يوميّة بيتيّة تجديد أطراف

Yesterday in Part 1 we described how the prior owners of our home had used stiff wire to attach the vent covers in the basement’s drop ceiling to the vent’s duct work, preventing the vent from closing.

The solution we used came in two parts. The first part was the use of butterfly clips / plugs / anchors. Call them what you will, they did the trick for us.

After removing the old vent cover in the drop ceiling tile, I then measured and cut two notches at either end of the opening for the vent in the ceiling tile. This notch would be where the butterfly anchors would go.

Next, before the vent cover was in the ceiling tile opening I used the screwdriver to place a screw through each hole at either end of the vent and half way into a butterfly anchor. Why? Well the opening in the ceiling tile was such that I could not drill a hole into which a butterfly plug would fit. So, by first cutting out the notches at either end I would hopefully squeeze the vent cover with the pre-installed screws and anchors into the opening.

I twisted each the screws into each butterfly anchor so that the space between the vent cover and the anchor was the same (hopefully) as the depth of the ceiling tile.

Well it worked. I did have to make a bit large notch at one end of the ceiling tile but it worked. Here are some pictures of the finished result. First from on top of the drop ceiling , notice the white butterfly anchor at the bottom of the picture and the screw protruding through it.

Next how the vent cover looks, with the flaps closed, from beneath the drop ceiling.

However, one last piece remained. I mentioned in a prior article how we used a magnetic vent cover in our other daughter’s bathroom to stop the hot air from excessively heating that room. Well, now that it’s summer, she needs the cool air conditioned air to cool her bathroom and bedroom. So I simply took that magnetic vent cover and placed it on the vent cover in the ceiling of the other daughter’s bedroom.

It looks like an actual vent, doesn’t it? How does it stay up? It is magnetized. Well see how long it lasts upside down and if need be we can always tie it to the white vent cover.

Hopefully this gives you ideas to use in your own finished basement with either a drywall or a drop ceiling.