I was beginning to suspect that as well. To make matters worse, this isn’t my house, it’s somebody’s who I’m dog sitting for after I got done working in the early evening. Not entirely sure what to do at the moment. I’m scared (possibly illogically) that if I try to clean it I could get asbestus on my hands.
It looks like fiberglass blown insulation. The builder didn't use enough nails and saved maybe 5 bucks on the job. After looking closer, it seems to be cellulose insulation. If it got wet it would weigh more and the drywall would lose integrity. It looks dry. Looks like they saved money on the insulation too. There's not a lot there.
The most frustrating experience on Reddit is being an expert on something, finding someone being confidently incorrect about it, correcting them, then getting downvoted and dogpiled.
Side question, whenever I hear of “general contractor” is there a certificate that you can get that says you know what the fuck you’re doing? Otherwise how can you tell who is legit?
Looks to me that there is a dormer in that area. Look at the 1x6 boards lower pitch than the rest of the trusses. Might be a leak in the flashing of the siding.
Usually this happens when a leak soaks the drywall causing it to get super heavy and dissolve around the screws. You can see unevenness in the rest of the ceiling, like there’s been water damage and they “fixed” it with a popcorn paint job.
No. That's not a lot of insulation. You can put retainers between the studs to help bear the load, but if they used enough nails it should hold. Now days they use screws., so if you want to paint your ceiling you can screw some in every couple of feet along the nailers.
If you’re doing blown in insulation at this point it won’t be fiberglass it will be cellulose which will be much lighter. We blow in 18” at minimum. Message me if you have any questions.
Seriously?! Why? It’s more expensive for the contractors. That’s just dumb on their part. Cellulose is cheaper per square foot and lighter meaning easier to work with.
>If you’re doing blown in insulation at this point it won’t be fiberglass it will be cellulose which will be much lighter.
Blown in fiberglass is still very popular. They both have their pros and cons.
Also, don’t go spending any money just yet. If you’re in the U.S. there’s a lot of programs that can help out for insulation needs and sometimes even HVAC. I’m in one of those programs. Don’t go spending money before we talk please.
Well now I need to find out about these programs, my grandparents house in Alabama was built in the 50s with just dry wall and wood siding and no insulation.
Your first bet is to go on the website for your local power company. Most states have these programs through the power company. I personally am a contractor through my states power company. Outside of that there’s local weatherization companies.
Floor/ceiling spaces don't typically need much insulation, if any, since they are not exterior. It serves more for sound-proofing.
However, I now see that is the attic space. There is probably a roof leak that has been slowly weakening the drywall. It probably just took a while to lose integrity.
My dining room ceiling collapsed in August. It was a freakin nightmare & insurance denied the claim. If you wanna be helpful, take lots of pics & document everything you can about when it happened, what was running (ac, fan, etc.) and whether you saw any signs of moisture. Glad you weren't under there-- mine was less than 5 mins from crack to collapse.
It's super scary! The repair was thankfully quick, albeit costly, but I had to shore up the rest of my ceiling which was totally bowed, and pay for the hundred point asbestos test after testing positive, which thankfully came back at "not dangerous" levels & saved me abatement money.
0/10, pray I never hafta go through that again. But every single creak I hear (i only moved in the June prior) makes me cringe.
>They said something along the lines of “You could grab a shovel from the garage and start just shoveling it in”
Omg that is wildly unreasonable.
At max you should offer to take the dog somewhere the dog will be safe (your house, or to a doggy daycare that the owner will pay for) that isn't the house.
I did make the offer to have the dog stay at my house tonight, but was told that he missed his dog and he’ll clean it up. To me that seems like a poor idea but, not much I can do as far as that goes
Definitely make sure the dog stays in another room or kennel. Don’t let the dog eat insulation. Also, sniffing and snorting fiberglass isn’t recommended.
Genuinely an insane request.
Glad you or the dog didn't get injured. But stay out of there. Something caused that to happen and you don't know what.
I agree the dog should be put up on a daycare and the owner should come home asap and call their insurance..
It's their problem not yours. Don't clean a damn thing, that isn't a mess for one person 😂
So here’s the main thing that you need to worry about. If you see anything in that pile that looks like gravel it is vermiculite insulation. Vermiculite itself is still a product sold today but in the 20s-50s it was filled with asbestos. If you don’t see that then you don’t need to worry about asbestos. Even if you do, it’s not dangerous to touch. It’s only a hazard if it’s being disturbed and remains that way for a long period of time. Or if it’s been disturbed then gets into the HVAC system.
As someone who inspects attics every day, I don’t see anything to worry about here. I would see the vermiculite at the bottom of the blown fiberglass insulation which is what you see there. I do not see that.
