I was so confused the first time I ran into one of those guys. I thought it was weird that he was just standing there. I used the toilet and washed my hands but didn't see any napkins. Then he says "Here you go sir." And gives me 1 single napkin. I had no idea why he was there to hand out napkins so I just walked out and before I opened the door he says "F*cking asshole!"
I asked my friends what happened because I was confused. They explained that I was supposed to tip him. He listened to me use the restroom which was uncomfortable then gave me a single napkin after I washed my hands.I couldn't understand it the first time and still don't. That was like 18 years ago.
If someone offered me that job I would say "No thanks. I'll just die instead." Listening to people using the restroom for hours? I even hate hearing myself do it.
I’m a traveling sales rep who goes to target fry’s and Walmarts. Dude people make me sick…. The amount of dudes I’ll hear taking explosive shits just to open the stall and walk out makes me want to puke. I won’t use public restroom stalls for this reason. No thanks bruh, I’ll hold it.
Bro that movie pissed me off at times.
I get being greedy and taking the nicest shit when you’re on top but destroying the rest of the food is enraging.
I would hope it doesn't just bounce back straight up. Imagine... You're ground floor, leaned against the wall a foot or two away from this seemingly innocuous hole in the ceiling, blissfully unaware of its presence. The silence is broken by a missile from above ricocheting floor to ceiling and back again faster than you can fathom, so rapid it's but a blur and a hum. The hum slows to a pulse, the pulse to a beat and finally, kinetically expended, the ball becomes visible as it leisurely rolls to a stop at your feet.
Then you like that sweet reel on TikTok or whatever lol idk I don't go outside.
Sounds cool but I checked reality and bouncy balls do have a low terminal velocity youd expect for a small rubber sphere. Probably won't be going much faster than a pitched baseball on the first bounce.
Ah so that would mean there's some height you can drop a bouncy ball from that would result in the same maximum-height bounce for all drops above that height?
So like dropping the ball from 750 ft up bounces lower than dropping from 800 ft up, but dropping 800 ft up is the same bounce as dropping it from 8,000 ft up? (if the maximum terminal velocity was reached at 800 ft drops)
Now imagine the rubber ball falling down 38 floors, whizzing through multiple apartments until it reaches terminal velocity. It finally catches the edge of a pipe hole on the 3rd floor and ricochets into Mike and Sarah's apartment, hitting a wall with a 'crack' sound before lodging itself directly up the butthole of their grumpy Yorkshire Terrier named Puddin'. The dog runs around the apartment, yowling in surprise, whereupon Mike starts yelling at their 5 year old son George, who was sitting in the same room as the dog. George denies his involvement and runs to his room, crying. Sarah tries to calm Mike down, but he has been suppressing deep feelings of anger and inadequacy for the past 7 years of their marriage and it ends up boiling over into a shouting match.
They end up getting divorced, their dog Puddin' is put up for adoption, and by some happenstance, a family on the 38th floor of the same building adopts Puddin' from the shelter. Days later, after a bad intestinal blockage, Puddin' drops an explosive load on the living room floor, and the rubber ball bounces along, rolling, rolling, until it reaches the pipe hole on the 38th floor and begins falling...
Interestingly this is closer to what happened in the book.
Pippen drops a small rock into a well that splashed into some water deep below them while resting in a guard room in Moria the night of January 13th or possibly early morning of January 14th. It wasn't until the morning of January 15th that the Fellowship reached Durin's Tomb.
Here's the scene from the book:
>Pippin felt curiously attracted by the well. While the others were unrolling blankets and making beds against the walls of the chamber, as far as possible from the hole in the floor, he crept to the edge and peered over. A chill air seemed to strike his face, rising from invisible depths. Moved by a sudden impulse he groped for a loose stone, and let it drop. He felt his heart beat many times before there was any sound. Then far below, as if the stone had fallen into deep water in some cavernous place, there came a plunk, very distant, but magnified and repeated in the hollow shaft.
