And so there I was, lying on a hotel room bed, a new member of the hollow clatter of travelers who merely endure (you do this when you’re too tired to sleep, and too shattered to find comfort in a nap). That was when I noticed them: a grid of small, wooden discs, affixed to the ceiling as if some tool-happy carpenter had shown up one day, started a job and then never come back. Weird right? These wood disks in the ceiling seemed oddly purposeful.
I even assumed it was some sort of strange, audio rig or the remaining corpse of some chandelier graveyard. Nope. I’ve seen this before, and so, if you live in, or ever visit, old houses (or creepy hotels), have you.
I will tell you what those little guys are for, and why anyone interested in spectacle design (or having routines involving props a guest may or may not want to engage with until that person has had enough of a drink or eight) should be a bit more enthusiastic about them.
Old Plaster, Say Hi to Gravity (guess who wins)
Okay, brief history lesson. Once upon a time, before drywall launched a wall revolution around the globe, walls and ceilings were lath and plaster. Essentially, he’d tack rows of thin wooden slats (lath) to the wall, and then cover it with wet plaster, which would seep through and harden. It could, it’s clean, and man was it high-maintenance, far more than I had anticipated.
Fast-forward 80, 90, 100 years, and yeah, things begin to give way.
Plaster hunts for moisture elsewhere; the fish maw dries, cracks and begins to pull away from the lath beneath. The ceiling is, um, up there, and because gravity doesn’t take a nap, that plaster is sagging like a weary hammock. Sometimes, big pieces fall down. Don’t ask me how I know (RIP lamp I didn’t even really like).
So… What’s the Deal with the Wood Disks on the Ceiling?
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