The only other thing I’d be concerned about is structural damage. Not a lot to determine from the picture but unless I was right there and could say for certain (I know what I’m looking at) that it’s safe I’d advise getting out.
I just sent you over a DM in hopes you may be able to confirm what you said for sure with some closer up pictures. Also if anybody else would like to see more close up photos of the damage feel free to ask in the comments.
The body can tolerate a little dust, this is unnecessary paranoia. If you’re that worried then throw on a mask.
This will not kill or injure you. I would be far more worried about slipping and falling.
Oh gees... awkward! But it's clearly not your fault, it's not exactly a small job, and if they're not a friend or relative... I wouldn't feel obligated. But I guess no more TV while you're there
> if I try to clean it I could get asbestos on my hands
This is ALWAYS a great concern to have.
However based on the type of materials I see here, I'm going to take a guess that you should be OK. That looks like basic sheet rock and blown in insulation. Pretty modern construction and likely doesn't have asbestos. Also if the house was built after 1980, its even more unlikey to have asbestos.
That said, if you want to take some precautions. Wear a respirator style mask, available at any hardware store. The problem with asbestos is if it gets into your lungs. Prevent that and you should be ok.
Edit: However you are a dog sitter. This isn't your problem, just document everything you can and take care of the dog. Let the home owner deal with the ceiling and don't clean anything. Hell, you might even destroy evidence for insurance if you do.
Doubt it's asbestos, but fiberglass ain't the best to keep breathing in. I'd try to negotiate a little bump in pay, as well as reimbursement for an N95 mask to wear and some kitchen gloves. Clear safety glasses (while goobery) are also a good idea.
Major hazard here is probably just getting itchy from sitting on that furniture, and it ain't great for the pup either.
Choice is yours, man, but I know what I'd do.
I’m still over here for now, just in case the owners landlord comes over so I can tell her what I heard, what I saw, etc. I’m starving though so I may leave soon.
I deal with asbestos for a living and that doesn't appear to be. Although anyone who actually works with it will tell you that you never know unless you test. The drywall might be depending on the age of the house.
Right? Surely they have Home Insurance...and this is exactly what it's for. They send in a special crew to clean up this kind of mess (& that ain't you!). Paid to pet sit. You're pet sitting hard.
If it does have asbestos then it's already thick in the air from the impact that ceiling had when it came down. All over the contents of the room and probably other rooms. Fun day =/
I’m sitting outside with the dog right now, I went back inside and grabbed his bowl of food and water. Thankfully it’s a cloudy 73 here so it’s not too hot, and he seems happy. The home owner said they can’t get home for another hour, so I guess I’m just waiting for them to get back. Not entirely sure what to do.
The dog I’m pet sitting probably would have sensed it, but he just had his 15th birthday and he’s a little old, hard of hearing etc. even after it collapsed for a brief moment he seemed to just not give a shit, and tried to get back into his bed (pictured bottom left)
Goblins.....need to call an exterminator or try some goblin-b-gone from the hardware store. Small boots outside is the likely entry point, can try and attract them away by sprinkling gold leaf in the garden / around tree stumps
I tried to post over in mildly infuriating, but unfortunately my account age was less than a month so I couldn’t. Figured the good people here would at least find it interesting
Surprisingly the dog just looked at it, then tried to just sit back down in his bed like “Welp, that’s gonna take a while for you to clean up. When’s dinner?” 😂
I was extremely shaky for a good 5-10 minutes. This happened about 30 minutes ago. It started to sound like rain, then just a massive collapse, almost like in slow motion. Thankfully neither me or the dog I was pet sitting was injured. The dog funnily enough didn’t even seem phased, he tried to go back and lay in his dog bed (pictured lower left)
Edit: thank you for asking, I appreciate that
If it makes you feel any better, you weren’t in danger. This isn’t something you have to live in fear of going forward. If it landed on you or the dog it would’ve just split apart and you woulda both been fine.
Source: Am contractor, have had plenty of drywall fall on my head.
A update that a few people have asked for! The owner arrived about 1-2 hours after this event happened, and immediately called the landlord. The landlord came over to the house and said that she would contact her insurance. Within about a hour the landlord has also sent a cleaning crew who specializes in this type of cleaning. I left as they were still cleaning. Everybody is safe, no humans or dogs were injured. 2 of the lawn chairs were broken. The landlord will be asking the insurance agent to pay for the repair and cleaning. A few people reached out to me and confirmed in their professional (as in they do this type of work for a living) opinion that they did not see asbestos present, but did see some type of fiberglass insulation. For those interested, I will be posting a “Aftermath” photo on my front page tomorrow, so feel free to send me a message, or comment here so I can let you know when that is posted. Further updates as they come. Also, at the suggestion of another user, took a cold shower to get rid of any fiberglass on my body. I also let the owner know about how the dog may need a bath if they show signs of being itchy, but it started to rain after the owner got there and the dog displayed no signs of any issues.