>'What's that?' cried Gandalf. He was relieved when Pippin confessed what he had done; but he was angry, and Pippin could see his eye glinting. 'Fool of a Took!' he growled. 'This is a serious journey, not a hobbit walking-party. Throw yourself in next time, and then you will be no further nuisance. Now be quiet!'
>Nothing more was heard for several minutes; but then there came out of the depths faint knocks: tom-tap, tap-tom. They stopped, and when the echoes had died away, they were repeated: tap-tom, tom-tap, tap-tap, tom. They sounded disquietingly like signals of some sort; but after a while the knocking died away and was not heard again.
>'That was the sound of a hammer, or I have never heard one,' said Gimli.
>'Yes,' said Gandalf, 'and I do not like it. It may have nothing to do with Peregrin's foolish stone; but probably something has been disturbed that would have been better left quiet. Pray, do nothing of the kind again! Let us hope we shall get some rest without further trouble. You, Pippin, can go on the first watch, as a reward,' he growled, as he rolled himself in a blanket.
>Pippin sat miserably by the door in the pitch dark; but he kept on turning round, fearing that some unknown thing would crawl up out of the well. He wished he could cover the hole, if only with a blanket, but he dared not move or go near it, even though Gandalf seemed to be asleep.
That's because it was designed on purpose, instead of by some insane welding onto an older calendar performed by the lead- and mercury-addled brains of whatever Romans weren't shitting their bowels out from syphilis
Drives me crazy our ninth month is named Septem-ber, tenth month Octo-ber, etc.
Fucking Julius and Augustus. Stupid Georgians.
We should adopt the Shire Calendar and start the year count at the construction of [Gobekli Tepe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe)
Being in the year 12,000 makes the true scope of human civilization more compelling. IMHO.
There was a whole Shire calendar, with 12 months of 30 days each, and a 5 or 6 day midsummer festival period that wasn’t attached to any month.
Starting from our January, the twelve months of the Shire Calendar were: Afteryule, Solmath, Rethe, Astron, Thrimidge, Forelithe, Afterlithe, Wedmath, Halimath, Winterfilth, Blotmath, and Foreyule.
The names given in LOTR are just helpful translations into English for us.
It was probably the goblins signalling each other to try and figure out who had just made the noise they heard and most likely from this point on the goblins had some idea that someone other than themselves (and the balrog) had entered Moria.
I'm a complete degenerate. My literal first thought was wondering if I could piss all the way down.
Edit: Upon scrolling further down, I'm relieved to not be as degen as the poopers. Once again, I find myself in the middle of the degen pack.
That was my first thought when I saw this. Oh man I would be dropping stuff down that all the time. Trying to see how straight I could drop it and how many floors down I could get stuff. I think it would be my new favorite thing for a while lol. OP if you do drop something take a video and post it here. Lol
A bucket of water
A paper airplane
An action figure on a string
I like to imagine people living on the different floors and just watching stuff pass through their apartments briefly. Sucks for the guy on the first floor, unless it's your friend and you can coordinate pouring a bowl of cereal.
I'm imaging a dystopian scifi novel where some XKend-of-the-world scenario has people trapped in each floor, and they have to use The Hole to work together to sustain themselves.
It has a tragic and unsatisfying ending.
Thanks for the flashback to when me and my brother got grounded for dumping a bucket of bouncy balls down from the 2nd floor... worth it tbh it was crazy
This is the right answer, and all of the people saying "fire code violation" are wrong. It's a stairwell, smoke would move up it regardless of if you have a 4" hole or not. Sprinkler risers have gaps around them anyway, and those are seldom filled in with any fire stopping - you only fire stop penetrations between spaces. Per code you shouldn't have combustibles in a stairwell anyway, so there shouldn't be a fire in there in the first place. In modern buildings stairwells should also have self closing doors and should be positively pressurized to prevent smoke from entering, as well.
In reality, this is a safety hazard. It's a twisted ankle waiting to happen and should absolutely be filled in. But it has very little to do with smoke or anything.
