How to Remove a Dropped Ceiling

A dropped ceiling is often installed in a room to hide plumbing and electrical wires. However, these types of ceilings are also installed as a result of personal preference or to hide damage to plaster or drywall ceilings. You may wish to remove the dropped ceiling and repair it, if needed, and return it to its original condition. A dropped ceiling is installed with interconnected grids that support fiber or plastic tiles that usually measure either two feet by two feet or two feet by four feet.

Pliers
Electric drill
Driver bit

Instructions

- 1
  Remove all the tiles from the dropped ceiling grid. Start at one end of the room and push the tiles up and turn them. Next, slide them through the grid vertically.
- 2
  Disengage all the short pieces of ceiling grid from the longer pieces that are hung from the ceiling. The ceiling grids have tabs at the ends that connect together and are disengaged by lifting up and pulling them apart.
- 3
  Unfasten the wires that may secure the longer pieces of the ceiling grid. Use a pair of pliers to help untwist the wire. Remove the fasteners from the ceiling to which the wires were attached. Remove the longer pieces once they are freed from the suspension wires. Unhook them from the grid around the perimeter of the room.
- 4
  Unscrew the screws that fasten the ceiling grid on the top of the wall around the perimeter of the room. Use an electric drill with a driver bit installed to remove all the screws and remove the perimeter ceiling grid.

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