" Condo management company is telling me I cannot touch the ceiling "

" Has anyone done anything to improve look of flexicore ceiling? "

Context is key, post up a pic or two but how do improve the look of something you cannot touch? And what is a Flexicore ceiling?

Flexicore is a type of precast, prestressed concrete floor slab. designed to hold noise back by providing six inches of concrete between one unit`s ceiling and another`s floor. 

Not sure you can see from pics, it has texture. Mgmt tells me its not "popcorn", but a fire-retardant material.  

My plan had been to cover with drywall and do a coffered ceiling. Looking for suggestions that I can go back to mgmt with.

Hi, I have the same flexicore ceilings in my condo. While I’m not looking to cover them, I’ve had a terrible time painting them. I’ve been using regular flat, pink to white ceiling paint and it dries so unevenly each time. From certain angles, you can see darker spots even after many coats. Does anyone know if there’s any special paint I should be using?

Oh, that's terrible Gabby.  The previous owner at our place was a heavy smoker. Even though I plan to cover the ceilings eventually, I need to paint them if for nothing else, the smell 😖 i plan to hire a painter in the next few months and will let you know what he recommends.

Thank you for that! I am going to fight them on it when I am ready to have them covered

I don't know about the construction of your building, but I have a single-family house. Flexicore was used to avoid having a post in the garage that would make parking a vehicle more difficult. Mine has spans of cables to support the weight. So, drilling into a cable would be a big no-no. From what I understand, there are places marked on the flexicore to indicate where it is safe to drill and/or your building plans should indicate where the cables are strung. (You should double check all that.)

Your HOA doesn't want a pancaked condo. So, your best bet is to research what your flexicore ceiling looks like under the cement and perhaps have an expert if necessary on hand to explain to them that what you are purposing will be fine. Perhaps that may not want any extra weight, but I suspect it is the cable situation that they are nervous about.

Thank you very much for all of that info.  Weird that I couldn't find that online! I appreciate your input.

I've read conflicting things, so perhaps I am confusing two different building techniques. I should have double checked what I wrote before I wrote it. You should definitely double check what I wrote.

My dining room is located on top of my garage, which has a flexicore ceiling. I want to relocate my kitchen to my dining room, and two contractors were not in favor of that because moving the mechanicals (plumbing/vents/electrical) could entail drilling into support cables (unless I misunderstood what they meant by that). So that is where I learned of it.

I'm fairly certain it is the same technique. I am aware there are areas you should not drill into (although I'm not certain what areas they are!) 

The material I want to use to attach to the ceiling would not be heavy, but I definitely need to understand the construction beforehand.  Thanks again!

You might want to consider if your ceiling attachments can be attached using liquid nails, glue, self-stick, or paste. You could wallpaper your ceiling, for example.

Gabby- having my condo painted this coming week. Painter says we need to use an oil-based primer on the ceiling to seal in the smoke and stop the yellow staining  from seeping through. Maybe this is a solution for your ceilings as well? 

Good luck!

Has anyone tried to fill in the gaps of a flexicore ceiling and then paint over it?

That was the thought I had - can you skim coat it with compound to smooth it out without having to attach something to it?

Did you try asking around to see if anyone else has done anything?

The gaps are where the panels flex. If you attempt to fill the gaps they will crack.

Gluing drywall over top to not violate the Flexcor panels seems like the best solution.

Relative to the smoke residue, I just learned about a product called Vital Oxide that is supposed to be great at solving the smoke stink. Can buy it on Google. I bought some.