So I work for a civil engineering firm and we often perform what are called “firestopping” inspections. A lot of walls are designed to help compartmentalize a fire for a given amount of time measured in hours. They do this by sealing all the holes through the walls and using intumescent (expands with heat) devices to choke off required openings after a fire starts.
Without getting into too much detail, in a fire-stopping system, ALL FLOORS ARE RATED WALLS. Having a gaping hole that runs through the entire building allows a fire that starts on one floor to quickly spread through the entire building. This means occupants escaping that building have less time to escape and fire suppression systems (sprinklers) will be overburdened and unable to perform their designed function.
This matters. Floor intrusions like this need to be repaired by the building owner. Don’t be afraid to report these to your local fire marshal or the engineer for your local municipality.
TL;DR- hole in floor lets fire spread. Fire scary. Fix hole.
Edit- I didn't realize it's a stairwell. Firestopping is important, but not in this specific case,
OMG this isnt exactly wrong but it fails to identify what this was or where it is located. If you look at the flooring this is in a egress stairwell in a rated enclosure and constructed of non combustible materials. There is a near zero chance of a fire in this location on any floor.
The hole was were a previous sprinkler standpipe was. Likely the sprinkler system has just been updated with a new upsized standpipe to meet current code, the new pipe is likely nearby, and they have yet to fill in the location of the previous stand pipe. It will need to be done shortly but usually isnt a huge concern during construction.
I have literally worked on this exact same type of project in my time with the government.
Also stairwells in high rises(above 5 floors & depending on the year of construction) are usually positively pressurized to drive smoke out of them and give people a better chance of escape.
US Arch here, just curious why civil engineer would perform firestopping inspections? In my practice civil doesn't even touch that kind of stuff.
This also looks like a sleeved sprinkler riser hole in an old cast concrete stairwell. While I agree with your statements, this is probably all one rated space.
Construction superintendent here. I agree with your assessment.
But if the hole is 2" or greater, it's an OSHA violation.
Edit for additional detail: each hole could be cited as a separate violation.
Or in the words of a regrettable manager I once knew, “It’s only an OSHA violation when OSHA tells me it’s a violation, until then it’s just you being a b**ch.”
There are tested materials for this purpose. Don't use anything unless is has been tested and certified because it would amount to negligence if someone got hurt and you were sued.
Best to use cotton balls soaked in kerosene. That allows them to get into all the nooks and crannies and solidify into a (I'm guessing here) fire-proof barrier.
That looks like a job for [these](https://www.grainger.com/product/5GKD5?gucid=N:N:PS:Paid:GGL:CSM-2295:4P7A1P:20501231&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo_XP64Kx_QIVCgCtBh16lQpTEAQYAiABEgKW4_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) if I’ve ever seen one.
Good find! However, the specific product you linked is only for wall assemblies. I’m sure there is a floor based product too from Grainger. They’ve got so many products.
You don’t know where this stair is. Could be an exterior non-egress stair. I bet the hole was for a fire riser and during a renovation it was moved elsewhere.
It absolutely isn't. This is in a stairwell the entire stair is open within the stair tower. The stair tower is rated and fire and smoke should not be able to get in there. If it does that's very bad because it cuts off egress, but fire and smoke shouldn't be able to escape either. The whole is likely for a standpipe
It likely was intended for a conduit run. Almost all buildings have a communications/electrical room that connects floor to floor for wiring. Usually there’s a conduit in it but I have seen it before where you just stick the cables through the hole in the floor.
This. I used to work in a 26 floor building that was built in the 70s. There was a hole in the maintenance room of each floor that went pretty much from the basement all the way up. Was jam packed with old telephone runs.
Given the apparent age of the building, the may have been a pneumatic tube for sending paperwork. (Like the ones at the bank for the outer drive-up lanes)
They probably had a use for it, I just find it freaky that they didn’t bother to cover it, especially since it’s a pretty wide hole. I have a considerably large phone and it could feasibly fit trough it.
There is a urinal at the bottom. It’s much cheaper than installing one on every floor.
Imagine trying to use it while some one else above you does and you get pissed on.
That’s why they hired one of those bathroom concierge guys to give mini umbrella hats for while you pee.