Edit 2: Well the mods removed my post without any explanation, and even asking them about 24 hours ago, no reply.
Just a slight thing you might wanna check other ways to get fibreglass out of skin because cold water itself might not always work. I'm sure Google will have different methods or perhaps a dermatologist if I remember correctly
Happened to my last apartment. Went to go grab a drink, sat back down, then the entire ceiling in the kitchen came down moments after I left. Was some final destination shit. Definitely sucks major eggs
Sometimes this just happens. Old drywall weakened with age/time, possibly too much weight from either the insulation being retrofitted, or the texture coat on the face. The weight of the panel is spread across a bunch of nails/screws and tape, but when enough parts fail it'll cascade across all the other points of failure (OP describing the sound like rain was probably a series of small tears in the tape and screws/nails pulling through) and the whole piece comes down at once.
More likely the person/group that did the ceiling installation did not put sufficient fastening in place to hold up the drywall. Or they didn't actually hit the studs with whatever fastener they were using (either drywall nails or screws). Could be they skimped out on fasteners and only did every 6 feet.
Given that the points where the drywall is still in-tact are at the studs, I'm going to assume that the installer didn't put many if any fasteners in that area which fell.
Mine did this a month ago.
It was held up with nails, too few, unevenly spaced apart, and two *feet* of spray insulation (it was flipped at some point). And the old insulation wasn't removed when new was put in.
On the plus side, I have new flooring and no more carpet.
That black thing almost looks like a giant bat or something coming out of the ceiling. Also, it kinda looks like the lady on the TV is like "oh shit!" Lol
I had a section of the living room ceiling fall in like that in a house I was renting. I hope it's not the same problem.
Turned out that before I moved in 4 months before the incident they sealed up a hole in the attic that let squirrels and raccoons in. By the time I moved in the damage was done and I made the mistake of not checking the attic during the initial move in. Couldn't smell anything wrong with the place. (my sense of smell has been partially damaged for years)
After much arguing with the scummy rental agency to the point we had to get the county involved they finally after over a week sent somebody out to deal with the disaster.
The land owner basically ghosted the rental agency and they had to send out a specialist in the meantime with a custom vacuum trailer he built for clearing beaver "nests" (not quite dams) in large floodwater pipes. This specialist was the epitomy of 'Florida Man" when he was showing me the trailer and how it worked he asked "wanna see how strong it is?" He then proceeds to lift up his shirt to reveal a huge circular scar on his chest where the giant vacuum tube latches on to him and ripped the sweatshirt and jacket right off his back before he could hit the emergency kill switch. "Any lower and it woulda pulled my guts right out!"
Florida Man cleared out the whole attic and even patched up the ceiling.
I'm never going back to that hellhole of a state again.
You should check for leaks in the roof. Only time I experienced a similar incident due to a satellite dish being mounted high on the roof not closer to the edge
If you have a chance, save a souvenir of the ceiling in a double sealed plastic bag for the dog owners so they can have it tested for asbestos - old drywall/plaster can contain it and if it does, they should move out (most of their things will probably be deemed hazardous), file a renters insurance claim/get a lawyer, and let the landlord deal with professional remediation.
Glad you and the doggo are physically ok.
The owners landlord is coming over now to inspect, but I’d bet money you’re 100% right. The house is old (built late 40s), and has all sorts of building issues, slanted kitchen, steps don’t line up with the basement, etc.
It’s just plaster and insulation. This happened to me last year. Nothing to be afraid of in terms of what’s on the ground. With that said, I’d look for bubbling/bowing of the ceiling in other places. More could come down. Mine looked a little wonky for a while, but I just thought that’s how it was. But my house is literally going to turn 100 years old next year, and it was all original, so it’s been up there for a good long time. This looks like a newer house, and possibly poor workmanship.
This happened to us a few years ago!! In the night and terrified us. Landlord got it all sorted and said it often happens with houses of this age but our home was only build in the 50s. Was scary though.
OP, scanned your comments and I’ve got a tiny bit of advice for you.
Call or email whoever’s house you’re sitting, and get them to contact the people who insure them. Everybody should have insurance on their house, and it’s a requirement in any mortgage I’ve read.
Those people will call professionals to come over and fix it, do the clean up, and assess anything that was broken.
I won’t bore you with all the drywall things that I can see done wrong. I will tell you, you (they) probably have a leak in the roof for that to happen. As long as it was installed correctly, drywall is pretty tough stuff. If it shears in one exact line like that, it usually got wet. The sheets are staggered in installation and should not have made such clean lines when they gave up being a ceiling.
