2 hours ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

Ceiling tiles are boring, OK for commercial building/office. 

As I mentioned earlier, I want cable trays and ceiling tiles to make it easy to add cables, lights, sensors for home automation, etc.

 

Sure there are nice looking ceilings like in your pictures. But for how long? If I want an extra light at the ceiling somewhere, headache. If the aircon guy come and need to install a new aircon with new pipes, big headache, etc.

I saw it myself in my rented apartment how difficult that is. And recently a friend needed work on his cables under the ceiling - open ceiling and have headache to get it nice again.

 

Ceiling tiles are definitely nothing for a designer home. But I don't have a designer home and I don't want a designer home. I want a practical home which looks nice enough for me and my gf. And I don't want any headache with complicated maintenance.

28 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

As I mentioned earlier, I want cable trays and ceiling tiles to make it easy to add cables, lights, sensors for home automation, etc

Yes, I read this earlier and wanted to add. 

You shouldn't need access to your cables or add cables. 

Once cables are hardwired, job is finished. 

 

Times have changed, everything is Wi-Fi controlled, just focus on router location etc. 

 

You'll find running cables these days is obsolete. As long as you do your research, placing patch points correctly etc. 

 

All your lighting and usuable items should be remotely operated. 

 

 

My first house here in Pattaya I spent many hours and thousands of baht running cat5 and speaker cables, I never used these cables, everything wireless now. 

 

Why not leave it exposed until you get it fingered out? 

 

 

You might want to do a test run of using cable tray (of any form) for moves/adds/changes.  For something like a (home) lab or workshop it works ok, but you do need to do proper wire management to keep it viable.  They work best when they are not very full, and I would recommend the center-supported tray if you do go that route.  Center support is easier to lay cables in rather than trying to pull them through.

 

Anything with covers is going to end up with the cover sitting on top of the ceiling tiles after a couple rounds.  It is really a pain to remove and reinstall them.

 

I'll offer up an alternative that may help you meet your needs: zone wiring.  Put a zone box in each room with a hard conduit to wherever your "hub" is, one for power, one for low voltage.  Use the zone boxes to splice or cross connect (for ethernet or fiber), and be ok with things downstream from the zone box resting on the ceiling tiles or a simple hook.  This makes it easy to re-wire an individual room or area.  I've gone that route for my house (~500m2), and I have 4 zone boxes up and running with two more planned.  (I'll have something on the order of 80 network drops when everything is said and done.)  I like zone wiring because an area that you want to change is rarely limited to a single system, and I find I rarely upgrade a whole system at once.  The latter situation is where cable tray or an equivalent really shine.

One thing to watch out for, though, is making sure everything is tightly sealed to avoid any unwanted critters, like rats. I’ve seen issues where animals can find their way into cable spaces, especially if there’s any entry point left open.

On 10/18/2024 at 6:30 PM, Mediappy said:

One thing to watch out for, though, is making sure everything is tightly sealed to avoid any unwanted critters, like rats. I’ve seen issues where animals can find their way into cable spaces, especially if there’s any entry point left open.

If you’re sealing all the wall cavities and access points, that should keep any risk low, but it’s good to double-check that all entry points are covered. If you’re still looking for trays or parts, tecnotools.com.au has some solid options that work well for these kinds of setups.