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My girlfriend has recently moved to me, we have finally been fully furnished the apartment (because my mom is visiting and my daughter because my sister wants to marry on Friday). The apartment is clean and stylish and all the beds are occupied.
It is Thursday evening, 10PM - and we want to finally go to bed (child is asleep, I'm up at 4 and tomorrow will be a stressful day).
And then my girlfriend noticed 2 long cracks in the living room ceiling:









At this place the ceiling is lowered at least 1 inch!



The emergency janitor service has noted: It is "only" of the plaster, but it must be fixed urgently by a craftsman!
The mother should also be better somewhere else to sleep.
The craftsmen came the next morning at 9 and told us "So on 6x4ft the plaster came down and must be removed." Suddenly a big bang and the living room looks like:









Already at the first little touch a huge piece of plaster came down, much bigger than we thought.
And it was also to see that even more will follow!



















Conclusion:
The apartment looks like shit, it was a damn stressful morning before the wedding, the just finished living room does no longer exist, it's dirt everywhere and the whole apartment is filled with furniture and their content.
The coming weeks the craftsmen will come and go and it will result even more stress and dirt!
That sounds definitely like: less rent for the flat and compensation for damaged laminate, the filthy couch and so on!

That sucks! I had a friend go through a problem like that not too long ago. I can't even imagine how stressful that must be. Good luck, and I hope everything works out.

Sucks to have all the dust etc.
But i like your taste in style, love the walls etc.

Damn that living room was beautiful. Loved the floors and everything. Don't know what it's like in germany but in the us most apartments/flats have a security deposit you must put in usually first and last months rent.
good thing you have these pictures. My friends didn't take pictures of the apartment before they moved in then the landlord made shit up after and even ruined a few things so she didn't have to give up the security deposit which was 1400. They ended up getting 100.
She took pictures so they couldn't fight it at all.

I'd definitely go for lower rent. what are you paying now?

75 squaremeters (3 rooms, bath and kitchen) for 500 euro / month. That is a nice price for living in the capitol city. I don't live downtown, it is more at the edge of Berlin.


Hmmm, i have no "before" picture. Like i said - it was JUST finished....

sorry about the cieling, but your livingrood did look pretty nice

that is a pretty good place. I'm sure you probably wouldn't wanna be downtown anywhere. this is just in today's exchange rate but that's roughly $700 us.
That's what my friends were paying for a closet of a bathroom 1 bedroom and living room and kitchen plus another small ass room

That's not a bad price but I would try and get it lowered to compensate the damages.

I do love your taste in style. It gave me some ideas!

Is the damage just cosmetic or is there a structural problem with the ceiling? Yikes, I would be scared to nap on your couch knowing that "the sky is falling!" Seriously, the room looked great before the plaster fell. Hope that this lowers your rent.

Midnight_Rider wrote:Is the damage just cosmetic or is there a structural problem with the ceiling? Yikes, I would be scared to nap on your couch knowing that "the sky is falling!" Seriously, the room looked great before the plaster fell. Hope that this lowers your rent.

It looks like it was a problem with the plaster not holding where that power line runs through. I'm sure the structure is fine.

Drywall FTMFW, plaster is too dense and if not properly installed will let go under its own weight.

besides the crappy roof issue, apartment looks nice hope everything goes well.

awesome dude!

Lets see what the craftmen can do. It is such a gypsum plaster and the ceiling is okay. I guess the primer was shit - the plaster came down (like a bubble under painting) and at the weakest (thinnest) place - where the wire is - it brook under its own weight.
What good we noticed it and no1 was hurt. The pieces where dammit heavy!
I guess 2 more days and it would have come down by itself. Maybe on my mother or my daughter, maybe on our glass table with our 2 laptops on it.
So it is good luck in a bad thing.


Craftman told us that they have to install a new plaster - and the progress will cause many WET dirt. Lets see how it looks after that!

Yes we will definitely lower the rent and tell them to pay us for all the stress and for cleaning everything and for the damaged laminate floor.
Also they have to send a painter for the new ceiling.

And my girlfriend hopes that they will damage my big fat 42" rear projection television. She hates that fat thing.