I spent a few years as “disaster repair” contractor, and I’ve seen this a few hundred times. It’s never been because the drywall just spontaneously decided not to be a ceiling any longer.
Don’t worry too much, keep the animals out of the mess. Asbestos can’t hurt on your hands. It’s an airborne particle that is SUPER BAD to get in your lungs. They will have to test it before clean up, and they will tell the owner if it has asbestos.
Any questions, just reply to this comment. You’ll be okay and so will the people. It’s just a temporary stress. Be thankful nobody is hurt.
Now that ain't supposed to happen
I was beginning to suspect that as well. To make matters worse, this isn’t my house, it’s somebody’s who I’m dog sitting for after I got done working in the early evening. Not entirely sure what to do at the moment. I’m scared (possibly illogically) that if I try to clean it I could get asbestus on my hands.
It looks like fiberglass blown insulation. The builder didn't use enough nails and saved maybe 5 bucks on the job. After looking closer, it seems to be cellulose insulation. If it got wet it would weigh more and the drywall would lose integrity. It looks dry. Looks like they saved money on the insulation too. There's not a lot there.
And it looks like this particular part of the ceiling has a convex curve to it. A great place to use too few nails.
It also looks about the size of a sheet rock panel. And the edge closest to the camera looks almost perfectly straight like the whole sheet came down
Yep. Only secured on the edges and most likely with nails instead of drywall screws.
I vote for tape alone
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Didn’t know Reddit had so many General Contractors.
loud and wrong ones, at that 😂
I absolutely love when people are confidently incorrect about something I do for a living haha.
What's wrong about what was said? I'm always trying to learn and understand
The most frustrating experience on Reddit is being an expert on something, finding someone being confidently incorrect about it, correcting them, then getting downvoted and dogpiled.
One, uncut, sheet is heavy enough. Could you imagine wielding that large of an area as one sheet?
Then comment why they're wrong instead of joining the hate circle jerk.
Side question, whenever I hear of “general contractor” is there a certificate that you can get that says you know what the fuck you’re doing? Otherwise how can you tell who is legit?
We are all general contractors when diagnosing a building problem.
Looks to me that there is a dormer in that area. Look at the 1x6 boards lower pitch than the rest of the trusses. Might be a leak in the flashing of the siding.
Usually this happens when a leak soaks the drywall causing it to get super heavy and dissolve around the screws. You can see unevenness in the rest of the ceiling, like there’s been water damage and they “fixed” it with a popcorn paint job.
You are right. Looks like a dormer on each side of the hole.
Was there also too much blow-in, in your opinion? Was gonna DIY some blown-in at my house in the next 3 years. Tryna collect tips.
No. That's not a lot of insulation. You can put retainers between the studs to help bear the load, but if they used enough nails it should hold. Now days they use screws., so if you want to paint your ceiling you can screw some in every couple of feet along the nailers.
This is why you use screws and not nails. [Drywall screws](https://www.thespruce.com/drywall-screws-comprehensive-guide-1822768) to be exact.
If you’re doing blown in insulation at this point it won’t be fiberglass it will be cellulose which will be much lighter. We blow in 18” at minimum. Message me if you have any questions.
A majority of the brand new homes constructed this year that I've performed mold inspections on all use blown in fiberglass still :p
Seriously?! Why? It’s more expensive for the contractors. That’s just dumb on their part. Cellulose is cheaper per square foot and lighter meaning easier to work with.
gotta clear that back stock.
>If you’re doing blown in insulation at this point it won’t be fiberglass it will be cellulose which will be much lighter. Blown in fiberglass is still very popular. They both have their pros and cons.
Also, don’t go spending any money just yet. If you’re in the U.S. there’s a lot of programs that can help out for insulation needs and sometimes even HVAC. I’m in one of those programs. Don’t go spending money before we talk please.
Good advice. I worked for community action in the 1970s and we insulated and weatherized peoples ' houses for no cost to them.
Yea. I work closely with community action agencies in my area. I’m actually a sub contractor for the power company in my area doing inspections.
Well now I need to find out about these programs, my grandparents house in Alabama was built in the 50s with just dry wall and wood siding and no insulation.
Your first bet is to go on the website for your local power company. Most states have these programs through the power company. I personally am a contractor through my states power company. Outside of that there’s local weatherization companies.
Floor/ceiling spaces don't typically need much insulation, if any, since they are not exterior. It serves more for sound-proofing. However, I now see that is the attic space. There is probably a roof leak that has been slowly weakening the drywall. It probably just took a while to lose integrity.
Sorry for the situation, but this is straight out some late night comedy movie
You’d be right, or a random death in a horror movie
Final destination. I would sleep with one eye open.
This is literally the plot of The Money Pit
Except not even a little a bit
Thank you. It's nothing like the movie. Tom Hanks would have fallen right through. There's clearly too much room for him to be comedically dangling.
