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Benson's Challenge #5040 12/15/99 03:22 AM
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christopher Offline OP
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I read an article by Ted Benson in Traditional Building magazine a few years back in which he lamented the fact that, having erected a skeleton rendering the exterior skin and interior walls of a house non-structural, that the rest of the job then consisted of driliing in the skin and violating the seal and running mechanicals thru the interior walls making them permanent.

This point, and the challenge to find a better way, struck a nerve with me. I now am ready to build a timberframe home for my family, and I come back to that problem.

We will use a square design with upper bathroom above lower to minimze difficulty of plumbing upstairs, but we are left with wiring and hydronic plumbing as obstacles to our goal of keeping interior walls changeable and keeping the stress skin seal around the frame as perfect as possible.

I know that panel makers will precut chases and cavities, but why have any cavities if they can be avoided? I have read and seen in commercial buildings that there are commercial design elements that allow for conduit to be run behind baseboard or fake panels, and other concepts where the wiring and or heating elements is not actually in the walls and is either hidden by conduit or by "tricking the eye".Commercial baseboards have been mentioned by Benson before, some allowing water heat plumbing with electrical outlets built in, but he described them as not terribly suited to residential design.

I am convinced that there must be a way to tastefully do a mix of industrial metal and the warmth of wood, and in so doing avoid compromising in any way the quality of the stress skin enclosure, and the flexibility of interior space that non-structral walls in theory allow

I am trying to find out who has explored this concept of running wires and mechanicals outside the enclosure, and to learn what products, commercial or otherwise, are available to help with this method.

Rural Middle Tennessee is not exactly full of people who want to talk about this with me, and my web explorations have not turned up too much.

Any tips or leads or ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to follow this one through to the end.

Regards, & Merry Christmas to All,

Christopher Clement la Rosa

Re: Benson's Challenge #5041 12/15/99 04:01 AM
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Paul Freeman Offline
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It's late, so just a brief response for now. I show a details where the floor deck is essentially 3/4" smaller than the skin. A 3/4" Ribbon band is added to the rim joist providing a solid nailer for hte bottom of the panels. Light switches should be near doors so the wiring runs up the jamb. Unfortunately the switch and outlet boxes penetrate the skin, you can design floor outlets or live like many of us in old houses do and just not have outlets in the exterior walls. Radiant floor heating is just one system that reduces the impact of heat delivery.

In summary there are a number of technologies and techniques that when properly planned and implemented can help one realize the dream of the "Learning House".

Hopefully we'll see some more contributions to this interesting topic.


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