Guides / Ceiling Systems
A board price is quoted per square metre and read as though it were a property of aluminium. It is not. It is the sum of four things a buyer can name and check: the metal, the coating on it, the processing that turns coil into a module, and the quantity and packing the order carries. This page separates those four, gives the mass arithmetic that lets you compare two boards sold under the same nominal thickness, and lists the questions that turn a board rate into something a second supplier can be held to.
An aluminium ceiling board price covers the coil, its coating, the forming and perforating of the module, and the packing. It does not cover the grid, the hangers, the trim or the acoustic infill. The metal is the largest component and it is a traded commodity, so the board figure moves with the aluminium index as well as with the specification. Two quotes for a “0.8 mm board” can differ by a third before either supplier has decided what margin to take, because the nominal thickness, the alloy, the coating system and the quantity behind them are different.
The useful move is not to hunt for a cheaper rate. It is to make the two quotes describe the same board. Mass per square metre, coating system and dry film thickness, perforation pattern, quantity, packing and delivery basis: with those six lines side by side, the prices become comparable and the arithmetic does the arguing.
A ceiling is bought as a kit even when it is quoted as one number. EN 13964 treats a suspended ceiling as membranes, substructures and components, and that division is the cleanest way to read a quotation: the board is the membrane, the grid and hangers are the substructure, and the trim, corners and infill are components.
If a supplier quotes one figure for the whole ceiling, that is a system rate and it is legitimate. It simply cannot be compared against a board rate without splitting it. Our guide to ceiling cost per square metre takes the system figure apart; this page stays on the board.
Aluminium for ceiling boards is usually specified in the 3000 or 5000 series, with 3003, 3105 and 5005 covering most of the market, in a strain-hardened temper such as H14 or H24 so that the panel holds its shape across a span. The alloy matters for formability and for corrosion behaviour; the temper matters for flatness after forming. Neither shows in a one-line quotation, and both change the coil price.
The mass arithmetic is worth memorising, because it is the one part of the price a buyer can recompute without the supplier's cost sheet. Aluminium has a density of 2,700 kg per cubic metre (EN 1999-1-1), which is 2.7 kg per square metre for each millimetre of thickness.
| Nominal thickness | Mass per m² | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 0.7 mm | 1.89 kg | Interior lay-in and clip-in tiles |
| 0.8 mm | 2.16 kg | Interior tiles, larger modules, baffles |
| 1.0 mm | 2.70 kg | Interior feature ceilings, edge details |
| 1.5 mm | 4.05 kg | Exterior soffits, canopies |
| 2.0 mm | 5.40 kg | Exterior cladding-grade panels |
Mass = thickness (mm) × 2.7 kg/m²/mm. Coating weight is additional and small by comparison: a coil coating is measured in micrometres of dry film, not in millimetres of metal.
Now the part that catches buyers. Thickness is nominal and the standard permits the actual gauge to sit within a tolerance band around it, which is why the purchase order should name the standard and the tolerance rather than a single number. A board running at the bottom of the permitted band carries less metal than one running at the top, and at a commodity price that difference is real money across a container. This is not a trick peculiar to ceilings; it is how coil is bought and sold. It is, however, a reason to ask for the measured gauge on the mill certificate instead of accepting the description in the offer.
The coating is where the largest specification spread hides, because the words on a quotation (“powder coated”, “PVDF”, “wood grain”) describe a family rather than a product. What actually distinguishes them:
For exterior soffits, coastal sites and long warranty periods, the recognised benchmark for a high-performance organic coating is AAMA 2605, which specifies a 70 per cent PVDF resin system and a defined set of weathering and chemical tests. A supplier claiming that class should be able to produce the test report; the colour name is not evidence of anything. Interior ceilings in dry conditions are normally served by a polyester system, and paying for PVDF there buys weathering performance the room will never use.
A perforated board is a different product from a plain one even when the panel dimensions are identical. Three cost items arrive with the perforations: the perforating operation, the acoustic fleece or tissue laminated behind the holes, and the scrap rate, which rises with open area. If the acoustic design calls for a specific free area, that number belongs on the drawing; the pattern alone does not define it.
