Has anyone hung 6" duct under a drop down ceiling?

[Jack Diemer]

Getting ready to put up a bunch of 6 in ducting and fitting for my new cylcone and I have a drop down ceiling. I am concerned that the ceiling can't suppport the weight.

Would love to see how other people have done it.

[Terry Hatfield]

Jack,

I have never actually done this but I have seen installations with the pipe run above the drop ceiling. Holes were cut it the drop panels to allow the drops to the machines. Just a thought.

If you put it below the ceiling you would probably need to support it from the roof rafters or whatever framing is above the drop ceiling. I don't think the grid of the drop ceiling will support the weight.

Terry

[John Miliunas]

The assumption here is that, the room in question belongs to *you* and not a rental property. On the dropped ceiling, you have main "T's", which in turn, have to be hung to something more substantial above them. Personally, I would route my duct and, as I went along, take some of the same wire type used for hanging the "T's", make "horseshoes" out of them, punch them through the tile, attach them to the main structure above the tiles and hang my duct in the loop. Never had to do it myself, but used similar method in hanging other heavy objects from a similar environment. There are also special hangars, which people use to hang plants and such from. If the vertical runs of your duct are strictly on walls and not hanging in mid-space from the ceiling, you could probably get away with using the hangars, because the vertical runs would be supporting the bulk of the weight. Like I said, never done it, but I believe it should work. :cool:

[Scott Coffelt]

I think we were taking about similar ideas last night, uuuummmm. I plan on running my duct above the drop ceiling along the floor joists and back through the tile.

Jack has to run his diagonal, so this theory would not work. A suggestion is a slight modification, where strapping is used and anchored to the joists and ran through the tile. It would then be wrapped around the duct and a nut and bolt could be used to tighten up the strap.