Grid or plasterboard: an honest comparison
| Mineral fibre grid | Plasterboard (MF) | Metal or timber baffle | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rate ₹/sq ft | ₹195 – 245 | ₹265 – 320 | ₹290 – 340 |
| Access above | Total, anywhere, in seconds | Only at designed panels | Total between baffles |
| Acoustic absorption | Good — NRC 0.55 – 0.90 by tile | Poor unless perforated | Good with a backing |
| Look | Reads as a conventional office | Seamless and architectural | Contemporary, and it hides mess above |
| Change over a lease | Trivial | Requires making good | Straightforward |
| Where we use it | Open floors and back of house | Client floors, boardrooms, lift lobbies | Breakout, reception, over open plan with services above |
Ex-GST including framing, board or tile, and access provision. Most BKC floors we build use two or three of these, not one: grid where access matters, plasterboard where the client can see it.
The coordination drawing, which is the actual work
- Survey what is above the grid. Sprinkler mains and heads, detection, VAV boxes, chilled-water valves, dampers, the existing containment and the base-build lighting. This is a physical survey with the tiles out, not a reading of the landlord's as-built, which is frequently wrong.
- Set the ceiling grid to the partition layout, not to the shell. A grid that lands a partition head on a tile edge is far cheaper and neater to close than one that cuts every tile.
- Locate every sprinkler head to the new layout. Coverage is calculated against the ceiling and the partitions, not against the open floor, so every enclosed room changes the head positions. The nominated vendor does the work; we produce the drawing they work from.
- Place access panels before the design is finished. Every damper, valve, VAV box and junction needs reachable access, and a panel added later never lands where the design wanted it.
- Submit to the landlord and build only after sign-off. On a BKC floor the landlord's comments on the ceiling drawing routinely change the lighting layout. Building first and submitting afterwards is how a ceiling gets taken down.
Worked example: 12,000 sq ft office ceiling package
| Item | ₹ lakh | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Ceiling — 12,000 sq ft at ₹265 blended | 31.80 | Grid on the open floor, plasterboard to the client area and meeting rooms |
| Access panels — 180 | 2.70 | At every damper, valve, VAV box and junction |
| Sprinkler and detector relocation — nominated vendor | 6.40 | Passed through at cost; 214 heads relocated to the new grid |
| Acoustic rafts — 900 sq ft over open plan | 4.50 | NRC 0.85, suspended below an exposed zone |
| Light fittings — 320 points | 14.20 | Recessed linear and downlights, daylight-linked on the perimeter |
| Lighting control, sensors and commissioning | 3.80 | Occupancy and daylight sensing, DALI addressing |
| Night-shift premium on anchor and drilling work | 2.60 | Roughly 900 labour hours in the 10pm–6am window |
| Total, ex-GST | 66.00 | ₹550 per sq ft of floor area, ceiling and lighting complete |
Add 18% GST. The nominated-vendor sprinkler package at ₹6.4 lakh is priced by the landlord's contractor and passed through without margin.
A coordination drawing with a surface on it
Acoustics, and the number that actually matters
Office ceiling specifications usually quote NRC, which measures how much sound a tile absorbs within the room. In a floor with enclosed meeting rooms the more important number is CAC — ceiling attenuation class — which measures how much sound passes over a partition through the ceiling void from one room to the next. A high-NRC, low-CAC tile makes the open plan quieter and lets every word from the meeting room next door travel over the wall. Where partitions stop at the ceiling rather than running to the slab, we specify a tile with CAC 35 or better, or we run the partition to the soffit and take the extra cost. Clients are rarely told this and it is the single commonest acoustic complaint on a completed office floor.
The night-shift constraint deserves one more line, because it changes how the ceiling is sequenced rather than just what it costs. Anchor fixing into the soffit is the noisiest operation on an office fit-out and it is confined to the 10pm to 6am window, so the hanger grid for the entire floor is installed in a concentrated night phase before any daytime work begins. Everything after that — grid, board, tiles, fittings — runs in normal hours. A contractor who spreads the anchor work across the programme will find themselves booking night slots for twelve weeks instead of two.
For the district see interior designers in BKC; ceilings sit inside the wider fit-out — see office interior designers in BKC and turnkey interior contractors in BKC. Specification detail is on false ceiling designers in Mumbai.
Office ceiling work by Greenbox Design Studio.
Frequently asked questions
Why is a BKC office ceiling so much more expensive?+
Because most of the cost is not the ceiling. Sprinkler and detector relocation by the landlord's nominated vendor, 180 access panels, a coordination drawing that has to be surveyed and signed off, and a night-shift premium on all anchor and drilling work together account for more than a third of the package. The board and the grid are the cheap part.
Grid or plasterboard?+
Both, on almost every floor. Mineral fibre grid on the open plan and back of house, where access above matters and acoustic absorption is useful, at ₹195–₹245 per sq ft. Plasterboard on the client area, boardroom and lift lobby, where it is seen, at ₹265–₹320. Specifying one system across a whole floor either costs too much or makes maintenance miserable.
What is CAC and why should I care?+
Ceiling attenuation class — how much sound passes from one room to the next over a partition that stops at the ceiling. A tile can absorb sound beautifully within a room and still let every word travel over the meeting room wall. If your partitions do not run to the slab, specify CAC 35 or better. It is the most common acoustic complaint on a finished office floor and the cheapest one to prevent.
Who relocates the sprinkler heads?+
The landlord's nominated fire vendor, without exception. We survey, produce the coordination drawing they work from, book them at design freeze and hold them to the programme, and their cost is passed through in our BOQ without margin. On our 12,000 sq ft example that was ₹6.4 lakh for 214 heads.
How long does the ceiling take on a floor this size?+
Four to six weeks, but it is not a continuous run. The nominated vendor's sprinkler work has to complete before the grid closes, anchor and drilling work is confined to the night window, and the landlord's sign-off on the coordination drawing precedes everything. The ceiling is usually the item that reveals whether the whole programme was sequenced properly.