Good Questions: Pre-Fab Insert To Fill Fixture Hole?

Hello AT,

A (handsome, charming, hunky) good friend of mine has removed a standard inset two-tube fluorescent fixture from his (drywall) kitchen ceiling (see pic), and is searching for a pre-fab insert to drop in and fill the void.

We've both seen them before... until, of course, he really needs to find one. The home improvement giants haven't been of any help. He knows he can box out the space himself, but that seems like so much work when we KNOW this product exists, in spite of incessant Googling...

Oh, and he is in Atlanta, so it needs to be local to him, or an online source.

Help him, ATers? (I'll score some serious points!) P2

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Dear P2,

Do you mean that you want to find a product that will fill this empty space and remove the light entirely? We think you do.

We are stumped too. We've only ever seen contractors seal the space up with sheetrock.

Anyone????

Comments (8)

I don't see how something pre-fab could fit a hole from an old fixture because these holes are never precisely cut and thus quite variable in size and shape.

One suggestion is a metal plate, but I get the sense that you friend wants a plaster/sheetrock solution.

Is he putting in a new fixture? Years back I had some track light that came with a square metal plate larger enough to cover this kind of opening.

Well, I don't know about pre-fab. But if you didn't want to re-do some dry-wall, I think that I would want to measure the spot exactly, and then have some MDF cut like a 1/16th of an inch smaller than the hole, and then get some baseboard molding (because it's kind of wide) and create sort of a picture frame around the MDF, and then screw in the out edges of that frome up into the ceiling CAREFULLY making sure that you're hitting a beam or something that can seriously hold the whole thing up, because it WILL be heavy.

But I think that way, you'll have this framed rectangular panel thing up there, without having to deal with taping and mudding and sanding and all that stuff, and the MDF will paint out just like ceiling.

AND... if you DID want to use a small light fixture, you could VERY easily cut the proper size opening in the MDF for a "box" for that fixture, which could easily get screwed into the MDF.

I'm just making this up; I've never executed the above project, but you'd better make sure that all of this gets screwed into a beam so it won't fall down!

And if you do this, we'll need pictures, of course. Of the project I mean. And the alleged hunky person, while you have the camera out.

And to clarify, the end result should still look like an inset... just sans the light fixture...

Hey Patrick,

I think what you are referring to is a coffered ceiling panel. Most come in 2x2 and 2x4, which is usually the standard opening for the type of fixure you show. They are made for drop-in ceilings, but can be attached and framed to a standard opening. As to where to get them, there's 1000s of ceiling places out there.

2 different beasts: suspended gypsum board ceiling and suspended tile acoustical ceiling systems.
1) consist of hangers/runners/channels attached to the structure above and 4'x8' gypsum board sheets attached to the runners &.
2) is the metal grid attached to the perimeter walls and suspended from the structure, and acoustic tiles of specific composition, filling the grid.
Standard fluorescent lighting fixtures (typically either 2'x4'or 2'x2') could be used in either one.
-In the case of 1): to patch the opening after lighting fixture's removal he'll have to use GWB (matching the ones used in existing ceiling), spackling and sanding the seams as usual, than painting the patch to match exisitng.
- in the case of 2): fill the opening with acoustic tile. To have support for this new tile he has to attach new metal grid runners to continue existing grid. No painting is necessary in this case.

It's not an acoustical tile ceiling, no.

So far, Joey is on the "rightest" track.

Ack! I thought Joey had nailed it!

Sorry, All I can think of is doing what you already said your friend could do p2 and that is boxing it out in sheetrock.