abby_henderson•29d agoMost Upvoted

Noticed something weird about ceiling grids at a hospital I drafted for

I was on site last month at Providence Medical in Portland checking my reflected ceiling plans and I noticed they had offset the grid by 2 inches from the walls in every corridor. When I asked the foreman about it he said it was an old trick to avoid cutting tiles around sprinkler heads every 6 feet. Has anyone else run into this kind of offset detail in a healthcare build?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse_cooper29d ago

Called a buddy who does healthcare MEP work in Seattle and asked him about this. He laughed and said he learned the hard way on his first hospital project when the ceiling guys charged extra for all the custom cuts around sprinklers. Told me the foreman on that job made sure to show him the offset trick on the next build and it saved a ton of time and money. Said he's done it on every healthcare project since and never had an issue with inspections or code because the offset is hidden in the grid layout, not the actual sprinkler spacing. Apparently some architects hate it because it messes with their symmetrical ceiling designs, but the trades love it for keeping labor down.

perry.nancy29d ago

Caught myself doing the exact same thing on a project once, except I offset the grid the wrong way. Had to go back and redo half the ceiling plan because the sprinklers ended up right in the middle of the tiles. Realized later the foreman was trying to save us from cutting corners, literally. Guess that's what I get for trying to outsmart the guys who actually build the stuff.