A suspended ceiling, as suggested by its name, is an additional ceiling that is suspended down from the existing ceiling, thereby acting as a secondary ceiling. It comprises of a metallic grid into which are fitted ceiling panels. Once installed, it looks like any other normal ceiling, and one can’t distinguish it from the normal ceiling.
A good feature of such an arrangement is that it can be installed in any room or all the rooms of any building, from your residence to a supermarket. There is a good reason that most of the supermarkets and shopping centers go for such a ceiling and that is because it completely hides from view all the ducting needed for wiring and air-conditioning. Further, by having a suspended ceiling, you are reducing the virtual area of a given room. That is sure to have some positive effects on the system of air-conditioning, which naturally gets more effective.
Such ceilings are suspended down from the original one, thereby crating a gap.. This gap can be put to a really good cause. This space created by the installation of a suspended ceiling is ideally used to provide a cover to piping and wiring of the room that houses the ceiling. In the absence of such a ceiling all the paraphernalia of wires and piping is exposed to view and we know that is not a very pleasant sight. And, mind you the installed ceiling does not come in way for any maintenance as you can conveniently dismantle a part of the ceiling by removing a couple of tiles, carry the needed repairs and replace the tiles that were removed.
An added advantage of suspended ceiling is that it provides protection against fire with the tiles made of special mineral fibers. These tiles are fire-proof and conform to fire codes. In the unfortunate incidence of a fire, the surface will retard fire and thus may save goods and human life.
As there is always another side to the coin, there are a few limitations too for having a suspended ceiling. When you install a suspended ceiling you are actually reducing the vertical area or the height of all the walls all around a room. That means you get reduced headroom. If the height of your room is already low, and you install a suspended ceiling below that, it may not be very comfortable to walk around in that room as your head might hit against the installed structure.
Similarly, in case you are using the vertical space for display or storage of items in a store, you may feel the pinch of lack of storage area along the walls. False ceiling may not suit a display area that uses the ceiling for suspenders to display items. It will be good to make a calculation of the area that would be eaten up by a suspended ceiling before you go for its installation.
