Drop ceiling/troffers?

[Nate Nagel]

Picked up some 2x4 troffers off craigslist yesterday, so today I started evaluating exactly how to get rid of the unholy mess that was hiding above my basement's drop ceiling. Drop in light grids with old and busted shop lites above them nailed to the joists, wired up with brittle old pieces of extension cord etc. (shudders) it'll be all better soon.

Anyway, now for the questions. Since the genius that put this ceiling up arranged it the way he did, I'll have to put the troffers in "across" the existing 2x4 ceiling panels, if that makes any sense - there's no existing 2x4 grid space that I can drop a troffer in (due to interference with ductwork etc.) but if I rotate it 90 degrees it fits fine. So I'll have to go buy some more T-bars and maybe a couple ceiling tiles (to allow for mistakes) and take a 4x4 space, and make it two 1x4 tiles and the troffer in the middle. This is the first time I've ever had to mess with a drop ceiling. Any gotchas I should be aware of, or is it pretty much like it appears at first glance?

nate

[aemeijers]

What's a troffer? Some flavor of light for a drop ceiling?

Assuming that is what you are talking about, yeah, it is pretty much blacksmithing. Stare real hard and decide if it would be easier to rework it, or rip'n'replace oriented the other direction. If you just want it presentable, and not a show place, Habitat ReStore likely has a good selection of odd bits (leftovers and ripouts), much cheaper than buying whole boxes at the big box. If you are resting the lights on the grid, strongly recommend safety wires from the fixtures to eyebolts in the joists. You know how it all goes together, but the next guy might not, and the safety wire can avoid a bonk in the head if the grid collapses when somebody tugs in the wrong place.

(In my place, I had to deinstall the remnants of a drop ceiling idiot previous owner had installed in the furnace room, screwing it to the ducts. He had the space finished out as his gun room, of all silly things. I had to make a road for the furnace installers, so just ripping it all out was the simplest cure.)

aem sends...

[Nate Nagel]

yes, those fixtures that just lay into a regular grid space.

yeah, I will definitely do the safety wire bit; I just forgot that I didn't have any until after I'd got back from my weekly run to the Despot...

nate