Running conduit on top of a concrete floor
- Thread starter zappy
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Pierre C Belarge
Senior Member
- Location
- Westchester County, New York
Installing a conduit on the surface of concrete is not a violation. The installation does have some parameters to think of.
Such as:
Is it subject to physical damage? If so, use a raceway method suitable for physical damage.
Is it a tripping hazard...something that may be covered by the building code.
Such as:
Is it subject to physical damage? If so, use a raceway method suitable for physical damage.
Is it a tripping hazard...something that may be covered by the building code.
ultramegabob
Senior Member
- Location
- Indiana
e57
Senior Member
- Location
- San Francisco, CA
RMC - use powder actuated straps - install a new threshold - then pump in a yard or two of gyb-crete - then tile the floor in the wackiest tile colors and patterns from the remnant pile at any flooring supply.... :roll: Hey it works at my house...
quogueelectric
Senior Member
- Location
- new york
No strut we are thinking low profile here but hearth molding isnt going to cut it on a 2in pipe.
ultramegabob
Senior Member
- Location
- Indiana
how about going to a metal fab shop and having a piece of diamond plate shaped with a brake to make a step or a ramp to cover the conduit and paint it yellow?
Go up and over, then down. IMO, piping on the floor is a bad idea no matter how you
cover it.
Pierre C Belarge
Senior Member
- Location
- Westchester County, New York
That is a personal opinion. Which I believe most here will agree with. Yet, it is a permitted installation to install the proper raceway on the surface.
ultramegabob
Senior Member
- Location
- Indiana
Although across the floor is less that optimum for running power,I have worked in places that going up over and down just isnt a practical, without seeing thier specific application I am just trying to come up with suggestions for the way they want to run the conduit. In my opinion, if you cannot go overhead, it would be best to cut the floor, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do....
petersonra
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern illinois
- Occupation
- engineer
IMO, there is nothing wrong with laying conduit on the floor as long as it does not become a tripping hazard or get run over by forklift trucks.
There are ways to protect against both hazards to people from this method and hazards to the pipe itself.
There are ways to protect against both hazards to people from this method and hazards to the pipe itself.
Pierre,
The OP asked for opinions and other ideas ? The truth of the matter is sooner or later
someone is going to get hurt on account of it.
Pierre C Belarge
Senior Member
- Location
- Westchester County, New York
Frank
Think of all the times you have been in a space where there are plumbing pipes, drains, etc....
There are times it may not be an issue and there are times when it may be an issue. That is when the design of the job becomes an issue, not the code.
I am not saying I advocate the pipe/conduit on the floor. There are times when it may not be possible to provide different locations.
Think of all the times you have been in a space where there are plumbing pipes, drains, etc....
There are times it may not be an issue and there are times when it may be an issue. That is when the design of the job becomes an issue, not the code.
I am not saying I advocate the pipe/conduit on the floor. There are times when it may not be possible to provide different locations.
e57
Senior Member
- Location
- San Francisco, CA
Not if you pour a new floor on it...
If you follow some low area of the floor - (provided it is not to a drain...) then have someone hit it with self-leveling concrete... No one to get hurt then.I did this on a resuraunt kit island, ~30" - all but a few inches of the path were in a low area of the floor that got filled with gyb-crete. For the area that wasn't - cut a notch in the slab - then filled the notch back in with epoxy. Once it was re-painted you couldn't tell...
petersonra
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern illinois
- Occupation
- engineer
Its pretty common to see this under machines, conveyors, etc., where no one is likely to be walking and no forklifts are going to drive over them.
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician
I agree.
Regarding the OP, what size conduit are we talking about? For a small conduit a shallow slot can be cut in the floor and patched over rather easily.
mcclary's electrical
Senior Member
- Location
- VA
It might be a permitted install,,,but I agree that it's still a bad idea. How are they gonna sweep araound it? If you put it on strut, rather than flat,at least the floor can be cleaned, but I would still run it up, over and back down.
- Location
- Massachusetts
I find it kind of funny that we are making suggestions on how to do it without having seen the layout.
One of the places we work for is a type of metal fab shop, they always have us relocating equipment and it's RMC across the floor.
Up and over would be tough, 30' deck height and a ganty crane that travels over the entire area.
One of the places we work for is a type of metal fab shop, they always have us relocating equipment and it's RMC across the floor.
Up and over would be tough, 30' deck height and a ganty crane that travels over the entire area.
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