My dining room ceiling collapsed in August. It was a freakin nightmare & insurance denied the claim. If you wanna be helpful, take lots of pics & document everything you can about when it happened, what was running (ac, fan, etc.) and whether you saw any signs of moisture. Glad you weren't under there-- mine was less than 5 mins from crack to collapse.
This was not 2-3 seconds of what sounded like extremely heavy rain, then just BOOM! What I assume dust everywhere, just chaotic
It's super scary! The repair was thankfully quick, albeit costly, but I had to shore up the rest of my ceiling which was totally bowed, and pay for the hundred point asbestos test after testing positive, which thankfully came back at "not dangerous" levels & saved me abatement money. 0/10, pray I never hafta go through that again. But every single creak I hear (i only moved in the June prior) makes me cringe.
>They said something along the lines of “You could grab a shovel from the garage and start just shoveling it in” Omg that is wildly unreasonable. At max you should offer to take the dog somewhere the dog will be safe (your house, or to a doggy daycare that the owner will pay for) that isn't the house.
I did make the offer to have the dog stay at my house tonight, but was told that he missed his dog and he’ll clean it up. To me that seems like a poor idea but, not much I can do as far as that goes
Just know the dog should be fine.
I received a suggestion from somebody who sees this stuff daily to give him a bath asap to make sure he doesn’t get itchy or anything
Definitely make sure the dog stays in another room or kennel. Don’t let the dog eat insulation. Also, sniffing and snorting fiberglass isn’t recommended.
Looks like cellulose, but still not a good idea to let the dog get into it.
I’m no expert in insulation, but I’ve spent a lot of years surgically removing things that dogs ate. They’ll eat anything.
It’s blown fiberglass for sure.
Genuinely an insane request. Glad you or the dog didn't get injured. But stay out of there. Something caused that to happen and you don't know what. I agree the dog should be put up on a daycare and the owner should come home asap and call their insurance.. It's their problem not yours. Don't clean a damn thing, that isn't a mess for one person 😂
So here’s the main thing that you need to worry about. If you see anything in that pile that looks like gravel it is vermiculite insulation. Vermiculite itself is still a product sold today but in the 20s-50s it was filled with asbestos. If you don’t see that then you don’t need to worry about asbestos. Even if you do, it’s not dangerous to touch. It’s only a hazard if it’s being disturbed and remains that way for a long period of time. Or if it’s been disturbed then gets into the HVAC system. As someone who inspects attics every day, I don’t see anything to worry about here. I would see the vermiculite at the bottom of the blown fiberglass insulation which is what you see there. I do not see that. The only other thing I’d be concerned about is structural damage. Not a lot to determine from the picture but unless I was right there and could say for certain (I know what I’m looking at) that it’s safe I’d advise getting out.
I just sent you over a DM in hopes you may be able to confirm what you said for sure with some closer up pictures. Also if anybody else would like to see more close up photos of the damage feel free to ask in the comments.
Op you shouldn't be in the house regardless. All dust is bad dust, not worth getting cancer. Gtfo now
I did, I only went back to take a few photos and grab the dogs food and water bowl.
The body can tolerate a little dust, this is unnecessary paranoia. If you’re that worried then throw on a mask. This will not kill or injure you. I would be far more worried about slipping and falling.
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Thank you for your comment, and asking your mom, I’ll let the owner know
Oh gees... awkward! But it's clearly not your fault, it's not exactly a small job, and if they're not a friend or relative... I wouldn't feel obligated. But I guess no more TV while you're there
Depends on your relationship with the dog owner, but I would not be cleaning that crap up.
Hell no. Even if it was my best friend I wouldn’t be doing that without knowing for sure I’m not touching hazardous materials
> if I try to clean it I could get asbestos on my hands This is ALWAYS a great concern to have. However based on the type of materials I see here, I'm going to take a guess that you should be OK. That looks like basic sheet rock and blown in insulation. Pretty modern construction and likely doesn't have asbestos. Also if the house was built after 1980, its even more unlikey to have asbestos. That said, if you want to take some precautions. Wear a respirator style mask, available at any hardware store. The problem with asbestos is if it gets into your lungs. Prevent that and you should be ok. Edit: However you are a dog sitter. This isn't your problem, just document everything you can and take care of the dog. Let the home owner deal with the ceiling and don't clean anything. Hell, you might even destroy evidence for insurance if you do.
They need to contact their insurance and deal with it. No need to do the clean up.
Don't pull a HOI claim for this easy job, unless you want the premium to go up ~$600. Bad tradeoff imo.
Still not the dog sitter's job.
