Supporting a ceiling fan & Fantasia's big strip fastener
Ceiling fans come in a variety of sizes and weights. Some
weights can seem a little daunting however after twenty years of dealing with
ceiling fans I have not experienced a ceiling fan that has fell from a ceiling
to date. A good fixing point is obviously vitally important consideration.
Choosing the right spot is essential. No matter how much you want it to, a
plasterboard ceiling is never going to support the weight of a fan. No
lightweight ceiling will. The lightest fans can weigh 5 to 6 kilos and the
heaviest up to 15 to 20 kilos.
Most ceiling fans, such as Fantasia ceiling fans, will
require a minimum of 2 screw positions but more can be used if the fixing point
allows it. The reason 2 screw positions are usually used is because a fan
ideally is fixed in to a wooden beam or joist. A support of this kind is more
than adequate and the width of a joist will only allow 2 screws. Don’t be put
off by the idea of only 2 screw positions being enough to support your ceiling
fan.
Obviously some installations don’t have access to a wooden
joist. Fitting a ceiling fan in a conservatory requires a different type of
fitting. Conservatory companies will usually leave a fixing point for a
customer to fit a ceiling fan which is a metal equivalent of a normal fitting.
A good electrician will also have experience of fitting a fan in to a
conservatory.
Sometimes the position you want to fit a fan in to doesn’t have
a suitable fixing point. In a conservatory this can be difficult and advice
needs to be taken from your electrician. In a normal room with wooden joists
you can always fit a wooden noggin between 2 joists to use as a fixing point. A
noggin is a piece of wood that is screwed between 2 joists and needs to be a
good strong thick piece of wood, able to support the fan.
 |
| The Fantasia big strip fastener is used to sandwich a supporting structure such as a wooden noggin between the bracket itself and the ceiling fans fixing plate |
For additional support a fixing bracket such as the Fantasia
big strip fastener can be used. Don’t be fooled by the name, there isn’t anything
big about the fastener but it does provide adequate additional support. The big
strip fastener measures the same width as a standard ceiling fan fixing bracket
and is designed to fit above a supporting beam or metal beam.
 |
| The big strip fastener has 2 threaded bars that slot through holes you've drill in the supporting structure (such as a noggin between joists) |
The big strip fastener has 2 threaded bars that are the same
width apart from each other as the screw holes are on the fans bracket. If 2
small holes are drilled through the fixing noggin the same width apart then the
bracket can be fed through the holes from above and the fans fixing brackets
screw holes can be slotted through the protruding threaded bars and screws can
then be fixed on and tightened sandwiching the noggin between the big strip
fastener from above and the ceiling fans originally fixing bracket from below.
 |
| The fans fixing bracket (black) has holes (long and narrow) that allow a big strip fasteners threaded bars to fit through once they are pushed through holes in the supporting structure. Nuts are then tightened from below |
The size of your ceiling fan shouldn’t have a bearing upon
the ability for your ceiling to support the unit. Nor should the fans speed of
rotation. A lot of ceiling fans, such as the Fantasia Viper range, come
available in 2 different sizes but the actual only difference is the size of
the blades. The motor is exactly the same so don’t allow your judgement of the
weight capacity of the ceiling allow you to choose the smaller version when it
is often far better to choose the larger version of a ceiling fan.
Comments
Post a Comment