Suspending MH Pendents

[Orcrone]

I'm going to be hanging three 24" MH pendents from my ceiling. I know that going into the rafters would be ideal. But being a friend of Murphy I'm going to guess that they are not located where I'd need them & moving the tank is not an option. There is no attic space above the tank. I'm left with 3 options:

Mount the fixtures with toggle bolts into drywall.
Cut out the drywall, toenail 2 x 4s between rafters & repair the drywall.
Paint a piece of wood, screw it into the rafters & hang the pendents from the wood.

Each pendent weighs 22 pounds. Option 1 is easiest. Do you think this would be safe or should I choose one of the other options?

Thanks...

[Soulsanctu]

option 2 sounds like a big hassle...I would personally go for option 3. Not sure I would hang that much weight with toggles only. You could use an expandable fan box. It would however require a J-box sized hole however but can be installed without need to access an attic ( or lack thereof....as in your case.)

[jcolley]

Option 3...

Doesn't have to be a 2x4, just something that provides a better mounting surface than drywall. I would use a 1x4 or 1x6 and call it a day.

If you want to make it look nice, route the edges or attach some corner molding or something that makes it look decorative instead of "more fish crap" I think is how my wife puts it.

[Orcrone]

Option 3 sounds like it's the way to go. I even have an extra piece of 1 x 4 - leftover fish crap from another project. :)

[ironwill723]

Just use SnapToggles from Lowes. They hold way over 100 lbs each depending on drywall thickness. 22 lbs is nothing.

[Orcrone]

Just use SnapToggles from Lowes. They hold way over 100 lbs each depending on drywall thickness. 22 lbs is nothing.

Thanks. They look pretty interesting. I'll check them out.

[ironwill723]

No problem...I'm using them to suspend my t5 fixture (50+ lbs) and they work great.

[cody6766]

If you look at the toggle type hangers they give you a rated weight per drywall thickness. Go bigger than you need and it'll be fine. My TEK light (unsure of the weight, but not too terribly heavy) has been suspended by 2 of them for over a year. If you're not comfortable with that, go with number three and stain it to either match your stand or your crown moulding if you have any

[Orcrone]

Thanks everyone for the advice. Think I'll make a Lowe's run today after work. At 22 pounds per pendent each anchor only has to support 11 pounds. I'll definitely oversize it a bit so I don't think there will be any problem.

[dkerns06]

I would definitely go with the third option. I just hung a single pendant over my tank and was wrestling with the same issue. Fortunately I could go right into the joist with both my mount points. Before I hung it though I asked several people what I should do. They all either said go into the joist or run a board across the joist and mount the light to that as in your option 3. Evey one was of the opinion that over time the dry way may begin to sag, and I dont know about you but I would rather go with absolute security when hanging stuff over my tank. Also just for reference the people I asked we either union carpenters and my landlord who is a union electrician.