timber framed houses

[smoggs03]

had an incident at work where installers working in a timber framed house had cut the floor to lay pipes. now i'm pretty sure that this damages the sructure the floor was stapled about every 8mm from each staple so i rang for advice and got told it was fine just carry on !!! you have never seen so many joist and sleeper walls etc. anyway my question is am i right? i think so but with no backin g the job went in,

 

[justlead1]

Hi Have you got the measurements of staples right? At 8 mm apart the house may be worth more as scrap metal?

 

[Bernie2]

Its a bit awkward really for as far as I know there are no standards in the UK for timber framed housing. I have looked on the TRADA site but not much there even.

However it does say a lot depends on the design of the house and how its strengthened. But its up to the designer not a specification. All you could do really is look up joists in the building regs and see how much you can cut into them without weakening a floor. But even that doesn't help, for as you point out, a timber framed house may be built a bit like a cars monocoque system, in which the walls and floor together make a strong structure and cutting into them weakens the whole structure.

However without supporting evidence of good practice, as you say there seems little you can do about it.

 

[flat pack]

when i work on these type of homes you had to drill holes in the centre joints
the place for the bank of pipes,i think this has been some years is the second 1/4 of the whole span ,then when the stairs reduces the span you recalculate
then move to the left or right a foot or two
the pipes about 4 inch centres

but get the name of the building contractor and check

the cutting that you said sounds bay news


good luck