re: The home / office air-conditioner thread Quote:
Originally Posted by Guite Please see my previous post: it is not safe to cut a floor beam whether by hammering or core cut. A floor beam is always attached to the floor slab and can be anywhere between 8 to 12" from bottom of slab, depending on span (length) of beam. This is for a typical apartment / house. It can even be more depth if span is large.
As a thumb rule take 1/10th of span (column to column), deduct slab thickness (typically 4 to 5"): this will give you depth of beam below slab. Avoid any cut whatsoever in this zone.
Interior design courses are not as regulated as architecture and civil engineering. No offence to interior designers in general: there are lots of highly qualified and good interior designers.
Critically of beams is same on all floors. It is columns which are more critical at lower floors, most critical at ground and basement (if there is).
Mounting the indoor unit on a beam is okay so long as the cut for pipes is below beam. While drilling for screws to fix the mounting plate, care should be taken not to cut reinforcement bars of floor beams. If a bar is encountered at one location, shift to another screw position. There are multiple provision for screw holes in the back plate, missing one or two position is not going to compromise the rigidity of the indoor unit installation. Risk to the building is far greater.
Cutting a stirrup (ring bar) is not as risky as cutting main horizontal bars of a beam. There are x-ray machines available to look at the bars inside concrete, but obviously the AC installation guys do not have it. Without it, there in no way of knowing which bar you are likely to cut. So why risk? | Quote:
Originally Posted by Aroy Cutting beams is dangerous especially if it cuts reinforcement.
What we do while building is to insert a 2" pipe in the beam after consulting the structural engineer.
The preferred method of installing split AC in a room is
. Position the IDU on a brick wall
. Route the piping so that no concrete is cut
. Avoid sharp bends
. Position the ODU where direct sunlight will not fall on the heat exchanger. If unavoidable install an FRP sheet to shade the ODU.
The problems start where the builders have created large Windows/French doors, so that the edges are concrete with no wall between the window and the structure. In such case we route the AC pipes through the window frame. It may look ugly but you are safe structurally.
NOTE. In no case allow any one to cut/core the vertical columns. It is a recipe for disaster. |
What with the initial plaster removed during interior work of a home for implementing concealed wiring. These interior designers allow removing atleast one inch of plaster of a beam/column if it comes in between to pass on the concealed piping for the wires of home lighting, AC wiring requirement. If core cutting for out door unit is avoided, then what with this 1-1.5 inch plaster on the face of beam/column removed to house the concealed wiring pipes? Is that safe?, although its not through and through. They say its just the plaster, we aint touching the core concrete, although a bit of concrete gets brushed while removing that amount of plaster(but by first using cutter with round blade so removing later with so called channi & hatoda becomes easier). Have seen it everywhere, not sure whats up with all this.
Reading all your helpful comments, it is kind of leading to believe to stay away from split AC and instead go for tower AC, which are like cooler as far as their build is concerned, and have wheels so could be taken into any room.
I believe all forum members and in general everybody while buying an AC should consider all the important points discussed so far in our few posts.
No regulations, or lack of implementation of regulations, lack of knowledge and no awareness is leading a majority of Split AC installations in a wrong manner.
Moderator should create an anonymous poll to find out atleast in our forum the percentage of Split AC install via core cutting of beam vs brick wall.
Last edited by tush : 12th May 2013 at 12:45.
Reason: typo, correction.
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