I suppose the
[raised-floor tiles] I am familiar with from the one
job I've worked at that used them are atypical, then. They [...]
I've
worked in an office which had those too, so you're not alone.
They were very tight fitting too, and needed a couple of big
suction-cups to lift them up. They could take one hell of a weight
though.
Matches my experience on all counts. (Though if you start with a tile
with a hole cut in it, so you can get a grip by hand, you don't need
the suction cups. A screwdriver between the tiles can also turn the
trick.)
In my case the building probably dated from around
1980.
I just spoke with the admin there (my boss for about half the time I
was there), and he thinks the raised flooring in question went in in
the mid/late 1980s. He also says the same stuff is available today;
they just finished installing it (which really means having it
installed) in another room. But of course the tiles are overdesigned
to the point where they Just Don't Break, so once made they are kicking
around on the second-hand market approximately forever.
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