Stretch ceilings and integrated lighting

A stretch ceiling is a ceiling installed without plaster, dust or lost height. It is also an ideal surface for light: perimeter or central LED lighting turns a low room into a luminous volume — provided you choose the right fabric, the right light and respect two or three rules that rushed installers forget.

How it holds

Aluminium profiles are fixed around the walls at the chosen height. The fabric, cut to the exact room size, is hooked into the profile and tensioned — with heat for PVC, mechanically for technical fabrics. The result is a perfectly flat ceiling, taut as a drum, with no visible joints. The decisive advantage over a plasterboard ceiling is lost height: 2 to 5 cm instead of 10 to 15 cm. In an old Saumur house with ceilings at 2.30 m, those centimetres change everything. Access to ducts stays possible through invisible inspection hatches — a decision to make before installation.

PVC or technical fabric

PVC fabric is the common choice: heat-tensioned, available matte, satin or lacquered, classed B-s1, d0 under EN 13501-1, cleanable, UV-treated against yellowing, good for fifteen to twenty years indoors. It smells slightly of new plastic for a few days. Technical fabric is a coated polyester, PVC-free, mechanically tensioned, more expensive but breathable — and available micro-perforated, which combined with mineral wool above absorbs part of the sound and corrects the acoustics of a tiled room. In kitchens and bathrooms we prefer PVC.

Integrated light

Three devices combine: perimeter LED lighting that draws the outline and visually enlarges the room, central lighting that creates a luminous volume, and spots integrated into the fabric for task light. We work at 2700 K in living rooms, 3000 K in kitchens and bathrooms, with a colour rendering index above 90. Two technical precautions: the LED driver must stay accessible, because it is the only part that fails, and the strip must never be seen directly — the difference between a luminous ceiling and a garage fluorescent tube. Allow 4 to 6 W of LED per square metre for general lighting.

Thermal and acoustic

The 2 to 5 cm air layer is not insulation: it limits surface condensation, it does not replace insulating. If summer heat or winter cold is the problem, insulation goes above the fabric, before installation. On acoustics, plain PVC adds nothing; micro-perforated technical fabric with mineral wool behind absorbs mid and high frequencies and clearly reduces reverberation — the solution for a heavily tiled room or a noisy stairwell.

Price per square metre

Price depends on surface, fabric type, number of coffers (an L-shaped room costs more than a rectangle), profiles and lighting. Ranges below include tax and installation within 200 km of the workshop.

Installation and lead times

Allow two to three weeks from approval to installation. A 20 to 30 m² room takes one day including lighting; two days for an L-shaped living room with coffers and spots. The room must be clear, walls free 30 cm from the edge, and electrics run before we arrive: we connect the LEDs, we do not create circuits. Installation needs no scaffolding beyond a rolling tower, no rubble and no paint smell — it works very well in an occupied home.