Flexicore Ceiling

[NiteWatchman]

I live in a condo with Flexicore ceilings. Flexicore is a preformed cement slab. They used several of these slabs to form my ceiling. Where the slabs butt up to each other leaves a gap. When they built my condo they used drywall tape to cover those gaps and then sprayed that “popcorn” ceiling stuff, so popular in the 70’s to make the ceiling appear as a normal drywall ceiling. Now the drywall taped areas are starting to separrate from the ceiling; leaving a cracked appearance. Also that “popcorn” stuff is ugly.
I have an idea of how to fix this and also allow me to run electric to the center of the rooms to add a ceiling fan. My idea is to cover the ceiling with Armstrong ceiling panels or tiles. One method to do this is to attach furring strips to the ceiling and staple the ceiling panels to the furring strips. This might also drop my ceiling just enough to attach a shallow electrical box to the center of the room to hang a ceiling fan.
My question is… how do I attach 1 x 2 wood furring strips and a shallow electrical box to the cement ceiling? I need the electrical attached well enough to hold the weight of the fan.
Any ideas?

[thiggy]

A ceiling fan may not be supported by an electrical box, but must be attached to proper structural components. Possibly Tapcon screws could be used to attach the fan hangar to the concrete ceiling panel. I am interested in reading other suggestions.

[Bruno1949]

It’s a lot of work but the way I’d do it is to scrape the popcorn off in the area of each furring strip, drill holes every few feet for Tapcon concrete screws, put a premium construction adhesive on the furring strip and screw it to the ceiling. The Tapcons would hold the strips up until the glue sets. The combination would certainly hold ceiling tiles.

If you use a pancake fan/light mount it will fit just fine. They are 1/2 inch deep. Mount it to the ceiling with at least two Tapcons and all should be good, safe, and legal.

Just follow the directions for drilling the holes for the Tapcons. If you drill too shallow the screws will NOT hold. Be prepared to buy several drill bits. They wear out pretty quickly.

Like I said, a lot of work on ladders, and messy, but it should give you what you want and last a long time.

[doug seibert]

Most Multi family residences will not allow sheathed electrical cable (or DIY)……you will need to pipe the electric to a full-sized 1 1/2″ fan rated box…..

You could use a wiremold product and leave it exposed or use an EMT conduit( and possibly flex) and metal box and leave it exposed or cover the ceiling with 3/4″ strapping and your ceiling tiles.

To anchor the box: I’ve always used “red heads” in concrete for loads that required good holding power.

“……measure Once…..cut Twice….
throw that one away and cut a new one….”

[Author]

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