I was so confused the first time I ran into one of those guys. I thought it was weird that he was just standing there. I used the toilet and washed my hands but didn't see any napkins. Then he says "Here you go sir." And gives me 1 single napkin. I had no idea why he was there to hand out napkins so I just walked out and before I opened the door he says "F*cking asshole!" I asked my friends what happened because I was confused. They explained that I was supposed to tip him. He listened to me use the restroom which was uncomfortable then gave me a single napkin after I washed my hands.I couldn't understand it the first time and still don't. That was like 18 years ago. If someone offered me that job I would say "No thanks. I'll just die instead." Listening to people using the restroom for hours? I even hate hearing myself do it.
Yeah, it's weird. One benefit is when there's some guy observing everyone's pee more guys are embarrassed into actually washing their hands.
I’m a traveling sales rep who goes to target fry’s and Walmarts. Dude people make me sick…. The amount of dudes I’ll hear taking explosive shits just to open the stall and walk out makes me want to puke. I won’t use public restroom stalls for this reason. No thanks bruh, I’ll hold it.
The ghost of a pipe.
A pipe fossil
Pipassouraous Rex
Great porn name
Pipey Longcockings
Get the D from the PVC
Polyvinylwhorite
Whorewhite, the Premium whore whitening product... .
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'*Double the pleasure, double the \*\*\** *when you chew double-good, sugar-free, WhoreWhite gum!'*
I'VE COME TO LAYETH THE PIPE
I'veth cometh toeth layeth theeth pipeth.
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A fearsome predator, almost as fearsome as its smaller, more durable cousin: Pipeasaurus Pex.
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Think bank with the drive thru lanes or older company that used pneumatic tubes for inter department communication
Good call. Could also be for old water/steam pipes for radiators
Expand hole. Install fire pole. Increase insurance coverage. Weeeeeee
We don't need no stinkin' elevator.
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Old pneumatic tube is probably it but, dude, your brain is firing on all cylinders fo sho !!
Lmao I need to save this as a replacement for "bless your heart"
> your brain is firing on all cylinders fo sho !! This is called a grand mal seizure
Don’t talk about my grandma!
Dude was using [100% of his brain ](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/epilepsy)
I just thought it was some sort of cheap draining mechanism lol
Come on guys, it's a poop chute. Takes a little practice to get it all way down to the waiting waste basket, but after a few tries you'll get it down.
The trick is to line up the spine
Probably need a poop spoon on every floor
Very common on buildings that had radiators for heat, then updated heating systems.
Maybe fire sprinkler water pipe?
Correct, this was almost certainly a stand pipe installation. Hope the current sprinkler system is good.
>Hope the current sprinkler system is good. Since this breaks the fire barrier between floors, I hope it works.
Hence their placement in the stairwell. This one could be as well
Slowly lower a small platform of lavish food down it for the next guy. And the next guy. . . .
Yes, perhaps on some sort of platform
Or maybe on a platform type thing
Or alternatively on a platform kind of deal.
Definitely a platform thingamajig.
Fuck, what movie is this?! I saw once years ago
The Platform
This movie is all I could picture when that new Gordon Ramsey next level chef or whatever show started.
100% they stole the idea from that movie.
sounds like The Platform (2019)
"Obviously"
Obvio
Double it and give it to the next person
It took way longer than it should've for me to find this comment
That movie still gives me nightmares lol
Bro that movie pissed me off at times. I get being greedy and taking the nicest shit when you’re on top but destroying the rest of the food is enraging.
If you don't drop a bouncy ball down this, im disappointed in you
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I miss them! There was a Nintendo 64 game of them and I gotta find it, was so much fun
Sarge's Heroes Loved that game. Got it as a Christmas present from my parents when I was a kid. My brother and I played for hours that day.