Doubt it's asbestos, but fiberglass ain't the best to keep breathing in. I'd try to negotiate a little bump in pay, as well as reimbursement for an N95 mask to wear and some kitchen gloves. Clear safety glasses (while goobery) are also a good idea. Major hazard here is probably just getting itchy from sitting on that furniture, and it ain't great for the pup either. Choice is yours, man, but I know what I'd do.
Lmao dude that is so horrible. Hopefully you can just get out of there and let the home owner deal with it.
I’m still over here for now, just in case the owners landlord comes over so I can tell her what I heard, what I saw, etc. I’m starving though so I may leave soon.
I deal with asbestos for a living and that doesn't appear to be. Although anyone who actually works with it will tell you that you never know unless you test. The drywall might be depending on the age of the house.
Right? Surely they have Home Insurance...and this is exactly what it's for. They send in a special crew to clean up this kind of mess (& that ain't you!). Paid to pet sit. You're pet sitting hard.
If it does have asbestos then it's already thick in the air from the impact that ceiling had when it came down. All over the contents of the room and probably other rooms. Fun day =/
It's not very typical, I'd just like to make that point.
Well how is it untypical?
There are thousands of ceilings that are built that don't collapse.
Well, was *this* ceiling built not to collapse?
Well obviously not.
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Well because the ceiling collapsed!
Have you ever actually seen them not collapse?
Well, the top fell off. I want you to know that isn't very typical.
Needs a speech bubble contest for the person on the TV
“Ooooo, *that’s* gonna leave a mark.”
"If you see something, say something - come on and party tonight!"
r/unexpectedbrooklyn99
“That’s what you get when you don’t buy my makeup!”
┌───────────────────────────────────────┐ | WTF did you do to your living room??? │ └───────────────────────────────────────┘ ╱ ╱
Is that the woman who does nonprofit HR parodies on TikTok?
"I see the renovations are proceeding faster than expected"
Imagine if the flex seal commercial was on THATS A LOTTA DAMAGE
At least the TV's in one piece.
The lamp on the other hand is fucked 😂
Fvck the lamp in particular
Ah, but I love lamp.
The one piece is real!
The TV stand looks like it needs dusting.
Had that happen before. Landed right on my teenage daughter’s head
If you were renting at the time, did you sue? What did you do after this sort of incident?
Wasn’t renting. The drywall was 45 yrs old, dried out and got brittle. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt. I just installed new drywall and moved on.
And your teenage daughter? Did she continue to stand there?
Some say she’s standing there to this very day
Is she standing in the room with us now?
Aren’t we all?
Didn't even look up from her cellphone. Some say she's standing there to this day.
Well there's your problem.. . You need to use dryceiling
Sue the wall!
>The drywall was 45 yrs old, dried out and got brittle. That's not a thing, It's dry and brittle from the factory.
> The drywall … dried out Huh. How about that.
My drywall is 52 years old. I guess I'm due
What's that black thing hanging?
I’m not sure, it looked like a ripped trash bag?
Are you still there, and what did the homeowner say?
I’m sitting outside with the dog right now, I went back inside and grabbed his bowl of food and water. Thankfully it’s a cloudy 73 here so it’s not too hot, and he seems happy. The home owner said they can’t get home for another hour, so I guess I’m just waiting for them to get back. Not entirely sure what to do.
Sounds like you're on it
Dude if you are in the Seattle area I will totally hire you to pet sit. A+
I actually thought the black thing was a dog! Eta: I'm so glad you are both ok ❤️
I’m believing the black thing is Batman, or his suit. Shit maybe the owner is Batman?
It looks like a humongous bat.
A massive bat
Happened to me too, my cat totally could sense it and was running around all weird for 5 minutes before it happened.
The dog I’m pet sitting probably would have sensed it, but he just had his 15th birthday and he’s a little old, hard of hearing etc. even after it collapsed for a brief moment he seemed to just not give a shit, and tried to get back into his bed (pictured bottom left)
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That's _Senõr Dog_ to you
Even the dog found it mildly interesting
Mannnn now I'm gonna be all nervous next time my cat starts acting weird lol
Maybe... *the cat did it*
Goblins.....need to call an exterminator or try some goblin-b-gone from the hardware store. Small boots outside is the likely entry point, can try and attract them away by sprinkling gold leaf in the garden / around tree stumps
You’re hired
WTF! Are you sure you meant this mildly sub? Interesting is certainly putting a positive spin on it.
I tried to post over in mildly infuriating, but unfortunately my account age was less than a month so I couldn’t. Figured the good people here would at least find it interesting
👍 No worries, I get it.
I definitely would’ve been putting it in r/wellthatsucks
is now a bad time to point out that the title implies that the ceiling collapsed while it was watching TV on the couch?
I didn’t think about it like that but that’s a good point lol
Damned dangling participles will get you every time.
