Drop ceiling tile selection - Acoustic ceiling tile selection, choosing tile for a suspended ceiling

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Drop ceiling tile selection

If you've read the "Basement ceilings: drywall or drop?" topic in our Design section, you'll remember that I was considering a variety of different ceiling tiles by Armstrong. After discussing various styles with one of my suppliers, I decided to go a different route. Here were my requirements for drop ceiling tiles:

Drop ceiling tile requirements

24" tiles

Something nicer than your standard 'industrial basement tile'

As thick as possible to isolate as much sound as possible

A beveled edge- the beveled edge called 'Reveal edge' allows the tiles to hang below the level of the grid, which just looks nice

White tiles (or possibly black tiles in the home theater area)

Selecting drop ceiling acoustic tiles

Kim, at Interior Resource Supply in Dearborn, MI (where I purchased many of my supplies) dropped off samples of the various Celotex brand acoustic tiles from CertainTeed. They use many of these tiles in their higher-end commercial installations. In the end, it came down to two styles: Cashmere and Baroque.

Both styles come in a reveal edge, but the Cashmere is a bit thicker- ¾" vs. 5/8" for the Baroque. This also gives it a higher Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) of .7 versus the NRC of .55 for the Baroque. A higher NRC means the tile will absorb more sound- keeping it in the room. Add in the fact that I liked the look of the Cashmere a bit more (the Baroque had too many little holes) and my decision was made.

Of course it was the most expensive of all the tiles I looked at, but oh well- you only go around once! Although I considered the black tiles which would be better for the home theater area, I certainly didn't want the entire basement ceiling to be black. Since my design didn't allow for any 'break' in the ceiling, I couldn't think of a way to transition from black to white tiles, so I went with all white.