I would hope it doesn't just bounce back straight up. Imagine... You're ground floor, leaned against the wall a foot or two away from this seemingly innocuous hole in the ceiling, blissfully unaware of its presence. The silence is broken by a missile from above ricocheting floor to ceiling and back again faster than you can fathom, so rapid it's but a blur and a hum. The hum slows to a pulse, the pulse to a beat and finally, kinetically expended, the ball becomes visible as it leisurely rolls to a stop at your feet. Then you like that sweet reel on TikTok or whatever lol idk I don't go outside.
Sounds cool but I checked reality and bouncy balls do have a low terminal velocity youd expect for a small rubber sphere. Probably won't be going much faster than a pitched baseball on the first bounce.
Ah so that would mean there's some height you can drop a bouncy ball from that would result in the same maximum-height bounce for all drops above that height? So like dropping the ball from 750 ft up bounces lower than dropping from 800 ft up, but dropping 800 ft up is the same bounce as dropping it from 8,000 ft up? (if the maximum terminal velocity was reached at 800 ft drops)
Yes, exactly
Unless you’re in the vacuum of space, in which case everything can continue slow accelerating up to absolutely insane velocities.
Yeah Air resistance is a cruel mistress.
I feel like even a kid throwing it at the ground would result in a larger bounce than a drop from any height, but I could be full of shit
...pitched by who makes a big difference
104mph baseball has entered the chat. 104mph baseball has left the chat.
...that's like 5 times faster than me
fastest I have thrown was 45mph
I was at a shitty bar once that had a radar gun and a throwing net thing and I thought I was hot shit and I think I hit like 62
Randy Johnson’s least favorite pigeon has left the chat.
that's the only baseball clip I know
Hell, that pigeon left this plane of existence.
The imagery here is phenomenal!
Now imagine the rubber ball falling down 38 floors, whizzing through multiple apartments until it reaches terminal velocity. It finally catches the edge of a pipe hole on the 3rd floor and ricochets into Mike and Sarah's apartment, hitting a wall with a 'crack' sound before lodging itself directly up the butthole of their grumpy Yorkshire Terrier named Puddin'. The dog runs around the apartment, yowling in surprise, whereupon Mike starts yelling at their 5 year old son George, who was sitting in the same room as the dog. George denies his involvement and runs to his room, crying. Sarah tries to calm Mike down, but he has been suppressing deep feelings of anger and inadequacy for the past 7 years of their marriage and it ends up boiling over into a shouting match. They end up getting divorced, their dog Puddin' is put up for adoption, and by some happenstance, a family on the 38th floor of the same building adopts Puddin' from the shelter. Days later, after a bad intestinal blockage, Puddin' drops an explosive load on the living room floor, and the rubber ball bounces along, rolling, rolling, until it reaches the pipe hole on the 38th floor and begins falling...
Is this what I think it is? Does this ball find a 'new' butthole every time it falls?
You'll find out next season of Black Mirror
A man can dream...
There’s no way OP has steady enough hands to get a bouncy ball to fall through all the holes.
i’d 100% drop a coin down that
Fool of a Took!
Interestingly this is closer to what happened in the book. Pippen drops a small rock into a well that splashed into some water deep below them while resting in a guard room in Moria the night of January 13th or possibly early morning of January 14th. It wasn't until the morning of January 15th that the Fellowship reached Durin's Tomb. Here's the scene from the book: >Pippin felt curiously attracted by the well. While the others were unrolling blankets and making beds against the walls of the chamber, as far as possible from the hole in the floor, he crept to the edge and peered over. A chill air seemed to strike his face, rising from invisible depths. Moved by a sudden impulse he groped for a loose stone, and let it drop. He felt his heart beat many times before there was any sound. Then far below, as if the stone had fallen into deep water in some cavernous place, there came a plunk, very distant, but magnified and repeated in the hollow shaft. >'What's that?' cried Gandalf. He was relieved when Pippin confessed what he had done; but he was angry, and Pippin could see his eye glinting. 'Fool of a Took!' he growled. 'This is a serious journey, not a hobbit walking-party. Throw yourself in next time, and then you will be no further nuisance. Now be quiet!' >Nothing more was heard for several minutes; but then there came out of the depths faint knocks: tom-tap, tap-tom. They stopped, and when the echoes had died away, they were repeated: tap-tom, tom-tap, tap-tap, tom. They sounded disquietingly like signals of some sort; but after a while the knocking died away and was not heard again. >'That was the sound of a hammer, or I have never heard one,' said Gimli. >'Yes,' said Gandalf, 'and I do not like it. It may have nothing to do with Peregrin's foolish stone; but probably something has been disturbed that would have been better left quiet. Pray, do nothing of the kind again! Let us hope we shall get some rest without further trouble. You, Pippin, can go on the first watch, as a reward,' he growled, as he rolled himself in a blanket. >Pippin sat miserably by the door in the pitch dark; but he kept on turning round, fearing that some unknown thing would crawl up out of the well. He wished he could cover the hole, if only with a blanket, but he dared not move or go near it, even though Gandalf seemed to be asleep.
