ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Had to happen sooner or later..

Wasn't me, but a guy I work with walked off the top of a large refrigeration area (deli department at a large grocery etc. wholesale place) onto the top of the drop ceiling above the bakery. Went right through, landed on top of a (luckily) empty table, and bounced up staring at the hole with a wtf look, nothing hurt but pride. Broken tiles are still on top of the ceiling and bring a good chuckle every time we go back.

I had an apprentice do that last year. Basically the same set up. He was alright, scared himself a bit. To this day, I still don't know what he was even doing that close to the edge of the hard ceiling.

However, today all of this customers facilities now have signs on top of the cooler areas warning not to step on the drop ceiling.

Great stories, although the heat stroke one scares me a bit. Reminds me of a friend of a guy I work with who was dirtbiking in the desert and fell off the bike and knocked himself unconsiouss, then lay there with his brain cooking inside his helmet. Nearly killed him- and definitely caused some brain damage- had to learn to count and tie his shoes and do simple things all over again. Sometimes you never know how much trouble you are in until you are already up to your neck in it, and you can only hope someone is nearby to bail you out. So who bailed you out of that attic?

When my wife was selling HVAC she used the "attic heat stroke" as a sales tool. Get the customer up there for a few minutes "to look at the air handler" and they will buy the best system you sell.

It was a remodel job. Two carpenter buddies. I had been complaining about how hot that attic was that day, but at that time I didn't know about feeling suddenly cold while in a hot attic. Now I do... I was stuck 1/2 way thru the sheetrock between two trusses.

glad I am not the only one to have done this...My journeyman and I at the time were working in a brand new used car lot and as I was working above the owner's office...I slipped and a size 10 1/2 Danner boot came through the ceiling...Thanks to camera phones and being the only ones on the job at the moment I was able to go back up there...stick my foot back through the hole and let my journeyman take a few pictures...It made for a good story...but the owner was not a very happy man...I am much more careful now after seeing his red face and having to listen to him basically call me an idiot...I don't really want to subject myself to that ever again if possible...

Here is my ceiling story.
Working in the summer in a attic pulling wire and I backed into a hornets nest. I started running through the attic to get away from them. I missed the beam and stepped down between them, Landed on the plaster and lathe, but in a instant ( and some very good reflexes at the time) I dropped the weight off the foot on the plaster and stepped onto another beam, put my weight on that one and kept on running. I didn't break the plaster and I just "popped" a nail hole in the ceiling below, "Just a little bit!" I put it back in and a little touch of drywall compound and it was good as new. That was the only time I ever came close to going through. However I have hit those !@#$%^& collar ties with my head too many times!( Now I hope I don't jinx myself)

About 5 years ago I was doing a re-wire of an old home. Someone had left an eight foot long 1X6 in the attic spanning over the ceiling joists which were 2 feet apart. I was crawling on this board to get to the other end. When I got to the end of the board, it started to tip downward from my body weight. It was then I realized the end of it wasn't sitting on a joist. The board hit the 3/8" drywall ceiling (which was bowing down because of the weight of the old rock-wool insulation), and before I realized it the WHOLE ceiling came down, along with the black insulation, and me going with it doing a complete 360 flip landing on my back on the floor 7 feet below.

I layed there as more black insulation poured on me, and I didn't know how badly hurt I was - my employee at the time thought I was dead. Somehow, I walked away from that without a scratch, although I was pretty shaken up. Looking back, the outcome could have been much worse.

They were going to cover the old ceiling with new drywall anyways, but I just made their job a bit easier

Sixer,

I've run into that "thought it was structural, but it ain't" problem more than once when walking on boards in an attic. The worst is when you step on the edge of a piece of plywood and discover it's cantilevered past the edge of a joist, and the whole piece of plywood starts to tilt down. It's a testament to luck--not my reflexes--that I've never gone through the ceiling with one of those.

However, to my discredit, I am still the only person I have ever met (or at least, who will admit it) who has managed to fall completely through a drywall ceiling. A bruised pride is a slow-healing thing.

-John

I haven't done it yet, thankfully! However last month I was doing a re-wire at a property for a guy who'd just bought the house. The whole installation was a nightmare as the previous guy had done a lot of additional wiring himself, and didn't believe in running earth wires.

Anyway, I had taken all the floorboards up to put in some new downlighters in the kitchen ceiling. Went home with the floorboards still up, and came back the next day to find the previous owner had broken in whilst under the influence, gone upstairs to where his bed used to be and then fell through the ceiling, ripping out all my wiring!

Found him asleep in the dining room the next morning, not injured just really hung over.