Stretch ceiling on the balcony in winter: can it be installed, pros and cons, reviews

Stretch ceilings are a popular solution for renovation issues. But not always and not in all rooms you can give preference to this option for designing the upper floor. Often owners are interested in whether the suspended ceiling on the balcony will withstand temperature changes and cold in winter. There are pros and cons to installing such a structure on a loggia, and they should be taken into account.

Is it possible to make a suspended ceiling on the balcony?

Previously, this room in the apartment was perceived as a place to store bulky or unnecessary things. In this space one could often see bicycles, bags of vegetables and much more.

Everything has changed dramatically; in modern apartments, loggias are equipped no worse than living rooms, organizing in this room a place for rest and relaxation. Installing suspended ceilings on the balcony is a common design solution. Considering that extensions are usually glazed and insulated, quite acceptable conditions for ceiling structures have been created inside.

Important! Such ceilings should not be installed on balconies where there is no glazing, because the coating will be deformed and damaged.

What colors are relevant in decorating a loggia?

Since loggias are rarely spacious, it is best to opt for light colors. Most often, glossy PVC coatings are used for finishing, as they have high reflectivity, which makes the room visually more spacious.

In general, the color of the ceiling can be any, especially when using gloss, which the darker, the higher its reflectivity. With proper lighting, such a balcony will not be dark even if black gloss is used.

If you have chosen fabric ceilings, which never have a glossy surface, then only light colors are optimal, otherwise you can make the loggia dark and uncomfortable.

Pros and cons of stretch ceilings on the balcony

Before you make an important decision about what kind of top covering you will use on your loggia, you should study the advantages and disadvantages. After reading reviews about suspended ceilings on the balcony in winter, you should pay attention to the positive aspects and criticism of this material. The advantages of this design include:

Easy installation - a suspended ceiling can be installed in a few hours, even without the help of specialists.
Clean work.
Installation of the tension fabric only requires installation of the frame and fixation of PVC or fabric. Important! Due to the fact that the installation of the structure is not dusty, you don’t have to take everything that is there out of the balcony. This should only be done if things are interfering with the normal operation process.
Aesthetics and beauty. Even in new houses there are not perfectly smooth surfaces, on which cracks, height differences and other imperfections are noticeable. The stretch ceiling canvas will perfectly hide all these flaws and create an aesthetic upper ceiling in this area of the apartment.
Long service life. On a cold balcony, the suspended ceiling wears out faster, but due to the fact that the frame fastenings can last up to 30 years, the canvas itself can be easily replaced after the required amount of time.
Ecological cleanliness. Every good company has an attestation or certificate indicating the suitability of the material for indoor use. Fabric made from appropriate raw materials is completely safe for human health.
Resistant to temperature changes. This point of advantage does not include all PVC coatings. For cold balconies, experts recommend installing fabric-based coverings. It is this type of material that adequately withstands temperature changes and frosts.
Important! Thin PVC can become deformed and even crack due to extreme cold, so it is worth indicating in advance what conditions and heat level will be in the room. This will help you choose the most appropriate type of canvas.
Resistance to deformation. In all new houses, slight shrinkage occurs during the first years. When the upper part of the room is plastered or covered with whitewash, there is a high probability that cracks or chips will appear on the surface. The stretch fabric will retain its original appearance in any situation.
Heat and sound insulation. The room remains warm for a long time, and extraneous sounds will be practically inaudible.
Large selection of coating designs. Tension fabrics are offered in a wide color palette. This opens up the opportunity to choose the ideal material for the most unusual room designs. In addition to different colors, the range of tension threads includes canvases with drawings and patterns.

There are plenty of advantages, but there are also some disadvantages that should not be overlooked. These include:

High price. A suspended ceiling can be installed on an unheated loggia, but for a long service life you should choose high-quality material that is resistant to temperature changes. Naturally, the price of such a canvas is several times higher than the standard one.
Possibility of damage.
PVC material is quite thin, so it is easy to damage if handled carelessly. Important! When choosing a fabric covering for a loggia, the chance of damaging the material is reduced.
Deformation due to temperature changes. If you don’t want the suspended ceiling to be damaged during the cold season, you should carefully approach the issue of insulating the loggia. Ideally, install heated floors and insulate the walls, both outside and inside. To prevent the coating from deforming from strong exposure to sunlight, it is recommended to install blinds or protective films on the windows to reduce the penetration of ultraviolet rays into the room.
Reducing the height of the room. The frame of the structure takes up at least 10 cm, naturally, the balcony becomes lower than it was originally. Therefore, it is not recommended to install suspended ceilings on small loggias with low walls. For example, on a 6-meter square loggia, a stretch ceiling will look good, but in a 2-meter room, such a design is unlikely to be appropriate.

To accurately determine the need to choose just such a surface, it is worth weighing the pros and cons and drawing conclusions.

