Dangerous!

On 1-22-04 at around 2 a.m., I was in my study room and I heard a very LOUD noise. Went check and saw this Chandelier Lamp on my hardwood foyer, broken glass everywhere. It fell by itself from about 15' high, and that lamp is quite heavy. It can seriously hurt or even kill anyone that was below. I was very upset and concerned. I just want to share this with everyone and hope I was and will be the only 1 that experience this. A picture was taken after lamp fell, it'll be available if anyone wants to see it. Good Luck to everyone!

 

Good thing noone was under that thing when it fell! I had a similar problem in 2000 in my NV Home when the chandalier fell in the eat-in area in my kitchen. It did not hit the floor, rather it fell on the table and glass and parts went everywhere (only fell about 3ft). Apparently the screw holding it up was not screwed on correctly. It was not even threaded right. I made a call and they came out that day to write up a report and the next day to replace it. Scared the crap out of me when I heard it fall. I couldnt imagine a foyer chand. falling that distance......geeeeshhhh!

DwArFlOrD

 

Thank you so much for this posting. I had the pack'n'play for our 5 week old very close to underneath our chandelier. I've moved it now! Scary stuff!

 

Dragon,
What model is your home? How old?

 

I had the chandelier in my foyer replaced last year. The electrician told me that the old chandelier was hanging in the drywall- no stud. If we had touched it it would have come down. Good thing I never tried to clean it!

 

This posts have done a good job of making me nervous - our two small children are using our empty dining room as a play room, and they frequently play directly under our dining room chandelier.

There have to be building standards for things like this. Is it a question of poor design, or faulty installation? Is it possible to easily check to make sure the fixtures are installed properly?

I remember VM pointing out that the ceiling fan hookups were properly installed into studs during my pre-drywall walkthrough, hopefully the chandeliers were similarly anchored...

 

Model - Parkdale. House built in May 2003

 

By the way, that Chandelier didn't fall from drywall. Only bottom part,the heaviest part fell. Chain still hanging. It just came apart in the middle, by itself. We never even turn on that light because I don't want to have to climb that high to replace a light bulb.

 

Gotta love builders using the cheapest possible materials/methods so they can maximize their profits! =) My townhouse has 24" on center studs... talk about cheap.

 

24" O.C. Studs are more than adequate and within code for NON BEARING partitions.(mostly interior walls with no roof/floor load on them.) If you have 24" O.C. @ exterior walls, or interior BEARING walls, then I'd say there could be a problem.

 

I would prefer 16" all around.. it would make for a more solid wall IMO.

 

When you refer to 24" and 16", are you referring to the distance between the studs?

 

Yes, that is the distance between studs. Our Spruce model has 16" studs everywhere with the exception of a few places that are not load bearing walls. Load bearing walls and floors are required to have 16" studs.

 

WRONG! 16" O.C. is from center of stud to center of stud.
So a 16" O.C. wall has 14.5" between the studs, and a 24" O.C. wall has 22.5" between the studs. Also, floors are not required to have 16" O.C. studs. I've never seen a floor system constructed of studs. Now if you mean conventional lumber (2X10's for example)for floor joists, the placement of these depends on many factors, one being the span (distance from bearing point A to bearing point B.) Yes, they may be 16" O.C. , but depending on the specific case it could be 12" O.C. ,19" O.C. and so on and so on.

 

GEEEZ, so I didn't specify "center", I think most people will get my point.

 

Tough crowd...

 

Not really, but when someone claims that floors systems are constructed of studs, I just had to say something.

 

I think that even with the misnomer, everyone was able to get the point he was trying to make.
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DwArFlOrD

 

I complain about Van Metre as much as anybody else, but in the case of construction, at least the townhomes, they are built great. I had an inspector check it pre drywall and before are final walkthough, and he said it was one of the best built homes he has seen. I guess every home is different, but I don't think you can complain about them using cheap materials. Now if you want to complain about Openband, that is a whole different story.

 

I agree. We bought a SFH in Southern Walk in November, and our inspector for the pre-closing walkthrough was very complimentary about the quality of the home. Of course, he generated a list of about 4 pages of "hits," but he said that they were all pretty minor compared to what he normally finds. He also said that he would normally find twice as many discrepancies in new homes built by other builders.

I have never had a problem w/Van Metre re. the quality of the home (except for not installing programmable thermostats). My issues have been with the post-closing customer service and, of course, OpenBand.