barrel vaulted ceilings

my colleague 30_yrs could do this better than I could, but I assume the point of a barrel vault is that you wouldn't need columns to support your roof sections, and thus could have a large clear volume of space in which to place your machines or to store your-what-have yous. If you think about the West Village, for instance, a lot of those buildings with barrel vault details are former storage spaces/warehouses for goods that came in by the river.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

I used to live in a building with barrel vault ceilings. Indeed, it was pretty much impossible to hear your upstairs neighbors stomping around. It's a shame that modern buildings aren't constructed like this. It beats wood construction any day.

Maybe bvault's referring to those narrow vaults, maybe 3' wide.

With those, there're I-beams set a few feet apart, supported by the walls or other beams, with the arches running between them. The arches are built from hollow tiles in specific shapes to key into each other and to the beams. The underside would then be plastered, and up above would be cinders and subflooring or a thin layer of concrete.

I suppose the arches could be of brick supported by wood beams, but those I've never seen.

NWT: Brick

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/623932-coop-9-barrow-street-greenwich-village-new-york

Thanks, hejira.

Here're some examples of brick and tile barrel vaults: http://books.google.com/books?id=OZBAAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA29#v=onepage