3 Yishun Ring Road flats' ceilings collapse upon hitting 32-year-old mark

Gravity always wins.

Belmont Lay | January 09, 2017, 02:21 PM

According to Shin Min Daily News, an 80-year-old man suffered cuts on his left knee and injured a toe after a concrete slab fell from the ceiling in the toilet attached to the master bedroom and landed next to him.

The incident occurred at his daughter's flat at Blk 141 in Yishun Ring Road on Friday, Jan. 6 at about 9pm.

The man has since received a tetanus jab as a precaution.

The man's daughter said the flat has not undergone upgrading under the Home Improvement Programme. The flat is 32 years old.

Officers from the Housing & Development Board (HDB) have visited the flat to check the ceilings.

The owner and HDB will share the cost of repair equally after accepting HDB's subsidy to repair the spalling concrete under the Goodwill Repair Assistance Scheme.

This is apparently the third such incident to have happened in Yishun Ring Road.

 

Two cases in Yishun Ring Road reported in 2016

On July 29, 2016, a 34-year-old civil servant returned home from work to her flat at Blk 240 Yishun Ring Road only to find that the door to the master bedroom toilet was stuck.

When she finally managed to push it open, it was strewn with debris from the collapsed ceiling.

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The flat owner said she had noticed hairline cracks on the toilet ceiling years ago, but didn’t find them a cause for concern.

The flat she stayed in was also 32 years old then.

A neighbor living one floor above had also experienced a similar incident just six months before her.

HDB said regular maintenance by flat owners will minimise such problems related to spalling concrete.

Regularly painting the ceiling every three to five years using anti-carbonation or good quality paint can slow down or prevent the carbonation process that causes spalling concrete.

 

Top photos via HDB

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