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How to hang a baffle ceiling: blade count, spacing, drop and wires.
Vertical is the orientation that takes real planning. Here's the method for a baffle ceiling: how to size a run of felt blades and how to hang it.
Where the last guide left off.
In our guide to the three types of acoustic ceiling we set out how a felt panel hangs, horizontal, vertical or interconnected, and which suits a space. Two of the three are quick to plan. Horizontal and interconnected come as a coverage area and hang on a handful of wires. Vertical is the involved one. It's a set of separate blades, so you size it and hang it yourself.
This guide is that method. By the end you'll be able to size a run of vertical baffles and hang it. The method holds for the whole vertical family.
What counts as vertical.
Vertical means the felt stands on its edge, faces to the walls, set in rows. That covers our blade baffle kits, Drape, Ruche, Shear, Twill, Crease and Crimp, and the plain Rectangle blades. They look different from below, but they all hang the same way and they are sized and fixed by the same method. So everything here applies across the family, whichever profile you choose.
How does a baffle ceiling work?
Sound in a room goes through three stages. It's made, it travels and some of it reaches the ear. A hard flat ceiling sends the travelling sound straight back down, and in a room with hard floors and glass those reflections build up and make speech harder to follow.
An acoustic baffle ceiling works on the middle stage, the travel. The felt is a soft open surface hung in the room with both faces exposed. Sound that rises to the ceiling meets the felt and loses energy in it, so less of it comes back down onto the people below. The direct sound still crosses between people, the baffles aren't a barrier. What they take out is the reflection off the bare ceiling.
One limit. Baffles absorb sound within a room. They don't stop it passing through a wall or between floors. For a live, echoey room they are the right tool. For a neighbour through a party wall they aren't.
There's a placement point too. Where the sound has a clear direction, a room with a front such as a lecture room or a presentation space, run the rows so the blades face the travelling sound. More felt turned to the sound means more of it absorbed as it passes.
Blade count.
Start with how many blades. This is the lever that does most of the work. More felt in the room means more absorption, and blade count is how you add felt. Set it by the area you want to treat and how hard the room is. A busy open floor or a glassy, hard room wants more. A smaller or softer room wants less. Count and spacing are two sides of one decision, so fix a rough count here then settle it against the spacing below.
Spacing.
Spacing is how far apart the blades sit, measured centre to centre. Tighter spacing puts more felt in the same area, so it absorbs more and reads more solid from below. Wider spacing is lighter to look at and costs less. Hang them too close and you've built a felt car wash. Too far apart and the sound walks straight past. Our blade kits are set up for 300mm centres, which spreads eight blades across a footprint of about 2400 by 2120mm. Go tighter or wider as the room needs.
Drop.
Drop is how far the run hangs below the structural ceiling, measured to the top of the blade. In a standard-height room keep the drop short, enough to clear head height and read as a deliberate feature. In a tall volume drop the run further, so the felt comes down into the room where the sound is rather than sitting lost near a high ceiling. The blades do the same work at any drop. Drop is about where you place them in the room.
How to hang a baffle ceiling.
Every blade hangs on its own pair of wires. In a blade kit, each blade sits in an aluminium top rail, silver on 12mm and black on 24mm, held by two grippers. Each rail hangs on two steel wires, and each wire goes to its own ceiling anchor. So a kit of eight blades comes with eight rails, 16 grippers, 16 wires and 16 ceiling anchors.
Because each blade has its own wires, you can level them one at a time. It does mean more fixing points than a flat raft, which is why vertical rewards a bit of planning before anyone climbs a ladder.
For an integrated ceiling of intersecting baffles, space the hanging points evenly and fix the wires at the joints where the panels cross, the same cross-lap principle as the interconnected hang in the last guide.
Sizing one run, end to end.
Take a run over a meeting table, a zone about 2.4m long.
- Blade count. Eight blades covers it.
- Spacing. At 300mm centres they make an even run the length of the table.
- Drop. The room is standard height, so a short drop clears head height and keeps the run reading as a feature. In a taller room you would drop it further.
- Hang. Each blade on its own rail and pair of wires.
Now tally the fixings. Eight blades, 16 wires, 16 ceiling anchors, all in the kit. Mark the anchor points first and the rest is straightforward.
Frequently asked questions.
How far apart should baffles be?
It's your choice, measured centre to centre. Tighter absorbs more and reads more solid, wider is lighter and costs less. Our kits are set up for 300mm centres.
How far should baffles drop?
Enough to clear head height in a standard room, further in a tall one to bring the felt down to where the sound is. The blades work the same at any drop.
Can I level the blades after hanging?
Yes. Each blade hangs on its own pair of wires, so you can level them one by one.
How many wires will I need?
Two per blade. A kit of eight blades comes with 16 wires and 16 ceiling anchors.
Do vertical baffles soundproof a room?
No. They absorb sound within a room and cut echo. They don't stop sound passing through a wall or between floors.
What is the measured performance?
The 24mm PET felt board is rated NRC 0.65, to EN ISO 354:2003, measured flat with no air gap behind it (Type A). That describes the board, not a hung run, which is a different mounting. Reaction to fire is Class B-s1,d0 to BS EN 13501-1. For what the figures mean, see how to read acoustic panel ratings.
