ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Violation Photo Forum Ceiling Collapse

There is nothing wrong with plain 'penny' nails. Look at the pics. Any of them broken? No. Just don't load them in direct pull. In shear, and if possible put in 'on the cross' in pairs, they will support massive loads. One pair of 1/8" diameter plain nails [of the correct length for the job] will stand over 600lb in shear. It's the wood that fails! You don't need ringshanks, just an engaged brain!


Alan

IF those trusses were OK to carry the additional weight, then wouldn't it have made sense to just put the conduit on top of them instead of hanging from the bottom?

Electure,
I know what you are saying Scott, but very rarely are any extra loads built into the calculation of trusses, especially in one place on the truss.
They are only made to hold themselves and the roof above up.
Oh and a ceiling or two.
This is just stupidity at it's worst.
On the other side of the coin, it makes you wonder about walking around inside some buildings without a hard-hat on.
Ask at the door, "who wired this place?", if it sounds like they are a handyman, don the skid-lid!.

A nursing home????!!! I'm glad no patients were hurt.

A headache is putting it mildly, I'm sure those pipes would have cracked your skull.

First thing that caught my eye was wood construction for commercial - but I guess that's just my NYC thinking.

Whoever inspected this job might catch heat too.. but really, who in the world could've thought that NAILS would be used in this application. What will be next, an inspection of the mounting methods before conduit is installed? When you think about it though, some AHJ's require inspection of drywall nailing before the mud is applied apparently for similar reasons.

Really is a shame though, in view of the seemingly strong wood construction, with the steel tico joints and all.

I guess the Man upstairs was looking out over everyone that day; a miracle no one was hurt -- thankfully.

Joe

Is kinda strange that all three fell at excatly the same time, when they don't appear to be connected in any way. They appear to be 3 single runs.

What broke on the other side?

There would need to be alot of slack in the runs, for those pipes to fall, unless something else broke and got pulled through the wall.
With those pipes falling 10', there must be 10' missing somewhere else, wouldn't ya think?

This is where we need Paul Harvey. We need to know the "rest of the story".

In pic. #4 you can just see the conduits entering a large pull box. The pull box was anchored with all-thread rod.
The joist the box was secured to failed. When it went everything else cascaded down.
Note: Alan B. These nails pulled straight out. Bending only because of the way the pipes fell. They were not sheared off.
Alan--

Yikes. That's scary, just scary. The roof on an older doublewide gave way recently, because someone installed three ceiling fans along the run of the peak.

Ian A.

4 - 750's? Even in Aluminum that's a huge amount of weight! If I absolutely had to go below those joists, I would've leaned towards 2 hole straps and lags, or even a solidly mounted piece of strut every 10'. That run seems like it would've been so much easier to put on top of the joists, then maybe screw 2 hole straps down...

Unfortunately, every rest home I've seen seems to suffer from 2 ailments. 1) Lowest bidder syndrome. 2) In-house maintenance-itis...

Someone may say "over-engineered", but.....
5 runs of 4" EMT, w/4-600's each. Support?
2-1/4" Unistrut, 5' o/c; 3/4" threaded rod, & 3/4" beam clamps to structure i-beams. 4" strut strap (downside) on each pipe, on each strut. (Locktite on the nuts)

I can sleep at nite!

John

Alan: Wonder if anyone used the EMT to 'hang' other stuff???