How to hang a chandelier without drilling

Drilling is the most recommended method for installing any light fixture but however there are many instances where drilling is just not possible mostly for those who aspire to hang light fixture in rental apartment.

To hang a chandelier without drilling, a hook is attached to the ceiling with the help of adhesives. After adhesive dries up the bond formed is strong enough to easily hold a light fixture weighing around 800g(1.7 pounds) – 1kg(2.2 pounds).

Use of adhesives depending over the ceiling is explained in detail below.

For wooden ceilings

Hanging with Adherents

Wooden material to be attached with adhesive requires a special adhesive called wood adhesives. Applying normal superglues does not work with porous material like a wood. Therefore, the hook should have wooden surface which can be joined with the ceiling without any drilling.

After, getting the hook the next step is to apply the adhesive thoroughly over the porous surface of the hook.

Once adhesive is applied, the hook is then attached with the ceiling followed by applying pressure for some time. After that the adhesive would take a minimum of 1 to 2 days to completely dry up.

After 1-2 days, the adhesive dries up and a solid bond between hook and ceiling is formed.

The bond so formed is strong and can easily hold a weight upto 500g – 800g. The maximum recommended range of weight is around 1kg -1.5kg.

Since the ceiling is wooden, it is obliged to use wood glue. The hook also should be made out of a porous material. If however, a porous hook is not available simply put paper tape all over the hook to provide it a porous surface and then use wood glue.

Avoid using metal hooks directly as their surface is polished and have not better success with wood glues.

For concrete ceiling

Here also the most easy approach is to use adherents. Using a normal superglue will not work here. Concrete surfaces requires a special kind of glues called concrete adhesives which can be ideal for this purpose.

If possible clean the concrete with a scrub brush so that layers of paint are minimized. Now to add extra strength to the adhesion, stick some paper tape to the hook so as to provide papery surface which will stick more efficiently with concrete.

While only used for repairing, an another alternative to concrete glue is to use a premix concrete patch. It is a paste like mixture which upon drying hardens.

In case of a drywall ceiling, it is not recommended to hang anything heavy directly to the ceiling. lighting must be placed at the corner points of drywall ceiling where walls and ceiling meets. These corners are the most strongest point to install a light fixture with limited weight.

There are many other good lighting options for a room with drywall ceiling.

How to hang chainless chandeliers without drilling

Most of contemporary chandeliers as well as pendant lights have a rod instead of chain which attaches with the canopy. Using a hook is not necessary with these type of light fixtures.

Here again alternative to drilling is the use of adhesives.

These are the materials that chainless chandeliers are usually made of and accordingly the recommended adhesive is listed.

• Metal, steel.
• Plastic.
• Crystal and glass.
• Wood.
• Ceramic.

For Wooden ceilings

Metal, plastic, glass, crystal as well as ceramic have non-porus surfaces. Therefore, applying wood glue on these surfaces won’t work.

Before applying wood glue all these surfaces first need to be covered by a porous material like a paper tape. Then applying wood glue on the papery surface as well as wooden ceiling will make a tight bond.

For concrete ceilings

A polyurethane construction adhesive is recommended to hang a chainless chandelier with concrete ceiling without drilling. Make sure the non-porous surface is covered by a lightweight porous material again like a paper tape.

This will greatly enhance the bond strength once the glue is dried. Before applying glue rub the ceiling with a sand a paper to remove paint and expose concrete.

Recommended weight of light fixtures to be hanged with adhesives.

For wooden ceilings, the lighting fixture to be glued should weigh around 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds) or less. Anything heavier can definitely stick but ultimately reliability on glues should be limited compared to a drilled joint.

In case of concrete ceilings, the recommended limited weight of lighting fixtures should be around 2.2 (1 kg) pounds or less. If however pre-mix concrete patch, paper tape is used the strength of the bond can increase.

Factors to consider while installing light fixtures with adhesives

Moisture

While most superglues make a permanent bond, upon exposure to continuos moisture, the bond can become weaker. One should make sure that there is no moisture in the ceiling or any kind of leakage before making the bond with adhesives.

The ideal humidity in indoor areas in around 20 – 50 %. Most wood glues will work fine in this range.

If however, the environment around mostly remains high in humidity i.e. greater than 50% consider a waterproof wood glue.

Temperature

Both very low and very high temperature are bad for glues.

With increase in temperature the bond strength of glues decreases. Most of wood glues upon drying up can easily withstand a temperature of 37℃ to 40℃. If only heated too hot like 80℃ or higher s the glue becomes weaker.

Very cold temperatures, increases the viscosity of glue fluid which makes it ineffective in sticking. The minimum temperature required for glues to work in around 10℃ to 15℃. If the environment around where glue is to be used is very cold still then there are many glues which are resistant to extreme cold temperatures as well as hot temperatures.

Time taken by adhesives to set

Many people rushes this step. For every kind of adhesives even super glues requires a minimum time frame because it is properly set after application.

After application wood glue requires at least 20 – 24 hours of time before it is properly set. Make sure the glue is thoroughly applied over the surface as well as it is kept under pressure for some time then leave it for 24 hours.

Concrete glues containing polyurethane are the strongest and should be given atleast 2 days to set properly. Although they dry within an hour but is a good idea to give it proper time as ambient temperature, as well as moisture, plays an important in drying up the glue.

How to connect chandelier with power without drilling

There are some ceilings in which without drilling, the access to junction box is not possible. In such situation, the hardwired fixture is required to be converted into a plug-in light fixture.

The process of converting hardwired light fixture into a plugin light fixture is actually very easy as illustrated in the video below.

Depending over the distance of the light fixture from switch board, the wiring may required to be extended. This is again a very simple process, the extending wires are readily available.

The extending wire of should have same thickness as the thickness of the wire of light fixture. The thickness of wire is measured in gauge. At stores, the thickness is mentioned in gauge.

Gauge can be converted into mm by this table ( where all gauge values are already converted into mm).

This step is optional, after converting a hard-wired light fixture into a plug-in, just to make the lighting look neat a wire cover can be used to hide the wiring going into the witch board. Wire cover looks something like this.