Installing Polk 8" RC80i ceiling speakers

A long time overdue, I installed one of my 8" Polk RC80i ceiling speakers which I purchased last November in the study today. I've been meaning to do this since the start of the year and had not gotten round to this yet knowing that it would be a bit of a task.

I started by roughly working out the position that I wanted the speaker on the ceiling by measuring the distance from the walls adjacent to the where I wanted the speaker to be. I then climbed into the roof and measured the same distance from the walls and found a place as close a possible to where I wanted the speaker without a beam or power cables in the way. 

I then cleaned away the insulation in the ceiling (wear gloves and a dusk mask) and placed down the cardboard circle shaped paint shield that was supplied with the speaker to make sure that the speaker would fit in the place I had chosen. I then made a small hole in the centre of the shield and through the ceiling with a drywall saw.

Drywall saw - essential tool.

It was quite difficult to push through the hole as my ceiling is made of a combination of mortar, horse hair (?) and wooden slats. This installation would be much easier in a modern house.

From inside the room I was relieved to see the hole where I wanted it to be and then used a pencil to draw the 8" circle from the cardboard cutout guide supplied with the speaker and then used masking tape to make a circle around the outside of the speaker to try and minimise any damage to the ceiling and keep the ceiling clean. 

I then used the drywall saw (wear eyewear protection and a dusk mask) to cut from the hole from below in the center of the circle to the edge and started to cut away the plaster around the inside of the circle.  

Initial hole and vacuum cleaner setup to collect dust.

Circle to remove outlined with masking tape and initial cut.

Once I started pulling away larger pieces of the plaster ceiling the wooden slats were visible from below. It was quite difficult to cut the slats with the drywall saw so I used my Dremel 3000 with the cutting piece attached. I was considering using my jigsaw, but I think the Dremel did a better job as it allowed better control.

Horse hair and slat ceiling

Dremel with cutting piece.

Next I then unpacked the speaker and then used a paper clip to remove the speaker grill from the speaker. This step was actually quite time consuming and eventually I had to hook through the paper clip through the grill and then pull the ends with a pair of pliers to get the grill free. Access under the grill is necessary to screw the clamps on the speaker down from inside the room with a philips-head screwdriver. At this point I enlisted the help of the Drinks Master to hold the speaker up from the bottom and tighten the clamp screws while I positioned the clamps on to the slats with most support from with-in the ceiling.

Ceiling speaker installed in the ceiling without the grill.

Speaker installed with grill.

The whole process took quite a few hours working mostly solo, although I needed assistance from the Drinks Master to push the speaker into the ceiling while I was in the roof above. The dust and masonry from the ceiling made a terrible mess and took quite a while to clean up even with painters drop sheets over the desks in the room below.

Although I have only done the single speaker so far, the sound is great connected to a Sonos Connect:AMP.  I now have three of them: Bathroom and Kitchen, Library, and Patio with a Sonos PLAY:5 in the Bedroom.

Sound wise - definitely more bass than the 6" RC60i speakers that I have installed the kitchen and the bathroom. I'm very happy with the result - once I can build up the energy to make a mess again I'll tackle the second speaker :)