floor penetration

[buck33k]

I would like to penetrate an existing concrete floor in a hospital from one business office to another office area. My original plan was to drill a hole and use EMT, then seal the penetration.

It would greatly help if this were done in FMC. Are there any building or fire code restrictions preventing the use of FMC in this application?

Thanks
Buck

 

[memyselfandI]

I don't know if there are any fire or building codes that prevent you from doing this. However, the hospital specs and there procedure might say no. IMHO, FMC through the floor I would not use. 348.12(7) uses not permited where subject to damage. FMC can snap real easy .If FMC is preferred method, core drill a slightly larger hole than the EMT then stub the EMT through the core hole, fire seal it, and then change over to FMC. But there are other methods out there, try to take them all into consideration.

 

[triphase]

Buck I agree with Me My self and I. What are You pulling thru the FMC Low voltage, Power, etc. Also how much FMC wil be exposed will equipment sit on top of the FMC floor penetration and will it run above grid below? .....and yes fire stop the annular penetrations

 

[charlie tuna]

the biggest problem with drilling through a concrete floor is fire proofing! the second is waterproofing. in a hospital this would be two large concerns. years ago i attended a seminar on fire proofing and they showed an example of a hole the size of a dime through a fire rated five inch slab. they created a fire on the lower floor and it was ammasing how the fire reached through this dime sized hole feeding on oxygen from the floor above. it looked as though someone had a set of torches below and was directing the flame up through the hole. they also showed the results in actual building fires from damaged "fire proofing". in high rise office buildings and hospitals raceways that penatrate the floor are located within other fire rated rooms for flame spead control. this is why floor boxes are required to have a design that seals itself during a fire.

the issue of "waterproofing" can get expensive also. and a contractor who is responsible for drilling through a slab can open himself up to damages caused by water damage to the building. in one case the plumbing contractor was the actual cause but his insurance company then brought other subcontractors into a large lawsuit for their inability to properly waterproof their floor penatrations. the end result was they all shared different portions of the lawsuit's total cost.

 

[memyselfandI]

Thank you for your additional info Mr. Tuna, you are correct. Waterproofing should be the responsibility of the contractor doing the work. Water dripping out of the ceiling in a hospital is disturbing, considering you don't know what is in the water to begin with.

 

[buck33k]

Thankyou for the good responces to my post.

The plans show the 120 volt circuit run above the grid in the office below and entering the bottom of an island type cabinet above to supply a printer. Difficulty accessing this cabinet lead to the consideration of FMC.

Some years ago I worked on a building wired almost entirely with MC cable. Where we passed through a firewall we were required to sleve the MC in 2 inch EMT, then seal.

I will get further direction from the authorities involved. Thanks again for the input.

Buck

 

[charlie tuna]

how do you fire proof the 2 inch sleeve if you use mc to feed the cabinets??

the water damage i was mentioning occurred in a high rise office building. a new plumbing contractor installed a sink under a bar on the 26th floor. he tested it friday afternoon and it was fine --- sometime satruday morning the 1/2 fitting that had no solder on it blew apart. it flooded six floors before the water reached the building's bus duct and it exploded around four in the morning.... that tipped the security gaurds off that they had a problem up stairs!!! the plumbing contractor's insurance company payed about 60 per cent of the damage -- the balance was charged to two electrical contractors and also a data contractor who had drilled holes without waterproofing them. the claim was well over a million dollars --- the floors below were full of undercarpet wiring...... from that time we take our time sealing any floor penatrations we installed.....