Frost resistance indicators of vinyl and fabric sheets

When choosing a suspended ceiling for an unheated room , it is better to immediately pay attention to polyester fabric. This material can easily withstand prolonged exposure to sub-zero temperatures, completely maintaining its appearance and consumer properties. If we talk about specifics, the lower temperature threshold of a fabric ceiling is -40 degrees.

Fabric ceiling for a summer residence

Vinyl ceilings have a noticeably more modest frost resistance rating. In particular, most films on the market can only be used at positive temperatures. Even -0 can cause surface damage.

Important! There are vinyl ceilings that can withstand temperatures down to -30 degrees. They are designed specifically for unheated rooms, and are ideal for country houses located in central Russia. However, such solutions are much more expensive.

What will happen to the suspended ceiling on the balcony in winter?

Due to inexperience, some apartment owners decide to install a tension structure, but do not think about insulating the room. In this case, you can expect anything from the canvas. Most often, under the influence of low temperatures, the material loses its elasticity and sag. Even the slightest load on the surface leads to cracking of the material.

Important! You should not try to heat the canvas yourself, this will only speed up the wear process.

In order not to lose money on remodeling the upper part of the room, you should give preference to fabric canvases; such suspended ceilings, even on an unheated balcony, will last a long time and will not deteriorate. Yes, they are more expensive, but they won’t have to be replaced after the first frost.

Installation options for tension structures

PVC stretch ceilings are usually installed by professional craftsmen, since a hair dryer is required to heat the film. For balconies, textile models are most often used, which can be installed with your own hands.

How to install it yourself, features of the process

To install the structure yourself, it is recommended to do the following:

Prepare the base layer. In this case, it is important to seal all the holes, get rid of drafts, and lay insulation. It is also necessary to waterproof the room.
Provide wiring for lighting sources and arrange other communications.
Install the fasteners and frame for the stretch ceiling.
Install the canvas.
Trim and clean the coating, apply finishing.

After completing the rough work, you can begin to install the ceiling. Regardless of the system, which can be clip-on or glazing bead, you first need to install a baguette of the optimal shape. It is a kind of frame for the canvas.

Then you can begin to fix the coating. You should not adjust the size of a piece of fabric to fit the ceiling format in advance. These parameters must be taken into account when purchasing material so that the cutting width is sufficient. The covering sheet must be lifted to the baguette, tucked into the fixing part with a spatula, and then cut off the excess. At the end, the smooth coating must be finished with a plinth.

Important! Professionals do not recommend using a wedge system for a balcony - this is due to temperature fluctuations and the risk of sagging of the material. The ideal solution is a clip-on baguette.

You can install the structure yourself

How to choose a suspended ceiling for a loggia

To select the canvas as accurately as possible, you need to consult with specialists. This will help you rely on a high-quality and durable tension structure. If you make the choice yourself, it is important to consider the following factors:

is the loggia room heated?
Is the balcony glazed;
color schemes in the room;
financial side of the issue.

Having clearly thought through every detail, you can choose the ideal coating option. It is best to install a fabric stretch ceiling on a cold loggia; it will last longer and will delight you with its high quality and beautiful appearance.

Procedure for ordering installation services

In every city there are several companies operating in the market of suspended ceiling services, including for balconies.

It is better to buy an installation service rather than a material that you then install yourself.

A high-quality service includes: ceiling measurements, preparation of the canvas of the required dimensions and installation.

For installation work, it is better to choose a company based on the following criteria:

For ceilings, fabric from European or Russian manufacturers is used. The price range is very diverse.
The company's services are provided by experienced installers who competently advise on stretch ceilings.
A warranty period is established for the work performed.

A serious company working with suspended ceilings must have its own website for free consultation and placing orders.

In general, suspended ceilings can be installed on balconies.

Installation work is usually entrusted to experienced installers who complete orders quickly and with high quality.

How to make a suspended ceiling on a balcony with your own hands

The installation process does not require special skills or professional tools, so even an inexperienced owner can cope with the task. The installation sequence is as follows:

Preparatory work. At this stage, it is necessary to clean the surface of the old coating and fill the cracks so that they do not begin to crumble in the future, contaminating the tension structure from the inside.
Important! During preparatory work, it is necessary to treat the surface with an antiseptic. This will help prevent the formation of fungus and mold on the surface.
Marking. Before installing the frame, it is necessary to clearly determine the mounting locations. If electrics are installed on the loggia, then be sure to indicate the location of the cables and wiring so as not to damage them during the process of screwing the profiles.
Installation. The main and very important point is the fastening of the frame. Its durability directly depends on how correctly and thoughtfully this structure is installed.
Fabric tension. The final stage of work is the process of tensioning PVC or fabric material. Here it is important to carefully and evenly heat the canvas with a special heat gun and immediately fix it in the frame.

It is important to know that there are three types of frames, each of them differs in technology and method of fastening the canvas. You can read reviews about suspended ceilings on loggias and recommendations on which type is best to choose, or you can independently study the design features. To do this, just find out what installation options there are.

