help me remove a speaker grille

April 29, 2007 6:58 AM

Help, and quick! Water leaked down from a second floor bathroom into the kitchen ceiling, and it's dripping around the speaker in the ceiling. I need to remove this speaker to let the water drain before it ruins huge swaths of the ceiling. But I can't figure out how to get the speaker grille off!!!Pictures inside.

There's no keyhole or anything to slip a thin screwdriver blade in, and nothing seems to turn or otherwise move from hand pressure.

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posted by luser to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

I would try getting something, like your fingernails or a tiny nail or something, under the outer rim, and just pulling straight down.
posted by ikkyu2 at 7:14 AM on April 29, 2007

Maybe between the bezel and the grille?
Removal instructions.
posted by LoriFLA at 7:28 AM on April 29, 2007

Please use something with a rubber or wooden handle unless you have the ability to turn off the electricity!!! Water plus electrical plus metal/your body is BAD.

You can always replace the speaker or patch the ceiling. If you have to, punch a hole in the drywall with a screwdriver, AGAIN being careful to keep wood or plastic between you and metal + water.
posted by jeanmari at 7:29 AM on April 29, 2007

Best answer: You need to remove the grille, which will let you get access to the screws holding in the bezel. Again, the screws are concealed by the grille.

Take something like a paper clip or a safety pin, and make a hook out of it. Hook it into one of the holes at the edge of the grille. Pull downward. The grille should come loose. You may have to do this around the whole perimeter.

You will then see 4 screws, which you can unscrew to remove the whole fixture.
posted by fake at 7:39 AM on April 29, 2007

Response by poster: Even using paperclips, I couldn't get the grille to move, so I finally just slipped a credit card under the edge and pulled. The ceiling was soggy at that point and the whole thing just came out. Luckily the water had seeped over from another point in the ceiling, hit the bezel, and came down that way, avoiding the actual speaker. So ceiling damage has to be fixed, but the speaker doesn't have to be replaced.

Thanks all!
posted by luser at 10:01 AM on April 29, 2007