My old apartment was on the 14th floor of a highrise building that's most likely concrete slab construction. When the temperature dropped below -20, the building would settle really loudly. Specifically, I'd hear these big loud cracking noises in the floor under me, loud enough to wake me up - often right under my bed when I was sleeping!
My current apartment is on the 12th floor of a highrise building of concrete slab construction. When the temperature drops below -20, the building settles really loudly. Specifically, I hear these big loud cracking noises in the ceiling over my head, loud enough to wake me up - often in the ceiling right above my head as I'm sleeping!
During the recent cold snap the loud noises started up again, so I started googling around the idea and couldn't readily find any reports of concrete slab buildings settling loudly in cold weather. There were plenty of reports of wooden buildings settling loudly, but nothing about concrete. (And I know for certain there's no wood in the construction of my current building because I watched it being built.)
Then I realized: neither of these buildings have a 13th floor - both skip straight from 12 to 14. So in the ceiling of the 12th floor and the floor of the 14th floor we have the ghost 13th floor. Obviously those sounds I hear are the poltergeists that live there!
My condo is on the 8th floor. If it doesn't settle loudly in -20 temperatures, we'll know that this theory is true.
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