# What kind of ceiling is in my apartment?



## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

How old is the building? Can you post a picture of the exterior, along with interior? What part of Chicago are you located in?


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## mikegp (Jul 17, 2011)

Drill a hole right next to the joist and peer in. You have to patch the original hole anyway. This one will be right next to it.


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## DGalt (Feb 20, 2012)

The building was apparently built in 1920. It's located in Rogers Park, not too far from Loyola (if you know the area)

The exterior basically looks like this (this is actually my building, photobucket refused to upload my images right now). It's basically some type of light colored brick. 











Here's the interior. There's a soffit running around the perimeter for the HVAC, but obviously that's not where I'm drilling


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## DGalt (Feb 20, 2012)

Drilling in a spot adjacent to where the stud finder says there's a stud gives the same result. 

So why is my stud finder saying there's a stud there?


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

When people walk upstairs or downstairs, or play music or tv, can you hear it? It is possible that it is metal lathe and plaster/morter mix that you are hitting, and they just placed gypsum over the original ceiling. So what the stud finder is stating as a joist, could actually be wood lathe. Even then with old buildings, it could be anywhere from 16 o/c to 24 o/c, but the timbers being larger to allow for longer spans between joists. Only way to know is to talk to the maintenance guy to find out, or if you can find a way to look at the construction of the floor (ie basement boiler room), there is no way to know but make guesses.


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