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Air Conditioning Supports
Sure-Foot’s air conditioning supports are specially designed feet, to support air conditioning units on flat roofs. They are ideal for use on commercial buildings which need to house a range of service units, such as air handing units, air conditioning condensers, refrigeration units and extractor fans, on top of the building. The typical building requiring these types of units includes hotels, office blocks, restaurants, retail blocks, hospitals and leisure centres. It may also include residential apartment blocks if air conditioning is provided.
In this article we will look at the design requirements for air conditioning supports, some of the main design solutions currently in use and the Sure-Foot support and related products which are available.
Air Conditioning Supports - click here to view our range of products
Why are Air Conditioning Supports Needed?
Roof mounted building services units can be large and heavy, ranging from 250kg to 20,000kg. They usually cannot be placed directly onto the roof surface, either because the unit itself requires clearance on all sides, or to prevent damage by undamped vibration from the units themselves.
Air conditioning supports therefore need to provide a degree of vibration control, as well as ensuring the unit is held securely in place. It is also a major advantage if the air conditioning supports can be freely located on the roof, enabling quick installation and easy access for maintenance of roof or services.
Sure-Foot air conditioning supports satisfy all these requirements. The feet are positioned on strong but flexible reconstituted rubber, which offers vibration damping, as well a friction grip on all roof surfaces. The circular base design offers a contact area of 0.1m2. When combined in sets of 4, 6 or more, these provide good, even load distribution, helping to prevent roof damage.
What Makes Sure-Foot Air Conditioning Supports Better Than Other Solutions?
The most common type of support is a paving slab which is heavy, angular, and has the capacity to cause more harm than good. Insufficient building clearance, as well as the weight of the slab, means future maintenance can be expensive and inconvenient.
Extruded mounting blocks are too light and short to aide stability and also provides insufficient building clearance. Again, this results in difficulties for future maintenance.
Concrete upstands built into the roof can initially look like an easy and cheap solution. But the upstands penetrate the waterproofing membrane, causing problems with cold bridging and waterproofing and are a common cause of roof leaks. Concrete upstands are inflexible – once in place they cannot be moved around. So if a unit needs to be replaced by a unit of a different size, the old upstands cannot be used. In addition, they are often set too low to the waterproofing level.
The Sure-Foot support system has none of these problems. Frames and feet are relatively lightweight, enabling installation to be carried out quickly. Frames are designed to give good building clearance so that access to the roof surface is maximised, making it easy to inspect and maintain. And they provide complete flexibility, being easily extended to accommodate different sized units, or moved away completely if access to the roof surface is required for any reason.
The Sure-Foot support solution uses a modular framework which can be extended simply by adding extender units. Our support frames are available as an out of the box solution, containing all the feet, beams, fixing bolts etc needed to build a complete frame.
Our frames can be used to support most types of services that may be required. For instance, an AHU which is 3.0m long and 1.0m deep will need one base unit and two extensions to give 3.6m frame. All a contractor has to do is check the size and weight of the units to be supported, and order a frame which will accommodate it. Example specifications are given here. Alternatively order the right frames for your needs – just contact us using our enquiry form or email us direct on: info@sure-foot.co.uk
Finally, we understand that roof support solutions can often be required at short notice. All the elements of our support solution (feet, frames, extender units etc) can be ordered online and delivered direct to your site next day.