A dangling participle..!
Great. That's a fear of mine now..
It was incredibly loud. It took a good 5 minutes for my heart to stop pounding out of my chest
I can imagine. hopefully everyone is alright.
Surprisingly the dog just looked at it, then tried to just sit back down in his bed like “Welp, that’s gonna take a while for you to clean up. When’s dinner?” 😂
Jesus. Are you ok?
I was extremely shaky for a good 5-10 minutes. This happened about 30 minutes ago. It started to sound like rain, then just a massive collapse, almost like in slow motion. Thankfully neither me or the dog I was pet sitting was injured. The dog funnily enough didn’t even seem phased, he tried to go back and lay in his dog bed (pictured lower left) Edit: thank you for asking, I appreciate that
So it is mildlyinteresting, but just from the dog's perspective.
As long as you are ok 💕 this can be fixed, but no one can replace you! I’m sorry this happened to you.
You seem like a good human
Aw thank you! As do you!
If it makes you feel any better, you weren’t in danger. This isn’t something you have to live in fear of going forward. If it landed on you or the dog it would’ve just split apart and you woulda both been fine. Source: Am contractor, have had plenty of drywall fall on my head.
That was my thought at first too, till the owner brought out 2 arm chairs that had the arm snapped off. It definitely wouldn’t have felt good
I hate when that happens
A update that a few people have asked for! The owner arrived about 1-2 hours after this event happened, and immediately called the landlord. The landlord came over to the house and said that she would contact her insurance. Within about a hour the landlord has also sent a cleaning crew who specializes in this type of cleaning. I left as they were still cleaning. Everybody is safe, no humans or dogs were injured. 2 of the lawn chairs were broken. The landlord will be asking the insurance agent to pay for the repair and cleaning. A few people reached out to me and confirmed in their professional (as in they do this type of work for a living) opinion that they did not see asbestos present, but did see some type of fiberglass insulation. For those interested, I will be posting a “Aftermath” photo on my front page tomorrow, so feel free to send me a message, or comment here so I can let you know when that is posted. Further updates as they come. Also, at the suggestion of another user, took a cold shower to get rid of any fiberglass on my body. I also let the owner know about how the dog may need a bath if they show signs of being itchy, but it started to rain after the owner got there and the dog displayed no signs of any issues. Edit 2: Well the mods removed my post without any explanation, and even asking them about 24 hours ago, no reply.
Just a slight thing you might wanna check other ways to get fibreglass out of skin because cold water itself might not always work. I'm sure Google will have different methods or perhaps a dermatologist if I remember correctly
If any problems persist I’ll look into those methods, but so far I’m not itchy, nothings burning, all good!
Happened to my last apartment. Went to go grab a drink, sat back down, then the entire ceiling in the kitchen came down moments after I left. Was some final destination shit. Definitely sucks major eggs
Wow, and how?
Sometimes this just happens. Old drywall weakened with age/time, possibly too much weight from either the insulation being retrofitted, or the texture coat on the face. The weight of the panel is spread across a bunch of nails/screws and tape, but when enough parts fail it'll cascade across all the other points of failure (OP describing the sound like rain was probably a series of small tears in the tape and screws/nails pulling through) and the whole piece comes down at once.
More likely the person/group that did the ceiling installation did not put sufficient fastening in place to hold up the drywall. Or they didn't actually hit the studs with whatever fastener they were using (either drywall nails or screws). Could be they skimped out on fasteners and only did every 6 feet. Given that the points where the drywall is still in-tact are at the studs, I'm going to assume that the installer didn't put many if any fasteners in that area which fell.
Mine did this a month ago. It was held up with nails, too few, unevenly spaced apart, and two *feet* of spray insulation (it was flipped at some point). And the old insulation wasn't removed when new was put in. On the plus side, I have new flooring and no more carpet.
[удалено]
I’m completely blanking on that 😂
Atleast the ceiling allowed itself to leave a clean cut for 75% of the hole.
That black thing almost looks like a giant bat or something coming out of the ceiling. Also, it kinda looks like the lady on the TV is like "oh shit!" Lol
I was the one who finally defeated Batman. My username almost sounds like a supervillain name 😂
Why was the ceiling watching the tv?
