Exposed Concrete ceilings and walls in new condos??

[RT2020]

Those older condos from the early 2000's (or late 90's), in addition to u-shaped kitchens and lots of (often dark) floor space, also had carpet or vinyl floors, 8' stippled ceilings, punched windows with high sills, raised panel kitchen cupboard doors, bathtubs with metal skirts, and a resale value of about $400 psf vs $650 psf for the trendy 'soft lofts' that the anti-concrete people here seem to despise.

With the exception of punched windows all of these elements can be upgraded easily. You can get much more premium finishes if you upgrade an existing condo, and you will not have to pay the outrageous prices that builders charge for pre-construction upgrades. I have de-stippled and smoothed ceilings on several condos, and I have even completely replaced a couple of condo bathrooms.

I have not seen any condos from the 90's or early 2000's with 'high' window sills. Most condos built over the last 20 years have large windows. From a reliability and thermal efficiency standpoint, punched windows are more appropriate in Toronto's cold icy winters and hot summers. While floor to ceiling windows (window-wall system) does look stunning, I worry what will happen as these start to fail (think maintenance fees).

As for exposed concrete - I think polished concrete floors are nice, but concrete walls and ceilings make a unit look like parking garage. In my opinion it is a fad, and will not age well.

Maybe I'll buy one of these units and renovate it when one when the 'tendy' pre-construction buyer who got ripped-off at 650 psft eventually re-sells his unit for less because it's no longer 'trendy' enough. LOL

 

[TheKingEast]

Cost cutting, for sure.

Concrete done well:

Concrete not done well:

I just felt like sneaking this one in:

 

[Eug]

I agree. When concrete is done well, it looks great. When it isn't, it doesn't. That's a risk when buying pre-construction.

Same goes for exposed brick by the way. IMO, not all exposed brick looks good, but I like exposed brick in general.

And both are a pain when you want to hang pictures, etc. It's even worse when you remove the pix. It's easy to patch up drywall. Cement and brick, not so much.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Sound resistant, not.

Sound will echo off the walls. Vibrations will transfer through.

They do it to "reduce" the cost of finishes, by passing the cost to the new purchasers. Its basically an unfinished home.

 

[doug]

Sound resistant, not.

Sound will echo off the walls. Vibrations will transfer through.

They do it to "reduce" the cost of finishes, by passing the cost to the new purchasers. Its basically an unfinished home.

Acoustics engineer, not.

 

[Lenser]

Acoustics be damned. All I can say is that exposed brick (especially older brick) or a nicely done concrete wall tends to have a helluvalot more personality than any drywall, which is about as vanilla-bland as you can get.

 

[SunriseChampion]

I agree ^. However (!), come check out a place built by a fly-by-night money-hoarder such as my building was and tell me it doesn't look a little on the...uh, rushed/cheap/scam side. 150 Sudbury Street. (I'm renting so I don't really care about the quality of the build insofar as value goes as I don't plan on staying longer than a couple of years, especially for these prices)

 

[Lenser]

Oh no, I believe you... I'm sure there are plenty of projects that have been rushed and done badly. More's the pity. It sucks when builders rush in for the profits and fail to carry out all the proper details that make a difference between a stellar residence and your run-of-the-mill hackjob.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Oh no, I believe you... I'm sure there are plenty of projects that have been rushed and done badly. More's the pity. It sucks when builders rush in for the profits and fail to carry out all the proper details that make a difference between a stellar residence and your run-of-the-mill hackjob.

Yeah, it bothers me because I work in custom residential construction and take pride in my work, which I would never dare say about Urbancorp, for example.

Anyway, even the poorly-built concrete walls, ceiling, and floors (nothing is plumb, level or square) of my HK-sized unit were enticing to me. I get the idea...the execution here could have been A LOT better. Just happy I don't have a mortgage to go with it.

 

[TheKingEast]

Yeah, it bothers me because I work in custom residential construction and take pride in my work, which I would never dare say about Urbancorp, for example.

Anyway, even the poorly-built concrete walls, ceiling, and floors (nothing is plumb, level or square) of my HK-sized unit were enticing to me. I get the idea...the execution here could have been A LOT better. Just happy I don't have a mortgage to go with it.

Urbancorp aren't the only ones. While they may be poor, there are all sorts of rush/hackjobs all over the city. Years ago before everything went to shit, there were some nicely done concrete ceilings/walls. Now, I'd say most of the concrete I see in new builds are terrible which is unfortunate because concrete done well looks so great. Poorly done concrete is now called "character".

 

[SunriseChampion]

Urbancorp aren't the only ones. While they may be poor, there are all sorts of rush/hackjobs all over the city. Years ago before everything went to shit, there were some nicely done concrete ceilings/walls. Now, I'd say most of the concrete I see in new builds are terrible which is unfortunate because concrete done well looks so great. Poorly done concrete is now called "character".

I believe you, absolutely. Urbancorp are the only ones I'm very familiar with, is all.
It is unfortunate because the concrete I deal with in custom residential can be gorgeous! (Much like that first photo you posted)

 

[gabe]

Acoustics engineer, not.

Actually he's correct. Sound travels pretty well through concrete if there is no sound absorbing layer in between.

 

[doug]

Actually he's correct. Sound travels pretty well through concrete if there is no sound absorbing layer in between.

Not really, and neither are you....more armchair engineering
Sound travels well through all solids, liquids and gasses.
Drywall can be considered to be a solid, and transmits mechanical vibrations, like sound, very well.
Solid concrete has greater attenuation of airborne noise than a flexible drywall panel.

 

[TheKingEast]

I believe you, absolutely. Urbancorp are the only ones I'm very familiar with, is all.
It is unfortunate because the concrete I deal with in custom residential can be gorgeous! (Much like that first photo you posted)

Yea. I have concrete myself and it's pretty bad. Nothing you can really do to fix it either. I still like the look, though, just not sure if I'd intrust a developer to achieve it for me in the future.

 

[TheKingEast]

Not really, and neither are you....more armchair engineering
Sound travels well through all solids, liquids and gasses.
Drywall can be considered to be a solid, and transmits mechanical vibrations, like sound, very well.
Solid concrete has greater attenuation of airborne noise than a flexible drywall panel.

from my experiences it seems like concrete pretty uch stops airborne noise. Impact noise is a different story. Would be great if there was a way to block that out somehow.