How To: Plaster in LED profile

By LED Lighthouse

One of our most popular LED casings is the ‘Plaster in’ LED profile. Versatile, discreet and able to create bespoke lighting scenes to match any design, this profile is available in 2m lengths and comes with an opaque diffuser cover as standard. The LED housing fits all of our IP65 LED strips so creating the look you want has never been easier.

Plaster in LED profile at a glance.

Our Plaster in LED profile has been designed not only to give a perfect finish but also with ease of installation in mind. As can be seen in the technical image to the right, the lip of the profile is raised to make skimming up to the edge easier than ever. The best way to skim around the Plaster in profile is to trowel away from the lip, treating the profile as a traditional edge bead. This will ensure none of the skim goes inside the channel itself as this will be difficult to remove.

Installing the Plaster in LED casing.

The Plaster in LED profile can be installed 1 of 2 ways. The easiest way we find is to fit the profile as the plaster board is installed. For example, if the LED light is to illuminate horizontally, measure the height you would like the LED light to show and cut the board at that height. Fit the Plaster in profile on top of the cut plaster board and secure using either drywall screws, plaster board adhesive or a commercial stapler. Measure and cut the upper plaster board and gently lower down to the Plaster in profile. Secure again using the same method as before.

The alternative way of fitting the Plaster in profile is to fully board the area and the cut the plaster board at the desired point for the LEDs to shine through. We’ve found this to be much trickier as getting a nice, clean cut on the plaster board when installed can be difficult.

 

 

 

Wiring the LED strip inside the profile.

Before starting to plaster board the area, it’s advisable to ‘first fix’ the cabling for the LEDs. Single colour LED strip needs a 2 core wire, CCT adjustable white needs a 3 core cable, RGB needs 4 cores and RGBW uses a 5 core wire. Ideally you would want the cable loosely coming through the Plaster in profile at one end of the wall/ceiling. Drilling the back of the aluminium profile will allow the cable to move freely. It’s important you can easily push and pull the supply cable as once you have made the connection to the LED strip, you’ll need to feed the cable back through the profile to ensure you don’t get any dark spots at the beginning of the LED profile.

Fitting the diffuser cover to the Plaster in profile.

As with all of our LED housings, we suggest cutting the aluminium profile and the diffuser cover at the same time. This will help ensure both are the same length. There are many ways to cut the profile but we’ve found the easiest to be a mitre saw. This allows both straight and 45 degree cuts to be done with great accuracy.

It’s advisable to fit the diffuser cover after the wall has been skimmed. A plasterers trowel would easily damage the diffuser cover and ruin the effect of the LED lighting once completed. As long as precautions are taken to avoid any skim filling the LED profile, you should have no trouble installing the LED strip and diffuser cover after plastering.

 

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About LED Lighthouse

Specialist supplier of quality LED lighting

Established in 2011, we are dedicated to supplying quality LED lighting at an affordable price. We offer LED Lights and components from some of the best manufacturers including Integral, Samsung, Epistar, Meanwell and Ltech.
Due to customer demand, in recent years we've grown to specialise in LED Strip Lights and associated parts, developing many of our own products.