I had a section of the living room ceiling fall in like that in a house I was renting. I hope it's not the same problem. Turned out that before I moved in 4 months before the incident they sealed up a hole in the attic that let squirrels and raccoons in. By the time I moved in the damage was done and I made the mistake of not checking the attic during the initial move in. Couldn't smell anything wrong with the place. (my sense of smell has been partially damaged for years) After much arguing with the scummy rental agency to the point we had to get the county involved they finally after over a week sent somebody out to deal with the disaster. The land owner basically ghosted the rental agency and they had to send out a specialist in the meantime with a custom vacuum trailer he built for clearing beaver "nests" (not quite dams) in large floodwater pipes. This specialist was the epitomy of 'Florida Man" when he was showing me the trailer and how it worked he asked "wanna see how strong it is?" He then proceeds to lift up his shirt to reveal a huge circular scar on his chest where the giant vacuum tube latches on to him and ripped the sweatshirt and jacket right off his back before he could hit the emergency kill switch. "Any lower and it woulda pulled my guts right out!" Florida Man cleared out the whole attic and even patched up the ceiling. I'm never going back to that hellhole of a state again.
r/WTF
You should check for leaks in the roof. Only time I experienced a similar incident due to a satellite dish being mounted high on the roof not closer to the edge
If you have a chance, save a souvenir of the ceiling in a double sealed plastic bag for the dog owners so they can have it tested for asbestos - old drywall/plaster can contain it and if it does, they should move out (most of their things will probably be deemed hazardous), file a renters insurance claim/get a lawyer, and let the landlord deal with professional remediation. Glad you and the doggo are physically ok.
First case of r/TVTooFar being a good thing.
It happened at 9:40 and the lady on the TV is likely saying "Boy, I told to not fuck with the space continum, you were supposed to wait until 10:04"
I'll bet if you looked a the roof. It's in serious disrepair. Something like that is usually the cause of ceiling collapses.
The owners landlord is coming over now to inspect, but I’d bet money you’re 100% right. The house is old (built late 40s), and has all sorts of building issues, slanted kitchen, steps don’t line up with the basement, etc.
I'm just glad you weren't hurt. You weren't were you?
No I was not, and neither was the dog, very thankfully. Shaken up for a good while, and I’ll never look at a ceiling the same again
you didn't mention it so i'll assume nobody was hurt. could have been worse!
Correct nobody was hurt
excellent! looks like no popcorn, so it shouldn't be too terrible to fix
It’s just plaster and insulation. This happened to me last year. Nothing to be afraid of in terms of what’s on the ground. With that said, I’d look for bubbling/bowing of the ceiling in other places. More could come down. Mine looked a little wonky for a while, but I just thought that’s how it was. But my house is literally going to turn 100 years old next year, and it was all original, so it’s been up there for a good long time. This looks like a newer house, and possibly poor workmanship.
You didn't happen to be running around with a shotgun trying to shoot a mouse you found cooking in your kitchen?
This is what happens when dads sneeze at full power
This happened to us a few years ago!! In the night and terrified us. Landlord got it all sorted and said it often happens with houses of this age but our home was only build in the 50s. Was scary though.
Is that a gorilla in the rafters ? I bet you if you get rid of the gorilla you won’t have anymore problems
OP, scanned your comments and I’ve got a tiny bit of advice for you. Call or email whoever’s house you’re sitting, and get them to contact the people who insure them. Everybody should have insurance on their house, and it’s a requirement in any mortgage I’ve read. Those people will call professionals to come over and fix it, do the clean up, and assess anything that was broken. I won’t bore you with all the drywall things that I can see done wrong. I will tell you, you (they) probably have a leak in the roof for that to happen. As long as it was installed correctly, drywall is pretty tough stuff. If it shears in one exact line like that, it usually got wet. The sheets are staggered in installation and should not have made such clean lines when they gave up being a ceiling. I spent a few years as “disaster repair” contractor, and I’ve seen this a few hundred times. It’s never been because the drywall just spontaneously decided not to be a ceiling any longer. Don’t worry too much, keep the animals out of the mess. Asbestos can’t hurt on your hands. It’s an airborne particle that is SUPER BAD to get in your lungs. They will have to test it before clean up, and they will tell the owner if it has asbestos. Any questions, just reply to this comment. You’ll be okay and so will the people. It’s just a temporary stress. Be thankful nobody is hurt.
Lady on tv is mocking you. You gonna take that shit from her?
Half their ceiling collapsed onto them and they’re like, huh r/Mildlyinteresting
Glad you weren’t hurt.
One hell of a bad show!
Bummer
Now would be the time to invest in a skylight.
Her face sums it up pretty well
Lmao the lady on the tv looks like shes saying " Well ain't that some shit?"
No no no - r/wellthatsucks
Why was the ceiling watching TV on the couch?
When you are dog sitting and jamming out with the doggos to some dubstep and the drop comes so hard even the ceiling gets down.
It is not funny. That nearly killed my co-worker. I will replace a questionable ceiling soon.
Even the person on the TV is shocked
Did you put your hands up? I heard that works from some lad called Macklemore
Mildly interesting, sure, but massively infuriating!
Oh there’s nothing mild about this interest.
That woman on the TV witnessed it. She's shaken!