How would I fix drooping ceiling tiles?

once moisture has set into the tile it is basically ruined. Your photo appears as thought the support wire above the ceiling has come unattached from the grid. Check your support first.

I categorise ceiling tiles into two types

• exposed support
• hidden support

With the first type you can usually see a white painted metal grid on which the tiles rest. You remove the tiles by gently pushing them up, rotating them a bit, lifting one end a bit and lowering them through the opening diagonally.

The second type probably have many variations. The ones in my office can be removed as follows

• first start from a tile that is not next to any wall or light fittings.
• push gently on the center of each edge until you find an edge that can be easily pushed upwards. The opposite edge has a lip that locks under the adjacent tile
• once you have found the liftable edge, push it up and slide the tile an inch or so towards the lifted edge.
• the tile should now be free to be removed as described before.
• You may need to slide adjacent tiles towards a hole you have created by removing a tile This is particularly true at the edges and next to light fittings
• All the tiles have a direction because of the assymetric arrangement of lips/rabbets/rebates at the edges
• All the tiles face the same way.

Ceiling tiles are usually very fragile and easily damaged. Don't use force. You should be able to lift them with no more force than straightening your little finger.

Once you have removed the sagging tiles you can examine, photograph, repair or replace any damaged supports. Or you can replace the tiles if they are damaged - it may be that the supported lip on the upper edge has simply broken off.

This type tile is not on a metal grid. They have tongue and groove edges and the edge is usually stapled to a furring strip that is attached horizontally to the ceiling beams. The tile with the groove is fitted into it. I have reattached some of the tiles that I had coming loose by having someone tightly press the tile to the surface that is above it and used drywall screws to screw through edge that would be where the flange is. The head of the screw should not go in so far as to break the surface. I then used patching compound to cover the head of the screws. It is hardly noticeable since the ceiling was painted.

We use to use these type of acoustic tiles when we want to add some acoustic quality to a room or cover up a damaged gypsum board ceiling. These tiles have "square edges", that is to say they do not have T&G edges. The edges actually have small "chamfered" edges and need to be installed tight to the adjacent tile. They are installed using glue (mastic). Usually, we used beads of glue (not a coating). Then, they'd need to be pressed into position and held there until the glue dries.

Now that they have been exposed to moisture and come loose, they are deformed and probably unusable. I don't know if the tiles could be taken down and slowly re-shaped flat again by using steam and weights to get them to lay flat again.

If these are T&G tiles, the staples may have pulled through some of the tiles causing them to sag. If you have some replacement tiles handy you can repair/replace by starting at the closest wall. Caregully remove tiles starting at the wall and work toward sagging tiles. Wear proper removal gear. Then replace any damaged tiles. Staple carefully and properly to avoid this issue in the future. If you dont have replacement tiles, it may be a better longterm investment to replace the whole ceiling.

Those look like the glue to the ceiling type to me as I don't see any t bar supports. Usually the glue on tiles come down when they get wet from a leak, but I don't see any water damage. They may be able to be reattached with double stick tape or construction adhesive like liquid nails. The tiles I have put up similar to this were interlocked or were lapped to hide any seams these will be difficult to get down with out breaking but if you can get 1 down put the adhesive behind the loose ones and the one removed, then put the one removed back in the hole and work them back up as a group. If after taking 1 out you push the others up you would have trim 2 sides of the one removed to get it back in and it may show a small gap.

Syringe filled with superglue and a brace to hold it in place while it dries may need a few syringes because they stop up after you have put the glue In draw air back on syringe helps about stoping up