I’m sorta playing referee with my folks over a kitchen lighting issue and thought I might get some input from y’all. Any of you with older, hard-headed parents should be able to relate to this.
In the kitchen out at the farm, there’s a dropped ceiling that’s been there forever. The house has 9′ ceilings, and the dropped ceiling is at about 7′ or so.
Above the dropped ceiling there’s one lone flourescent fixture. And in the dropped ceiling there are 5 translucent panels mixed in with the regular 2X2 tiles. This has never really given off enough light, but nothing has ever been done about it. There are no other lights in the kitchen.
Mom wants the dropped ceiling ripped out, and more lights added. Dad has refused for years, saying the lighting was good enough.
Now that they’re in their 70s, I think their eyesight is geting bad enough that they’re BOTH having trouble seeing. So Dad has lightened up and is willing to consider doing something with it. I told them I would help with ANYTHING they wanted done, as long as BOTH of them agreed with it.
The ceiling tiles are yellowed from 40 years of cooking smoke. So I’m thinking they should go. But Dad said he doesn’t know what to do about the lights. He doesn’t want to mess up the 2X2 grid to put in 2X4 flourescent fixtures. And he won’t go for ripping out the dropped ceiling.
So maybe this is a long winded way of getting around to asking, but – Do they make flourescent fixtures that drop into a 2X2 ceiling grid? Seems like that would be the ideal fix. The ceiling tiles could be replaced, but the grid left in place.
Or is there a better way of approaching this that I haven’t thought of?
Mom also wants a ceiling fan in there. (They don’t have AC) I’ve never put a ceiling fan in a dropped ceiling, but I assume it can be done?
If you’re going to be able to look back on something and laugh about it, you might as well laugh about it now. [Marie Osmond]
Replies
The answer is yes they do troffers (the proper name for the fixtures used in drop ceiling) in the 2 by 2 size. They will use the u shaped fluorescent tubes. If it was me I'd look for a ceiling fan with a good light kit and use that for my lighting and replace all those grungy ceiling panels including the translucent ones. I'm not a hundred percent sure but there is a brace designed for drop ceiling grids, but if it was me I'd want the security of attaching the fan to something solid like the existing ceiling and using a long downord.
Hope this helps,
Just remembered, ceiling fans are supposed to be installed with the blades a minimum of seven feet off the floor, so if your folks are tallish a fan my not work. Personally I hate dropped ceiling but I'm sure you don't want to start a war with the folks.
Edited 7/18/2005 1:32 pm ET by rookie
You can get fixtures that use a U-shaped fluorescent tube, two to a fixture. I haven't measured the fixture size ( I have them in my kitchen) but it appears to be around 18 inches square so it looks like you can get a real nice fit.
How about recessed cans in the 2X2 tiles. They make a special bar that locks onto your present grid and then the recessed can snaps in place (a few screws are added too).
Yes, they make troffers to drop into a 2x2 grid. You can also suspend open fluorescent fixtures above the grid, so you can use regular 4-foot fixtures if you want.
The existing translucent panels have yellowed because they're polystyrene (which turns yellow when exposed to UV). Replace them with acrylic panels and you won't have the yellowing problem.
I need to put my pictures up of our kitchen ceiling -- 2x2 wood grid.