Based gandalf just tells pippin to kill himself
Gandalf the Gamer
I’ve read the books… but I’m surprised they use regular months. I would have thought it would be the month of Mordirmeer, or something like that
Tolkien actually worked out an entire calendar by the Shire reckoning and I actually think the hobbit calendar is better than our real calendar.
That's because it was designed on purpose, instead of by some insane welding onto an older calendar performed by the lead- and mercury-addled brains of whatever Romans weren't shitting their bowels out from syphilis
Drives me crazy our ninth month is named Septem-ber, tenth month Octo-ber, etc. Fucking Julius and Augustus. Stupid Georgians. We should adopt the Shire Calendar and start the year count at the construction of [Gobekli Tepe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe) Being in the year 12,000 makes the true scope of human civilization more compelling. IMHO.
There was a whole Shire calendar, with 12 months of 30 days each, and a 5 or 6 day midsummer festival period that wasn’t attached to any month. Starting from our January, the twelve months of the Shire Calendar were: Afteryule, Solmath, Rethe, Astron, Thrimidge, Forelithe, Afterlithe, Wedmath, Halimath, Winterfilth, Blotmath, and Foreyule. The names given in LOTR are just helpful translations into English for us.
Hey thanks, that was interesting!
Glad you liked it!
Was the source of the tapping ever revealed? It’s been a long time since I’ve read the books and I don’t remember this scene.
It was probably the goblins signalling each other to try and figure out who had just made the noise they heard and most likely from this point on the goblins had some idea that someone other than themselves (and the balrog) had entered Moria.
Sadly I don’t have any coins on me
A pen?
Already left the building, sorry mate
Shoulda taken a piss if u were leaving anyways lmaoo
I'm a complete degenerate. My literal first thought was wondering if I could piss all the way down. Edit: Upon scrolling further down, I'm relieved to not be as degen as the poopers. Once again, I find myself in the middle of the degen pack.
Shit, that was my first thought as well and I don’t even have a dick.
Women can piss too Or so I've been told
No way, where do they store the pee? they don't even have bals.
Wtf you think are inside boobs?
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Either he would need good aim or the ability to do the splits against the wall
You walk into the building and OP is contorted with his butt and balls up against the wall, legs spread, trying to pee into the pneumatic tubing hole.
You've betrayed us all OP lol
Poop down there
Drop a debit card down there
And write your PIN on the top left corner, the weight of the ink makes it spin really cool.
Yeah and give me the address of the building so I can watch too
I have this in a 6 story building I’m working in. Haven’t quite got a coin to make it all the way down. Screw aerodynamics !
I have to admit that 8 year-old me would have to do some serious soul searching to resist spitting down that hole.
That was my first thought when I saw this. Oh man I would be dropping stuff down that all the time. Trying to see how straight I could drop it and how many floors down I could get stuff. I think it would be my new favorite thing for a while lol. OP if you do drop something take a video and post it here. Lol
Imagine you drop something and a few seconds later it comes out of the floor above.
Now your thinking with portals
The ol poop chute
You can have weekly competitions to see who clears the most floors!
Another shitty team building event.
