Why is it so normal for students’ ceilings to be collapsing in Glasgow

Shortly after moving into my new flat in Glasgow, I was woken up by one of my flat mates knocking on my door at 5am telling me that the ceiling had collapsed. I was pissed that I had be woken from my slumber, and more pissed that my flat mate was probably sleepwalking and talking shite.  After realising that this was not a joke, I pulled myself out of bed to inspect the damage and it was absolute carnage.

Mint

About a metre of the roof had fallen, revealing some worryingly weak black beams in the ceiling, which were also snapping. Bloody brilliant. I’m paying £400 a month to have holes in the roof. This is 2016, we are no longer in Victorian Glasgow, so why is it that I know so many people who have their flats collapsing?

Our parents were shocked, one demanded we evacuated the premises, the Landlord was surprised and came round the next day to fix it up. All fine and dandy, except three months later, I’ve got a hole in my kitchen ceiling, and the ceiling of my bedroom is now developing a lovely big crack down one side. I now have some banging beams in my room to support the ceiling that may or may not collapse in the near future and some modern art in the kitchen.

When I told other students about my crumbling flat, everyone was shocked but most of them had heard of someone, if not themselves, whose ceiling had also collapsed.

Let me share with you just a few of the horror stories that some of Glasgow’s West End students have had to deal with.

Archie Winnington-Ingram

Santa certainly missed the chimney last Christmas when Archie and his flatmates were given an unwanted prezzie of the ceiling collapsing over their shower. A pipe had burst in the flat above them and due to the HMO licence requiring a certain number if bathrooms per person, the boys were split up into one new five man flat on Sauchiehall street and then two others were placed in a rather large 20 man flat share ( a bit like halls but for young professionals).

Leora Mansoor

Leora and he friends were on their way back from a flat party, when her flatmate called her in distress saying that her bedroom ceiling had fallen down onto her bed. She ran home to find huge chunks of plaster all over her pillow, that could have seriously hurt her if she had been in bed.

Andrew Barclay

Andrew was in class when he recieved a phonecall from one of his flatmates telling him that the ceiling had fallen in. They phoned the landlord who came sprinting round with a ladder and propped up the ceiling with a washing line pole, and then mopped and cleaned up the kitchen for them (babe). The people two flats above us had a boiler that was leaking and was pumping out water into the wall cavity which then ran down their ceiling, leaving Andrew and his flatmates with a damp broken kitchen for a week or so.

A few weeks later Andrew was sat in the kitchen and he felt a drip on his head, grabbed his laptop and bolted. There was water collecting on the ceiling again. The landlord came running round again, and proceeded to stab the building with a knife to let the water drain out. They moved out before any further drama occured.