How Should a Grid be Laid Out for BRUTAL Ceiling Tiles?

The more feature rich an installation, the more planning is advised beforehand.  Here we will look at a hypothetical installation of a grid in a room 115" by 109"

Firstly, the grid t-bar width for BRUTAL tiles is 15/16" width.

For the best looking installation, the grid must look immaculate.  Any cosmetic defects will stand out against the uniform white Brutal tiles. Get the grid fixed first.  If you have the opportunity to start from scratch, the best installation involves having as even a margin around the 3D installation as possible.  Avoid starting a grid at one wall with full squares and leaving the margin at the other.  It will look unbalanced. The only way to save it is to fill that whole first row with flat filler tile.

The procedure:

• Measure the width and length of the room. 
• Each square is 24".  Figure out how many tiles will fit in each dimension. 
• Whatever the length remainder is, divide that in two, and that is the margin at each end of that direction. 
• That gives us this layout:

This results in the narrowest possible margins. which will always be less than 12 inches.  Fill these in with one of our Zona flat filler tile products or re-use your mineral tiles for this.  This will provide a nice frame around the field.  Now you can start laying out where you want lighting, A/C vents, sprinkler heads and anything else that is necessary.  If possible, place the ugly bits like A/C vents in the margins and / or where you don't see them when entering a room.  The first impression of a BRUTAL ceiling should be "wow, that is cool!" and not "That ugly A/C vent ruins the composition!"

Are you looking at using a design where half will face up and half will face down? This is possible with Globen, Europa and SoBe.  Chances are, the downwards facing ones can be used to hide A/C vents (some clever hold cutting necessary).  HVAC vents if possible should be placed in the margins.  Lighting options may require a tile faced upwards or downwards, so experiment first. (refer to our blog on lighting options).   Plan this out on graph paper so you don't have to do some unfortunate improvising later.  This picture below is the same layout with our Globen tile added.  Here every other one is marked to show them facing opposite directions.

Please contact us if you have any installation questions.  We are there to help you create an amazing ceiling!

Now you can ponder lighting and A/C vent needs.