Integration is a programme problem
A cove detail is easy to draw and impossible to add later. The dimension, the plaster return, the access for the driver — all of it has to be settled while the ceiling contractor is still producing shop drawings. Miss that window and the cove becomes a surface-mounted compromise.
Dimensions that actually work
Most failed coves are too shallow. A cove needs enough depth and enough offset from the surface for the light to blend before it reaches the eye, or the result is a row of visible dots. Sixty to eighty millimetres of offset is a workable starting point; less requires a diffused product.
Access is part of the design
Every integrated detail should have an answer to the question of how a driver gets replaced in year seven. A removable section, an access panel in an adjacent surface, or a serviceable gear tray — decided at design stage, not discovered at first failure.
Coordinate with the trades that build it
The joiner, the plasterer and the ceiling contractor build these details. Issuing them a dimensioned section drawing, and reviewing the first one built, resolves more problems than any amount of specification text.
