How are you dealing with flair vents being smaller than original vent requiring painting?
I started replacing vents, have not made much progress as the flair vents are smaller than the original vents.
All our ceilings were spray painted over the original vents to color match the ceiling, so now I have to sand smooth and blend paint to cover the old edges that are sticking out from under the flair vents.
Any suggestions for an easier way, or am i stuck needing to sand and paint ceilings?
-
Official comment
Hi Pieter Viljoen,
We have a customer who has 3-d printed some trim kits to solve this exact issue.
Here is a link - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5278498
Check this out as it's a pretty simple and elegant solution.
Regards,
The Flair Team
Comment actions -
That is what I feared. I was hoping for an easier solution, like a plastic flange piece that makes the surface area just a bit larger.
In fact, it may not be too difficult to make, white thin sheet plastic and a laser cutter, I don't have one, but there are reasonably priced online services that will do it.
It does make me wonder if FLAIR has actually tested installing their vents on walls and ceiling in real homes that do not have pristine lab like condition surfaces?
-
I noticed this same issue right away, and got the same suggestion on those 3d printed pieces. But one, they won't work. They would need to also have an indent because the ductwork wraps around the edges of the duct. And 2, they're just flat pieces, if that's all I needed I wouldn't need to 3d print anything. I could just cut those out of a sheet of plastic or aluminum or whatever material I choose.
It's fairly confusing, as vents are mostly a standard size. Why did flair choose to make their vents smaller?
-
I actually printed the 3d printed suggestion (with a few modifications to fit my vent specifically) and it worked perfectly! It is a little annoying that it's in two pieces but it was designed that way because a lot of 3d printers can only print up to 9" x 9" or so and once it's up you can't even tell anyway. Not a bad solution honestly, though I wish Flair offered something themselves (Similar to how Keen offers trim kits).
-
I had some 1.5mm thick white acrylic pieces cut by Ponoko, see here for models: https://www.autodesk.com/community/gallery/project/173188/flair-vent-flanges
-
Our business now offers Trim Kits for this brand in all available vent sizes. They are single pieces and the vent cover is flush. Additionally, we offer it in either a sloped or a more modern 90-degree cut with rounded corners.
Empyrean3d.etsy.com
Email info@empyrean3d.com for more info
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
8 comments