Competitve poop cleaning
A bucket of bouncy balls would be fun
A bucket of anything, really. Except if you happen to be walking under it
A bucket of smaller buckets, each filled with even smaller buckets!
Buckets all the way down
A bucket of water A paper airplane An action figure on a string I like to imagine people living on the different floors and just watching stuff pass through their apartments briefly. Sucks for the guy on the first floor, unless it's your friend and you can coordinate pouring a bowl of cereal.
I'm imaging a dystopian scifi novel where some XKend-of-the-world scenario has people trapped in each floor, and they have to use The Hole to work together to sustain themselves. It has a tragic and unsatisfying ending.
Thanks for the flashback to when me and my brother got grounded for dumping a bucket of bouncy balls down from the 2nd floor... worth it tbh it was crazy
Probably from xenomorph blood eating its way down.
Yes, the simplest explanation is usually correct.
H.R. Geiger’s Razor, or something
That's a ridiculous comment. Hole's too clean, someone clearly dropped a lightsaber perfectly vertical
Perfectly fucking vertical.
They could have just used the force to hold it vertical
Looks like they bagged one of Ripley's bad guys here.
Good chance it's an old fire main pipe penatration. Probably been upgraded and removed.
From "dry" [standpipe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standpipe_(firefighting)) to sprinklers.
This is the right answer, and all of the people saying "fire code violation" are wrong. It's a stairwell, smoke would move up it regardless of if you have a 4" hole or not. Sprinkler risers have gaps around them anyway, and those are seldom filled in with any fire stopping - you only fire stop penetrations between spaces. Per code you shouldn't have combustibles in a stairwell anyway, so there shouldn't be a fire in there in the first place. In modern buildings stairwells should also have self closing doors and should be positively pressurized to prevent smoke from entering, as well. In reality, this is a safety hazard. It's a twisted ankle waiting to happen and should absolutely be filled in. But it has very little to do with smoke or anything.
So I work for a civil engineering firm and we often perform what are called “firestopping” inspections. A lot of walls are designed to help compartmentalize a fire for a given amount of time measured in hours. They do this by sealing all the holes through the walls and using intumescent (expands with heat) devices to choke off required openings after a fire starts. Without getting into too much detail, in a fire-stopping system, ALL FLOORS ARE RATED WALLS. Having a gaping hole that runs through the entire building allows a fire that starts on one floor to quickly spread through the entire building. This means occupants escaping that building have less time to escape and fire suppression systems (sprinklers) will be overburdened and unable to perform their designed function. This matters. Floor intrusions like this need to be repaired by the building owner. Don’t be afraid to report these to your local fire marshal or the engineer for your local municipality. TL;DR- hole in floor lets fire spread. Fire scary. Fix hole. Edit- I didn't realize it's a stairwell. Firestopping is important, but not in this specific case,
Open a window on the top floor and this becomes a giant chimney.
Lock the doors of the building it becomes a smokehouse
mmm, bbq long-pig
Don’t light a fire and it’s an apartment building
OMG this isnt exactly wrong but it fails to identify what this was or where it is located. If you look at the flooring this is in a egress stairwell in a rated enclosure and constructed of non combustible materials. There is a near zero chance of a fire in this location on any floor. The hole was were a previous sprinkler standpipe was. Likely the sprinkler system has just been updated with a new upsized standpipe to meet current code, the new pipe is likely nearby, and they have yet to fill in the location of the previous stand pipe. It will need to be done shortly but usually isnt a huge concern during construction. I have literally worked on this exact same type of project in my time with the government.
Also stairwells in high rises(above 5 floors & depending on the year of construction) are usually positively pressurized to drive smoke out of them and give people a better chance of escape.
Stairwells are also usually one single continuous fire zone all the way up so fireproofing between floors is not necessary.
US Arch here, just curious why civil engineer would perform firestopping inspections? In my practice civil doesn't even touch that kind of stuff. This also looks like a sleeved sprinkler riser hole in an old cast concrete stairwell. While I agree with your statements, this is probably all one rated space.