There are several frame fastening systems:

Harpoon. In this case, a baguette with a latch (groove) made of aluminum or plastic is attached along the entire perimeter of the loggia. Harpoons with jagged inserts are attached to the edges of the baguette, into which the PVC sheet is fixed.
The glazing bead fastening scheme is that a baguette is fixed around the perimeter of the entire balcony. Then the tension fabric, cut exactly to the size of the frame, is installed in the guides of the baguette. On the sides, the tension structure is fixed with ceiling plinths or a side.
Clip fastening. For this scheme, profiles are used, which are also installed along the entire perimeter of the loggia. Due to the plate tightly pressed to the base, the PVC sheet is held on the upper part of the room.

Having studied the technologies and the order of work, each owner will be able to transform the upper part of the loggia with his own hands.

Self-installation technology

Preparation

As I noted above, installing a stretch ceiling on a balcony is an excellent training in the skills of installing such structures, which will be useful to us when finishing other rooms. But at the same time, you need to remember that balconies and loggia have some features that should be taken into account first of all when preparing for installation.

On my loggia I carried out work according to the following scenario:

First, I cleaned the old trim from the ceiling. It was painted, so I had to remove the remaining loose paint with a spatula.

Old paint needs to be removed

Next, using a level, I checked the plane of the ceiling. The difference was no more than 5 mm along the entire length, so the tension fabric could be mounted almost closely, with a gap of no more than 1-2 cm.

Pay attention to the photo: it is very important that when opening the door does not touch the ceiling

This is where the biggest difficulty lies. In any other room, if the ceiling has serious differences, it is enough to simply lower the level of installation of the tension fabric, but on the balcony, the glazing frames will most likely interfere with us. That is why here the maximum gap between the ceiling and the stretched fabric or PVC sheet is 30-40 mm.

If you initially plan to lower the ceiling a little, for example, to install built-in lamps, then when glazing the loggia, it is worth fixing either a wooden beam or a special additional profile under the ceiling, which will provide us with the necessary gap.

Next, the condition of the ceiling itself was inspected. Two discovered cracks, as well as gaps at the junctions of the ceiling slabs and the walls, were cleared of debris and filled with a repair compound based on tile adhesive.
At the final stage, I treated the ceiling with several layers of antiseptic primer to prevent the formation of fungal colonies in the warm and humid environment under the suspended ceiling.

Installation

The procedure for installing a suspended ceiling on a loggia did not take much time:

To begin with, I applied level markings to the walls for fastening the mounting profile.
Then, with the help of anchors, the baguette for the stretch ceiling was installed: I applied each panel to the wall according to the markings, drilled holes with a hammer drill in increments of 40 - 50 cm, and then hammered plastic dowels into them. I completed the final fixation of the baguette using locking metal anchors with a conical point.

We fix the baguette according to the level

In order not to damage the profile, the anchor should first be set with a hammer, and then tightened with a screwdriver or screwdriver.

Since a glazing bead scheme was chosen for installation, I cut the canvas right on the spot. If you use harpoon installation, then in any case you will have to entrust the production of the canvas to professionals.
Then, using a rented heat gun, the air on the loggia was heated to +450. To do this, I closed all the windows and doors as tightly as possible, so the warming up itself did not take much time (double-chamber double-glazed windows with energy saving helped a lot, by the way).

Inserting the canvas into profile

I also heated the canvas itself in a stream of hot air (it needs to be heated to about +60...+700C) and secured it with crocodile clips to the wall molding in several places.
Then, removing the clamps from one of the corners, I inserted the canvas into the groove of the baguette with a spatula and fixed it with a bead.
The most difficult stage for me was stretching the ceiling: while on one side it was easy enough to fix the material, on the other I had to simultaneously fix the PVC film with a spatula and secure it with a wedge.
As a result, I ended up with several sagging areas (almost unnoticeable, but still!). I fixed them by carefully heating the material with a hair dryer set to about 70% of the power to avoid melting the PVC.

You can try to remove such defects with a hair dryer.

It took me a little over four hours to do everything (not taking into account the preparatory stage - I gave the repair composition for cracks three days to dry). However, I spent a significant part of the time on leveling the canvas when tensioning due to lack of skill, so I fully admit that a more experienced master will work faster.

Tips and tricks for caring for suspended ceilings on the balcony

The suspended ceiling on the loggia needs to be looked after in both frost and heat so that it retains its original appearance for a long time. To do this, you should take into account the following recommendations for surface care:

You need to use a soft cloth for wiping so as not to tear the fabric;
To ensure that there are no streaks on the surface, you should use a cleaning product containing alcohol;
It is strictly forbidden to use products containing acetone; they corrode the PVC surface;
to wipe high ceilings, you can take a mop or stepladder;
when washing ceilings, you should remove the rings from your fingers, because they can accidentally scratch or tear the surface;
Do not put too much pressure on the canvas, because it can be damaged;
After washing, you need to wipe the surface with a cloth and absorb all the moisture from the coating.