Guides / Ceiling Systems
Aluminium ceiling panels are normally specified between 0.6 mm and 3.0 mm. The right number is not fixed: it follows the panel span, the perforation, whether the panel faces wind or salt air, and how much weight the grid has to carry. Thickness buys stiffness and flatness first, and cost second. This guide sets out what the thickness does, how to check the weight arithmetic, and how to write the thickness line on a request for quotation so two suppliers are answering the same question.
We quote aluminium ceiling panels from 0.6 mm to 3.0 mm, with the price stepping per 0.1 mm. Most interior panels sit near the thinner end because the sheet is a facing: it hangs from a grid, so the grid carries the load and the sheet only has to stay flat and hold its edge. Exterior soffits and facades move toward the thicker end because wind and corrosion reserve come into play, and the coating has to match the exposure. The thickness you write down should come from the span and the environment, not from a guess at what sounds solid.
Thickness is also the least complete way to describe a panel. Alloy, temper and coating move the behaviour as much as the gauge does, so a quote that names only a thickness is not yet a specification. The rest of this page is about putting the thickness where it belongs, which is one line in a short list of the things a ceiling panel actually is.
On an aluminium ceiling, thickness is the gauge of the sheet the panel is folded from. It is separate from the panel's edge height, which is the 20, 24, 28 or 30 mm lip the panel hangs by, and separate from the module, the 300 × 300 through 800 × 800 mm footprint in the specification table on the ceiling and facade systems page. The sheet gauge is the thinnest dimension of the three, and it is the one that decides how the face behaves between its carriers.
Two things follow from the panel being a facing rather than a structural member. The grid carries the dead load, so the sheet does not have to span a room on its own. And the sheet is thin enough that its flatness is a property of the gauge, the temper and the forming, not a given. A panel that is too thin for its span will show waviness in the face, the effect the trade calls oil canning, and no amount of grid will pull it flat after it is clipped in.
The thickness band on our page runs 0.6–3.0 mm because different products in the range want different gauges: a small clip-in tile and a long linear plank are not the same panel. The band is the menu, not the answer. The answer comes from the three questions below.
Aluminium has a density of 2,700 kg/m³, so the weight of a sheet per square metre is the thickness in millimetres times 2.7. A 1.0 mm sheet weighs 2.70 kg/m². The table is the same arithmetic carried across the band:
| Thickness | Sheet weight | Where it is usually used |
|---|---|---|
| 0.6 mm | 1.62 kg/m² | Light interior tiles, short spans |
| 0.8 mm | 2.16 kg/m² | Standard interior panels |
| 1.0 mm | 2.70 kg/m² | Longer planks, larger tiles |
| 1.2 mm | 3.24 kg/m² | Wide planks, curved profiles |
| 1.5 mm | 4.05 kg/m² | Exterior soffits, wind exposure |
| 2.0 mm | 5.40 kg/m² | Facade panels, deeper profiles |
| 3.0 mm | 8.10 kg/m² | Heavy facade and curved work |
Weights are for solid sheet. A perforated panel weighs less in proportion to its open area: a 22.7 per cent open pattern is roughly 77 per cent of the solid weight. The open-area arithmetic is on the perforated panel page.
Why the weight matters is the grid. A suspended ceiling is rated for a load, and the sheet is part of that load. Stepping every panel up by half a millimetre adds real kilogrammes across a hall, and at some point the grid and hanger specification has to follow. The relationship is set out in the suspended ceiling weight guide.
Thickness controls three things. It sets the panel's resistance to oil canning, because a thicker sheet holds a flat face over a longer span. It sets dent resistance, which matters where the ceiling is within reach or where services get pulled through it. And it sets the corrosion reserve, the metal left behind the coating if the finish is scratched or the environment is aggressive.
Thickness does not tell you the alloy. Two 0.8 mm panels can behave differently because one is folded from a 3000-series alloy and the other from a 5000-series alloy, and the alloys differ in formability and corrosion behaviour. It does not tell you the temper; a strain-hardened H14 sheet holds its shape where a softer sheet of the same gauge does not. It does not tell you the coating, and the coating carries most of the outdoor protection. A panel is the combination of all four, so any line item that names only the gauge is leaving the important part unsaid.
An interior ceiling is a flatness exercise. The panel is dry, the span is short, and the goal is a face that stays flat between carriers. Thin gauges work here because the grid does the carrying. The questions are the module, the edge profile and whether the panel is perforated, which takes metal out of the face and can push the gauge up to keep the pattern from sagging between holes.
An exterior soffit or facade is a wind and corrosion exercise. Wind load acts on the panel under EN 1991-1-4, so the gauge and the carrier spacing are worked out together rather than picked from habit. Corrosion protection follows the exposure category under EN ISO 12944, which is where the C1 to C5 classes come from, and the coating moves from a standard polyester powder to a fluoropolymer such as PVDF or to anodising. Our ceiling and facade systems page states the coastal rule plainly: PVDF two-coat or three-coat, or anodised, with the coating thickness written on the quote. The same thinking applies to any project near salt air, not only the coast.
This split is the same one the linear ceiling specification page draws for soffits, and it is worth reading alongside the aluminium versus gypsum comparison if you are deciding where metal belongs at all.
Thickness should arrive at the supplier as one line in a short list, not as the whole description. Send the same list to every supplier so the quotes describe the same panel:
The panel itself, with the thickness fixed, is priced on a sliding scale per 0.1 mm step, and the surface finish adds its own per-square-metre premium on top of the base metal. The panel price and suspended system price pages break down how those two parts combine, so the thickness line lands in a number you can reconcile rather than in a headline figure you cannot.
If you are still at the stage of choosing between systems rather than writing a gauge, start from the linear, baffle or cell comparison and come back to thickness once the system is fixed.
The band we quote within is 0.6 mm to 3.0 mm, with the price stepping per 0.1 mm. There is no single correct number: the thickness follows the panel span, whether the panel is perforated, whether it faces wind or salt air, and how much weight the grid can carry.
Usually, because thickness tracks aluminium content and the sheet is priced on a sliding scale per 0.1 mm step. But thickness is not the only cost driver. A thin panel with a PVDF or anodised finish can cost more than a thicker panel in a standard powder coat, so compare quotes on the same alloy, temper and coating, not on thickness alone.
It is not a good idea. An exterior soffit or facade carries wind load under EN 1991-1-4 and needs a corrosion reserve and a coating system matched to the exposure category under EN ISO 12944. Interior panels are usually specified lighter; exterior panels move up in thickness and into a PVDF or anodised finish, with the coating thickness stated on the quote.
Ask each supplier to state thickness, alloy, temper, coating system and coating thickness, edge height, module size, and whether grid and clips are included. Two quotes that only differ by a headline thickness number are not yet comparable, because alloy and coating can move the price and the performance more than the sheet gauge does.
Standards are cited for the definitions and methods they contain. The thickness for a project comes from the span, the environment and the grid, agreed with the supplier, not from this page.