this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
122 points (96.2% liked)

Ask Lemmy

30326 readers
1313 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Textured ceilings probably help hide things, but why the lines?

top 33 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Opinionhaver@feddit.uk 30 points 3 days ago (2 children)

People being confidently wrong in the comments again. It's the seam between two pre-cast hollow-core slabs. This is how every single apartment building is built at where I live.

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

People being confidently wrong in the comments again

Lol! Every thread. Can't say I haven't been that person, too. 😅

[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

My garage was constructed with those at my old house. Allows you to have usable space under the garage. But it leaks when they install incorrectly -- no membrane was installed on the top side and they put the lumber walls on the same cement block as the spancrete. They are supposed to build up a half course of cement block so that the base of the lumber walls sits higher than the garage floor.

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 56 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Drop ceiling. That’s a panel and there’s 1-2 ft of space between it and the real ceiling. It’s much easier to run your utilities there than in the walls, and the panels make it easy to access.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 26 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's not a suspended ceiling, it's a concrete slab. It's probably a prestressed concrete slab and the lines are the individual panels. It could be poured in place but I doubt it as that would require a ton of form work and be very slow and expensive.

[–] tyrant@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

A drop ceiling would have a little metal frame that the panel sits in.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 days ago

Drop ceiling tiles are so fragile and ugly. Very laborious to install. Guests would do stupid things, like lift them up to snoop and put tuna cans up there and other nefarious stuff. The stack of tiles needed to outfit a hotel would be massive. To think drop ceilings are used in hotels defies logic.

[–] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 27 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

With all the horror stories I heard about issues with leaking pipes or faulty electrical circuits requiring ceilings and walls to be torn down, the real question is why we don't do all the ceilings and walls like that.

[–] count_dongulus@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This is rhe same reason I will never buy a house on slab: gotta hammer up the floor, fix, repour and refloor if you ever need those pipes down below.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

So you want a basement on dirt? So you can't use the space for anything?

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

A lot of contemporary homes are built on hollow foundations with an accessible crawlspace for utilities.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Oh, crawl spaces are pretty rare further north because you need to be under the freezing level of the ground anyway so people have basements.

[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

My goofy old house with built with the basement floor on trusses and a roughly chest high crawl space underneath. The main benefit is that you can run duct work under the floor and have full height ceilings. The drawbacks is that you have a wood floor in a basement with clay soil.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Interesting, the basement ceiling must be pretty far outside the ground otherwise that requires a pretty deep hole! Around here is usually 6' deep compared to ground level with ~2' above ground and a slab with only the main drain under the slab...

[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Depends on the side of the house. On the front, it's completely underground. About 20 feet from sill plate to floor. On the back side of the house, it's a basement walkout.

[–] Nemo@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 days ago

I'm up north too, but my house is so old it has a cellar foundation instead of a basement one.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Drywall is so cheap and easy, and leaks and failures so infrequent it doesn't make sense to have "easy access" to the interior of walls. Drywall is the easy access.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemm.ee 3 points 3 days ago

Certainly easier than plaster and lathe. Patching that shit is terrible.

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Yes, this answer. Try hitting it (don't). Also reduces heating costs in old properties with high ceilings.

[–] Seinveld@lemm.ee 22 points 3 days ago

They’re precast concrete planks that span the width of the building. You’re looking at the seams between the planks.

[–] Skunk@jlai.lu 23 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You can open or replace this fake ceiling square by square as behind it you may find some electrical stuff that sometimes needs to be repaired. It’s also probably cheaper.

It’s kind of the same as the floor in data centers. If you’ve been in one, the floor is a fake floor made of square sort of plastic tiles. Below that you have the cold air that goes into the servers, AC and DC power, fire and water detectors, cables road etc. You need an easy access to those fake floors or ceiling for maintenance.

[–] JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The floor is a fake floor...

Have also seen grated floors for the same reason. Like a fence that you walk on, so you can actually see the cable management below

[–] MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net 7 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The grates allow cool air to be forced up in front of racks. Unless your company cheaped out on datacenter construction, picked a room too small, didn't leave room for the ramp to get up to proper height without breaking code on the incline, and had to rig a half-height raised floor that barely left room for electric, let alone proper air flow, so there had to be a huge air handler on top of the unit to blow cold air in the wrong places. And then bought a generator that wasn't beefy enough to cover the AC, so every time the power went out it's a mad scramble to put rolling units in place to keep the room at ~90F.

And all of the brass thought themselves geniuses for saving a few dollars.

[–] JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

Ya know, I bet there was some stupid financial decisions that went into it. I just thought it was cool that we could see the cable management cause it was done pretty well lmao

I wasn't there long enough to bother looking that deep into that kind of thing, but I'll probably think about it the next time I see some dumb shit like that lol

[–] nylo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

this is far too specific to be a hypothetical.

you sound like a Vietnam war vet recounting their tour.

thank you for your service!

[–] toofpic@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

As many people commented, it's a gap between concrete slabs. it is more pronounced in the basement of my building, because they didn't try much at cover it.
Btw, I photographed it earlier to demonstrate the great work engineers done neatly guiding wiring and piping.
Edit: provided photo as a link
https://photos.app.goo.gl/RCsS9fJmFnp4XGbR9

[–] Today@lemmy.world 23 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I think they're wall panels that fit together instead of real taped and bedded drywall. Probably makes it easier to replace if there's damage. Kind of like using carpet tiles instead of rolled wall-to-wall carpet.

ETA- something like this. https://trusscore.com/products/wall-and-ceilingboard.html

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 6 points 3 days ago

Either it's a fake ceiling or they are slabs of concrete.

pattern slabs source

[–] floo@retrolemmy.com 7 points 4 days ago

Because it’s cheap.

[–] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 days ago

One of the best ways to understand this is to imagine a multi-storey car park. Concrete exterior walls, support pillars and wide open spaces. Now imagine it being a hotel. All the internal walls and ceilings could go anywhere. What you need is sound/heat insulation and somewhere to hide all your pipes and cables.

Quick, clean and crisp-looking are big concerns from the constructor and operators’ point of view. Whatever methods and materials work best will tend to become industry standard.

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world -1 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Because that's how they're made

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

You can tell by the way that it is.