Just noticed yesterday that we have absolutely NO idea where to place my gf's birdcage with her budgies (and also: the couch, the TV, the ikea-racks with all the DVDs and books... Other rooms are to small and absolutely filled now. That sucks!
It looks like we have to fill up every corner and just leave a small way to come from the entry to the bedroom, bath and kitchen...

Unfortunately, stuff happens and repairs have to be made.

I notice the furniture still in the room while they are tearing down the ceiling.

Was no attempt made to move the furniture out of the way?

You are fortunate repairs are being made... the landlord could just say no repairs... wait for you to move out... then make the repair and rent to someone new.

It came down before we could move the furniture.
Hmm - i had no problem with leaving the flat - if they would pay for EVERYTHING...


At the moment it looks good - room is still not to use but the new plaster is on. Waiting now that it dries and then they wanna sand it and paint it. Could take another 2-3 weeks...

Jenni wrote:It came down before we could move the furniture.
Hmm - i had no problem with leaving the flat - if they would pay for EVERYTHING...


At the moment it looks good - room is still not to use but the new plaster is on. Waiting now that it dries and then they wanna sand it and paint it. Could take another 2-3 weeks...

I'm not suggesting that you leave... only that furniture be moved out of the way.

In one of the photos I see a worker up on the ladder with the furniture still around.

If it had been me... I would have moved the furniture it another area... if there was room.

Sanding and painting should not take 2-3 weeks... if it does they are dragging their heels.

That's good you got the new stuff up. Find any place to put the birdcages and stuff. I know how you feel about the big screen tv deal. I've been trying to get one for a while now but my gf thinks it's a waste of money when our tv we have now still works. our tv is 19 years old so i'm waiting for it to crap out.

I like how they plastered the wires into the ceiling. That would not happen in the States, unless the building was really old. Even then, the wiring was/is usually run through the wooden joists, or on ceramic insulators.

Wow, that's terrible!!! Hopefully they get it fixed soon. Is that the only ceiling in your entire apartment that is made in that fashion or do they all need to be re-done? Luckily no one was sitting there when it happened.

Paul56 wrote:

Jenni wrote:It came down before we could move the furniture.......

...
In one of the photos I see a worker up on the ladder with the furniture still around.

If it had been me... I would have moved the furniture it another area... if there was room.

Sanding and painting should not take 2-3 weeks... if it does they are dragging their heels.

Like i said: it came down at the first touch. AND - we have no place for the furniture.
2-3 weeks is the absolute maximum they told us. It needs a lot of time till the plaster is dry - and then they can paint it.


This wiring is absolutely okay. (okay, it looks fun now cause it got loose from the ceiling...)
I don't know what you see on the pictures but it is just an absolutely normal flat wire for under-plaster-wiring (i guess you call that "ribbon conductor"?). It has 3 lines and SURE - it is insulated.



(But don't tell me things about american standards - i know your housebuilding TV-shows... years ago i finished my first professional education as an electrician and when i see those shows i often have big goosbumps when i see the wiring...)
PS: In beton constructions you will find NO wood.



For the TV: I really like it. It is a big fat impressive thing and i bought it really cheap. But the wife needs something more bright and modern and flat. So SHE hopes...

It looks like the plaster in the other rooms is still good but i will doublecheck this. (It is easy to hear if there is a hollow space under the plaster...)

It looks like concrete. Drywall/sheetrock would be a PITA to attach. I forgot wood is pretty much not an option there. So yeah, the gypsum/plaster is about the only option.(other than painting the concrete)

Our apartment is over 100 years old, so it is basically the same, except they layed the gypsum onto wood lath (strips) as the base. I think it is pretty much a lost art here, as drywall has pretty much been used for decades. Overall our ceilings are in good shape. We only have one part on a wall that is similiar to what your ceiling looked like.

lol wtf how much does the gf weigh1?!?! jk

???
We never walk on the ceiling. It is very hard to fool the gravitation....

i wish i lived in Berlin. Love parade, space invaders.

GRRRRRRRRRR best party/raves in the world.

I will be moving soon.

dam sucks but hey look at it in the good way ! getting a new seiling roof lol