof structure is 72″ on center, then an additional support system would be required for the ceiling element.

Unistrut Midwest has experience with design, furnish, and installation of secondary steel support structures for any ceiling type. Our project focus today will look into a wood ceiling support provided for a convention center in Kentucky. A new convention center space in Kentucky was designed with specialty wood ceilings over the bar and restaurant areas of the convention center. The wood panel ceiling was designed by the interior design firm but the wood selected could only span 36″ on its own. The 4′ wide panels would require some additional reinforcement and a support structure to connect the wood ceiling to the concrete slab overhead.

Unistrut Midwest was brought on board to aid in the design and installation of a Unistrut Support Structure for the Wood Ceiling. Unistrut’s solution for this particular wood ceiling was to provide a two layer P1000T grid system. The upper layer of P1000T was spaced 5′ on center and would connect to threaded rods at 6′ o.c to the concrete ceiling. Unistrut used 3/8″ All thread Rod and Hilti KBTZ anchors for the drops. The lower layer of P1000T ran perpendicular to the upper P1000T with a P1047 fitting. The lower P1000T spacing was a repeating spacing of 9″ from the wood panel edge, 30″ to the next P1000T, and 18″ to the third P1000T section. This pattern allowed Unistrut to provide a max 30″ spacing on the wood panels which was within the design tolerance of the wood ceiling.

For more information on Wood Ceiling Support Structures or Unistrut Supports for any other decorative ceiling, contact your Unistrut Sales Rep today. Contact Unistrut.