Meter bank against a wall that will be removed

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Tainted

Tainted

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Location
New York
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Engineer (PE)
An architect is removing a wall. The meter bank is supported by this wall. Is there a way to save the location of this meter bank or must it be relocated?

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I don't think there is any rule that says meters have to be located on a wall.

Why can't they leave the part of the wall used by the meters in place? It's not like they would be able to use the space for something else if they leave the meters there.

Conceivably you could create some kind of unistrut frame to attach the meters to but I don't know that you would be able to leave them in place safely while they demoed the wall.
 
petersonra said:
I don't think there is any rule that says meters have to be located on a wall.

Why can't they leave the part of the wall used by the meters in place? It's not like they would be able to use the space for something else if they leave the meters there.
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That wall needs to be demoed because it's collapsing.
 
Is the wall bearing load?

Will the meter bank remain energized?

IMHO the question is 'can the wall be repaired' rather than demolished and replaced.

What is the structure? Concrete blocks, studs and wall board, something else?

Is the surface directly behind the meter bank intact?

Jon
 
winnie said:
Is the wall bearing load?

Will the meter bank remain energized?

IMHO the question is 'can the wall be repaired' rather than demolished and replaced.

What is the structure? Concrete blocks, studs and wall board, something else?

Is the surface directly behind the meter bank intact?

Jon
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I don't think the wall is load bearing. Architect wants to remove the wall and replace the wall with another wall.

I think it's brick structure.

behind the meter bank is plywood. Behind plywood is the wall.
 
Tainted said:
I don't think the wall is load bearing. Architect wants to remove the wall and replace the wall with another wall.

I think it's brick structure.

behind the meter bank is plywood. Behind plywood is the wall.
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If it is plywood you might be able to separate the plywood from the existing wall and support it temporarily from the front while they demo the existing wall.
 
petersonra said:
If it is plywood you might be able to separate the plywood from the existing wall and support it temporarily from the front while they demo the existing wall.
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How would I support the meter bank from the front without messing with the clearance requirements?
 
Tainted said:
How would I support the meter bank from the front without messing with the clearance requirements?
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Can't tell from the photo if this is feasible, but could you put blocking under the meter bank to help support it from the bottom, and attach strut to the plywood on either side of the meter bank, with the strut anchored to the floor and the ceiling, with diagonal braces to the ceiling.

There's still the issue of reattaching it to the new wall.
 
JoeStillman said:
Time to get a new Architect.
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In a case like this it should be up to the architect to design a way to do this. Real easy to just say remove the wall and walk away. I would be looking at constructing a new wall directly behind the old one and tying them together like you do when you install brick veneer in front of a CMU wall. Not removing the old wall at all.

-Hal
 
I'd also drop this back to the architect, along with a WAG about what it would cost to build a new meter bank somewhere else and the down-time to swing the connections over (in the face of a $30k(?) meter bank, $10k to rebuild the wall ought to seem cheap).
 
Can you use strut and go from floor to ceiling for strength and then put Strut on left and right side, looks like that gutter could be support don't know about the left side.
Then they don't even need that wall back for your system.
 
Todd0x1 said:
Can't tell from the photo if this is feasible, but could you put blocking under the meter bank to help support it from the bottom, and attach strut to the plywood on either side of the meter bank, with the strut anchored to the floor and the ceiling, with diagonal braces to the ceiling.

There's still the issue of reattaching it to the new wall.
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Would it be possible to cut small sections of the wall piece by piece and work our way to support the meter bank through anchored struts (floor to ceiling) until all the wall is demolished?

In other words, small sections of the wall will be cut while other sections is still supporting the meter bank until it is fully supported with unistruts
 
Tainted said:
How would I support the meter bank from the front without messing with the clearance requirements?
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I'd think this would be hella dangerous to do energized.

If the meterbank is shut down for the duration of the wall replacement, do you need to worry about clearance?

De-energized you could build temporary support in front to support everything.
 
winnie said:
I'd think this would be hella dangerous to do energized.

If the meterbank is shut down for the duration of the wall replacement, do you need to worry about clearance?

De-energized you could build temporary support in front to support everything.
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Yes dangerous, but some electricians don't care and are comfortable with working on live equipment lol. How long of a power shutdown are we looking at though? These are tenant meters and we want to minimize disturbance as much as possible
 
I think you could build a support structure along the sides and maybe the bottom of the meter rack and attach it to the plywood without having to shut anything down. The wall could probably be demolished in an hour and then you could build a better support structure behind it to reattach. Could probably have it all done in a couple hours of downtime.
 
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