Edge detail is the other quiet line. A lay-in tile with a square edge and a clip-in panel with a folded return are formed differently, and the tooling cost is amortised over the order quantity. On a small order the tooling can be a larger share of the unit price than the metal, which is why a rate quoted for 300 m² and a rate quoted for 3,000 m² are not the same product at different volumes.
Perforated lay-in tiles are a useful case: the visible product is one panel, the priced product is a panel plus a fleece plus a tooling amortisation.
Aluminium ceilings are light and bulky, so freight is charged on volume rather than weight and the packing specification is part of the price. Export packing for a coil-coated product usually means interleaved protection, edge protection, moisture barrier and a pallet dimension chosen to fit a container efficiently; each of those is a cost line, and a quotation that says “standard export packing” has said nothing you can check.
The delivery basis changes the number more than most buyers expect. A rate quoted EXW leaves the inland haul, export clearance, ocean freight and insurance to the buyer; a CIF rate folds freight and insurance in. Comparing the two without converting them to the same basis is the most common arithmetic error in ceiling procurement, and it is entirely avoidable: name the Incoterm and the destination port in the enquiry, and every reply arrives on the same footing.
The last question matters more than it looks. The metal component is priced against an aluminium index, and the widely used benchmark for indexation in aluminium contracts is the LME official aluminium price. That is why a rate has a validity date: a figure held for months is a figure where someone is carrying the metal risk, and it is rarely the buyer who benefits from that arrangement.
Send the specification with the enquiry and the answers come back comparable. That is also the point at which a drawing is worth more than a rate: send the ceiling drawings and the reply can be a bill of quantities per system rather than a single figure for a room.
The board line should cover the coil, the coating system on it, the cutting and forming into the module or panel, the perforation and acoustic backing if specified, and the packing. It should not cover the grid, the hangers, the perimeter trim or the infill panels, which belong to the suspension system and are usually quoted as separate lines. When a supplier quotes one figure for the whole ceiling, ask which of those items it contains, because a board rate and a system rate are not comparable numbers.
Four things usually differ underneath the same description. The alloy and temper change the metal cost. The thickness is nominal and the permitted tolerance allows the actual gauge to sit below the nominal figure, so two boards both sold as 0.8 mm can contain different amounts of aluminium. The coating system differs in resin type and in dry film thickness. And the quantity and the packing change the unit cost. Ask each supplier for the mass per square metre and for the coating specification, and the gap usually explains itself.
Per square metre, yes, because the metal is the largest part of the cost and mass scales with thickness. Aluminium at 2,700 kg per cubic metre is 2.7 kg per square metre for every millimetre of thickness, so a 0.7 mm board carries 1.89 kg per square metre and a 0.8 mm board carries 2.16 kg. Whether the thinner board is acceptable is an engineering question about span, hanger spacing and the load the ceiling has to carry, not a purchasing one.
It adds two costs: the perforating operation itself, and the acoustic fleece or tissue that is laminated behind the perforations if the specification calls for sound absorption. Both are priced per square metre and both are separate from the plain board rate, so a perforated quote should show them as their own lines rather than folded into one number.
It depends on where the ceiling is. Interior dry areas are usually served by a polyester powder or coil coating. Wet areas, coastal sites, exterior soffits and anything with a long warranty expectation call for a high-performance coating, and the recognised benchmark for that class is AAMA 2605, which specifies a 70 per cent PVDF resin system and a set of weathering tests. Whatever system is quoted, ask for the dry film thickness and the test report rather than the colour name.
No, and a published figure would be misleading rather than helpful. The metal component is priced against an aluminium index and changes with it, the coating and processing are specification-dependent, and freight moves with the shipping market. A rate without an alloy, a temper, a thickness tolerance, a coating system, a quantity and a delivery basis is not a price, it is a number.
No unit price is published on this page, deliberately. The mass figures are arithmetic from the density and the nominal thickness and can be recomputed from the formula shown; the standards are cited so that the claims in a supplier's quotation can be checked against a published document rather than against another quotation.