When someone climbs into an opening in a ceiling...

stardustx

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There is a scene in my story where a teenage boy removes a square tile from the ceiling of a room, climbs into the opening, and crawls inside the ceiling. He climbs out through another opening in the ceiling into a different room. (The point is that the door to the second room is locked, and he is trying to sneak in.) I've seen this in TV shows. But what exactly is the removed tile from the opening in the ceiling called? What exactly is the person climbing into? I'm confused as to whether it's called an air duct, a ceiling duct, a ceiling vent, or something else entirely. Does anyone know? It would be really helpful, as I'm stuck trying to explain this in the scene. Thank you.
 

M.S. Wiggins

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The square tile: acoustic ceiling tile.

The space between/above: crawl space/between the joists.
 
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King Neptune

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If it is a one story house with a gable roof, thaen it is the space above the ceiling and below the roof. If it is not a one story house, then you will have to explain what it is, because there isn't usually any space between floors. What kind of house is it, and when was it built?
 

CWatts

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Climbing through the air vent is going to make lot of noise because it's metal. There's a Mythbusters where they disprove anyone *sneaking* in a vent like in spy movies.

That said, escape through the ceiling happens, like with this shoplifter who got away from Walmart security. Note that people could hear him in the ceiling which is why they were all looking and filming him.
https://youtu.be/2LBVr2OM3iQ
 

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I always heard the called a "drop ceiling."

Having helped work on them, I can say they are not very strong and I think your character has a good chance of falling through. Almost assured to in real life. The acoustical tiles break easily, and the brackets are usually thin aluminum suspended by no more than a wire no stronger than a coat hanger. Further, there isn't always a connection to the next room. Sometimes the drop ceiling is just dropped from the existing ceiling.

You see this a lot in movies (Breakfast Club comes to mind, with the expected plummet to the floor), and I usually just have to suspend disbelief when I see it.
 
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Roxxsmom

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There is a scene in my story where a teenage boy removes a square tile from the ceiling of a room, climbs into the opening, and crawls inside the ceiling. He climbs out through another opening in the ceiling into a different room. (The point is that the door to the second room is locked, and he is trying to sneak in.) I've seen this in TV shows. But what exactly is the removed tile from the opening in the ceiling called? What exactly is the person climbing into? I'm confused as to whether it's called an air duct, a ceiling duct, a ceiling vent, or something else entirely. Does anyone know? It would be really helpful, as I'm stuck trying to explain this in the scene. Thank you.

I'd call it a ceiling panel. I think these are sometimes called "dropped ceilings," as they are sort of secondary ceilings hung below the main structural ceiling. They hide the building infrastructure, like wiring and pipes, and are pretty common in modern office buildings, industrial buildings, colleges and universities and so on.

I just googled this, and there's even a wikipedia entry on dropped ceilings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropped_ceiling

One thing to be aware of is that dropped ceilings tend to be very flimsy and there's not much holding them up besides a thin aluminum grid. This might not support the weight of an adult, and it would be harder to crawl/climb on than the wooden beams that support the ceilings of older buildings and many residences. I don't know, as I've never tried it. The space within might be tightly packed with ducts and wires too and not have room to crawl through.

The space can be termed a plenum space (if it's an open ventilation return space without enclosed ducts), or a crawl space or access area if it's set up with access doors/hatches to allow maintenance workers into the space as needed. With most modern buildings, a true crawl space wouldn't be necessary, as dropped ceilings in more recent buildings are designed for easy panel removal, so workers can just use a ladder and remove the panels from the area they need to repair, do the work from a ladder, then replace the panels when done. I've seen them doing this at colleges and universities.

Here's a guideline for maintenance workers for a couple of buildings at a local university.

https://www.csueastbay.edu/af/depar...foraboveceilingentrywhenAsbestosispresent.pdf

Whether or not someone locking a door would think of someone using the space above a dropped ceiling to sneak into a secured office might depend on the valuables stored in said room, whether or not their workplace has different levels of security or access to parts of the facility for different workers, or on the sensitivity/security of the work done in the locked room. I'm assuming that buildings with secured areas that only certain workers have access to would have some kind of wall or controlled access up in the crawl space above the dropped ceiling.

It will really depend on the building, of course, and you can probably fudge the design enough to make what you want your character to do plausible. Or, you could have him think of using the space above the dropped ceiling, discover it's not do-able (part of a try/fail sequence), and find another way into the office in question. Or falling through the ceiling panels at an inopportune time could be a great "things get worse" moment.
 
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stardustx

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Wow, thank you so much to everyone! You've all given me more than I needed and definitely enough to work with. I really appreciate it. :)
 

jclarkdawe

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Let's start with the basic issue. What type of structure is this? Construction details vary a lot between the different types of buildings. Once we know the structure type, we can start to identify how you'd do this.

Jim
 

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JCD is right. you got different answers based on what different people imagine the building to look like, how it was built. There are some buildings in which making that move would be easy, and other buildings where it would not be an option.
 

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I've lived in several places with a crawl space above the ceiling. In a former house it was just that, a crawl space that could be climbed into via a honking big square above my computer. In our current apartment, the furnace and AC are located in the crawl space.

