Curved Hat Channel
Radius Track
The company now offers pre-curved hat channels, a new innovation that is helping the industry cut construction costs while achieving aesthetically pleasing curved surfaces. Curved hat channel can be an economical framing alternative to cold rolled channel and c-studs and other framing methods. Hat channel eliminates the need for clip connections, is easier to attach to surfaces than other materials, does not deflect or deform like a steel stud, can be flexed in the field and offers more strength from less material. At around $ .50 cents per foot, hat channel is an economical alternative. Curved hat channels can be applied to five major areas:
• Roofing and roofing overlays
• Interior ceilings, barrel vaults or acoustic ceiling clouds or pillows
• Masonry walls use furring channels to hold insulation. By using curved hat channels horizontally, the drywall installer can put drywall on vertically
• Curved soffits
• Exterior curved walls behind vertical rain screen supports
Contractors working the renovation of an historic building or a retrofit find that because of its geometry, the hat channel can attach to an “out of true wall” and be shimmed to provide a plum and level surface to attach drywall. Additionally, hat channels can provide sound dampening characteristics; acoustic sound travels differently on angles than on straight surfaces. Radius Track provides color-coded nomenclature and unique part numbers for all materials. The part number for each part is put on layout drawings to help ease installation on the jobsite. Radius Track can bend and deliver curved material in long lengths, typically up to 16 feet.
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