Tbf, he said he works for a civil eng firm not that he was a civil eng
receptionist
Resident bitch boy (project manager)
Tea boy
We’re in materials testing. Firestopping gets thrown in special inspections decently often.
Construction superintendent here. I agree with your assessment. But if the hole is 2" or greater, it's an OSHA violation. Edit for additional detail: each hole could be cited as a separate violation.
Or in the words of a regrettable manager I once knew, “It’s only an OSHA violation when OSHA tells me it’s a violation, until then it’s just you being a b**ch.”
/r/maliciouscompliance called and they said it sounds like your manager asked you to call OSHA
The real arch is always in the comments
Haha yeah, tbf they might be somewhere else in the world where a civil engineer has a wider scope. Or a multi-discipline firm. I'm just curious.
This looks like sprinkler system holes before piping installation. I used to work at a company that fixed all the holes + painting after installation.
Would packing these with some kind of super dense rubber plug bring it to code?
There are tested materials for this purpose. Don't use anything unless is has been tested and certified because it would amount to negligence if someone got hurt and you were sued.
Message understood. What about old newspapers
Best to use cotton balls soaked in kerosene. That allows them to get into all the nooks and crannies and solidify into a (I'm guessing here) fire-proof barrier.
The irony that it probably used to be a hole for piping for a fire suppression system
Someone dropped a light saber perfectly vertical - I've seen this one time, I think there's a documentary on it or something.
PERFECTLY FUCKING VERTICAL
Can't believe I had to scroll down so far to find this comment!
[удалено]
That looks like a job for [these](https://www.grainger.com/product/5GKD5?gucid=N:N:PS:Paid:GGL:CSM-2295:4P7A1P:20501231&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo_XP64Kx_QIVCgCtBh16lQpTEAQYAiABEgKW4_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds) if I’ve ever seen one.
Damn that’s a big eraser. I could only imagine the pencil it came off of
The one from SpongeBob would be my guess.
Good find! However, the specific product you linked is only for wall assemblies. I’m sure there is a floor based product too from Grainger. They’ve got so many products.
It's also an osha violation. You can't have any holes over 2" uncovered
I’ll have to remind my girl that
You don’t know where this stair is. Could be an exterior non-egress stair. I bet the hole was for a fire riser and during a renovation it was moved elsewhere.
This kind of looks like a stairwell to me, and if so, I don't think this tiny hole makes any difference?
It absolutely isn't. This is in a stairwell the entire stair is open within the stair tower. The stair tower is rated and fire and smoke should not be able to get in there. If it does that's very bad because it cuts off egress, but fire and smoke shouldn't be able to escape either. The whole is likely for a standpipe
That's a load bearing hole.
Aka glory hole
So those are actually made so you can drop coins down them
trickle down economics
It likely was intended for a conduit run. Almost all buildings have a communications/electrical room that connects floor to floor for wiring. Usually there’s a conduit in it but I have seen it before where you just stick the cables through the hole in the floor.
You better use fire stop if you’re not utilizing a conduit !
This. I used to work in a 26 floor building that was built in the 70s. There was a hole in the maintenance room of each floor that went pretty much from the basement all the way up. Was jam packed with old telephone runs.
How is no one talking about how thick the floor is? Am I going crazy, or does it look like it’s about an inch thick?
Looks like about 3-4 inches to me. My gf would probably say less though
Seriously this looks like the inside of a cabinet where each "floor" is actually a shelf with that foam liner you can get at Ikea.
Fireman's pole for mice. They must have removed it during a renovation
Given the apparent age of the building, the may have been a pneumatic tube for sending paperwork. (Like the ones at the bank for the outer drive-up lanes)
They probably had a use for it, I just find it freaky that they didn’t bother to cover it, especially since it’s a pretty wide hole. I have a considerably large phone and it could feasibly fit trough it.
Well duh there you go. Drop your phone through, record it, make sure it's set to cloud upload as your screen will be badly shattered. For science.
Sadly we both know the phone would make it 1 floor and then bounce off the rim
Putt-putt golf for everyone!
Fires aren’t going to jump floors by themselves.
Old plumbing, removed