In Sidney Sheldon's If Tomorrow Comes there's a stakeout card game going on in such a space.
 

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Is it a residence or a commercial building? I know of two robberies in strip malls that were done through the ceiling, but the robber didn't go crawling around: in both cases they were one-story buildings, with drop ceilings and a crawl space above. The different businesses were separated by cement/concrete block walls. One robbery was into a pharmacy, the other was into a video arcade (different malls, BTW). In one case the pharmacy was next to a library, in the other the video arcade was next to a florist's shop.

Neither neighbor was exactly a big criminal target, so had very little security - I worked in the library, we hid the cash in the back and locked the front and back doors at night, and that was it. I imagine it was similar at the florist's, although they may have deposited their cash.

The thieves were targeting the cash and drugs at the pharmacy, and the cash at the video arcade. All they did was break into the easy targets next door, pop out a ceiling tile, climb up the cement wall, over the wall into the adjoining store, pop out it's ceiling tile, drop straight down. As others have said, I don't think they'd have made it far scrambling around in the crawl space - it was built as light weight as possible (well, as cheaply as possible, as well).
 

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I always heard the called a "drop ceiling."

Having helped work on them, I can say they are not very strong and I think your character has a good chance of falling through. Almost assured to in real life. The acoustical tiles break easily, and the brackets are usually thin aluminum suspended by no more than a wire no stronger than a coat hanger. Further, there isn't always a connection to the next room. Sometimes the drop ceiling is just dropped from the existing ceiling.

You see this a lot in movies (Breakfast Club comes to mind, with the expected plummet to the floor), and I usually just have to suspend disbelief when I see it.

+1 to all of this. The industry term for these in my part of the country is "drop ceiling," and they're not designed to bear weight (at least, none of the ones I've ever seen were). Their primary functions are cosmetic and/or acoustical. I wouldn't feel comfortable storing a lightweight box of holiday ornaments in one for fear it would eventually crash through. (In fact, if the tiles aren't set squarely in the gridwork, they'll bow under their own weight, and they're not that heavy).
 
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Al X.

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If it's a dropped ceiling, most likely the room wall partitions go to the roof, or next floor, if it's a multi story building. I've never seen them stop at the dropped ceiling level. In fact, even a vent between two rooms would violate fire code. But that isn't to say that your boy couldn't hack away some drywall above the dropped ceiling level and get through that way.
 

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A friend did not know about the structure of "real" ceilings and unfortunately came crashing through the lot down onto the stairs. Ended up three months wearing a surgical corset for broken ribs, so be careful! But there is a book by Sarah Hillary where the criminals climb up easily into a ceiling by removing one tile - so, it all depends on how it's written into the plot.
 

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Industrial and office buildings are most likely to have those removable acoustical tiles. I think the type of ceiling is called a dropped or suspended ceiling. There may be a flimsy aluminum frame (suspended by wires) that supports the tiles and light fixtures. They are most emphatically not sturdy. Workers can access ducts and other things present up there by standing on a ladder and temporarily removing tiles, but the framework is generally not designed to support the weight of a person, even if they are agile enough to cling to the rickety framework like a monkey.

https://www.9wood.com/blog/eight-different-types-of-ceilings/

The old "crawl through the ceiling duct" approach often featured in movies is also not usually tenable, because the ducts usually smaller, and they aren't supported by anything stronger than suspension wires either.

I suppose the fact that it's such a commonly used device in stories and TV makes people more willing to suspend disbelief, but it's not something that generally would work in real life.

Homes are more likely to have conventional ceilings, where drywall like material is attached to the underside of beams. Buildings with these kinds of ceilings usually have a crawl space access hatch somewhere, but there wouldn't be more than one in most homes. A larger building with such a ceiling may have more hatches. The beams will support a human, but it's not unusual for "do it yourselfers" to accidentally step on the plaster or dry wall portion of the ceiling and come crashing through (as my uncle did one time). Also, crawl spaces have lots of that nice fiberglass insulation, wiring, ducts etc. up there and may be tough to navigate.
 

jclarkdawe

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Zombie thread. Original poster hasn't posted anything in over a year.

Jim Clark-Dawe
 

Maryn

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Careful. This is the second time this thread has been brought back to life literal years after the OP's last visit here.

You won't get in trouble for a single Oops, but it's worth paying attention to the dates to keep it from becoming a habit.

Might I also suggest you read the stickies that address image size? I don't want to pile on, but we have members on dial-up internet for whom big images take forever. Again, you're new and one goof isn't going to be a problem. We don't even keep a demerit chart!

Maryn, trying to nudge, not scold
 

ladyofthecastle

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Careful. This is the second time this thread has been brought back to life literal years after the OP's last visit here.

You won't get in trouble for a single Oops, but it's worth paying attention to the dates to keep it from becoming a habit.

Might I also suggest you read the stickies that address image size? I don't want to pile on, but we have members on dial-up internet for whom big images take forever. Again, you're new and one goof isn't going to be a problem. We don't even keep a demerit chart!

Maryn, trying to nudge, not scold
opps sorry i forgot to look
 

Maryn

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You're fine. We get that newer members can be excitable.

Can you reduce the image sizes, please?

Maryn