A ceiling is the overhead surface or surfaces over a space, and the underside of a floor or a roof. Ceilings are generally utilized to conceal floor and roof construction. They have been favourite places for decoration from the earliest eras: either by coating the plain surface, in bringing out the structural members of roof or floor, or in treating it as a surface for an overall pattern of relief.

Little is known of ancient Greek ceilings, but Roman ceilings were rich with relief as well as painting, as is evidenced by the vault soffits of Pompeian baths. During the Gothic period, the normal trend to use structural areas decoratively then led to the development of the beamed ceiling, in which huge cross-girders support smaller floor beams at right angles to them, beams and girders being thickly chamfered and molded and often painted in beautiful colours.

During the Renaissance, ceiling design was adapted to its highest tip of individuality and differentiation. Three forms were developed. The first was the coffered ceiling, in the complex design of which the Italian Renaissance architects far outdid their Roman prototypes. Circular, square, octagonal, and L-shaped coffers were popular, with their edges intricately carved and the field of every coffer flourished with a rosette. The second type consisted of ceilings largely or partially vaulted, usually with arched intersections, with painted bands foregrounding the architectural design and with pictures covering the rest of the space. The loggia of the Farnesina villa in Rome, decorated by Raphael and Giulio Romano, is a great demonstration of this. During the Baroque period, fantastic figures in heavy relief, scrolls, cartouches, and garlands were also used to decorate ceilings of this type. The Pitti Palace in Florence and many French ceilings in the Louis XIV style show this. In the third kind, which was notably characteristic of Venice, the ceiling became one sizeable framed image, as in the Doges’ Palace.

In contemporary architecture ceilings often are divided into two major classes — the suspended (or hung) ceiling and the exposed ceiling. With ceilings hung at some distance under the structural members, some architects have worked to cover large amounts of mechanical and electrical equipment, such as electrical conduits, air-conditioning ducts, water pipes, sewage lines, and lighting fixtures. The large part of suspended ceilings use a lightweight metal grid suspended from the structure by wires or rods to hold up plasterboard sheets or acoustical tiles.

Other architects, featuring the aesthetic of the exposed structural system, take pleasure in showcasing the mechanical and electrical equipment. From this trend, many structural systems have been created that have a deliberate power in themselves and make for desirable ceilings.

For ceiling cleaning Brisbane contact Toxicvac today. We will clean ceilings and clean roofspaces to remove rubbish, old insulation and dirt.

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