A FLOOR MOUNTED PIPE INSTALLATION IN BUILDINGS AND A METHOD OF PROVIDING SUCH AN INSTALLATION

Abstract: It is a well known and a very serious problem that pipe installations in the floors of buildings may give rise to serious building damages whenever leakages occur. With the invention this problem is solved by arranging all the pipes (30) in surrounding mantle pipes (12), which are laid out as a real, sealed waste pipe system, the mantle pipes (12) extending all the way between the floor surface at pipe uplead places (14) and the interior of a collector drainage box (22) connected with the sewer system. Leak water from any of the pipes (30) will then be drained off without any possibility of getting in touch with the building, and in the drainage box may be placed a moisture detector for producing an alarm signal. Besides, the use of upleads of the mantle pipes (14) all the way up to the floor surface involves the further advantage that the floor may be finished by the laying or casting thereof, without later mending at the uplead places.

Description: A floor mounted pipe installation in bui ldings and a method of providing such an installation. ** -. The present invention relates to a floor mounted pipe installation in bui ldings, comprising liquid conducting pipes e.g. for heating water and for warm and cold consumption water. It is a well known problem 5 that bui ldings may be subjected to serious damages by breakages in such pipes, just as it is difficult, generally, to discover such smaller breakages or leakages and to correspondingly counteract further damages. 10 It is the purpose of the invent on to provide an installation, in which this problem is solved. According to the invention the ' liquid conducting pipes are mounted inside surrounding sealed mantle pipes, which by upleads of the pipes from the floor 15 extend together with the liquid pipes substantially to or above the floor level, whi le the pipes from such upleads project, preferably with fall, towards a collector well having a bottom outlet. Supply connections may well be pr.ovided between two or more 20 collector wells or between an inlet well and a collector well, and these connections, which wi ll not need to have upleads to the floor level, should then be mounted in mantle pipes projecting ith fall towards at least one of the wells. The mantle pipes may consist of rather 25 cheap plastic pipes and should be laid out as a real draining system, i.e. with the same sealing and quality requirements as in real draining systems. It wi ll be appreciated that a leak in one conductor pipe or another underneath the floor surface wi ll. not 30 affect the bui lding, because the leak water wi ll be collected by the associated mantle pipe and be drained therethrough to the outlet of the collector well. As the water cannot escape in any other way it will normally be possible, by an inspection of the collector well, to ascertain whether leak water occurs in any of the mantle pipes, i.e. a leakage may be discovered without in any way damaging the building. Hereafter, as specified below, it wi ll be quite easy to change out the defective conductor pipe. Besides, it will also be easy to provide the outlet of the collector wall ith moisture responsive alarm means. In new buildings the mantle pipes are quite easy to lay before the completion of the floor, and it should be mentioned that it is already known to lay out corresponding, horizontal installation pipes, which enable a subsequent easy mounting of the conductor pipes, just as electrical wires are easy to mount in premounted installation pipes. Flexible conductor pipes of copper or the like are used. It is characteristic for the invention, however, that the mantle pipes are laid out as real drainage systems, optionally ith branchings, and that at the uplead places they are laid up to the floor level or higher. At these upleads the mantle pipes should be shaped with suitably curved bendings between the vertical uplead and the floor mounted part of the pipes, such that it is easy, upon the completion of the floor, to introduce copper pipes into the mantle pipes, preferably from above. The use of the mantle pipes with the preshaped, required upleads, which should of course during the construction be laid at exactly the required places, e.g. under planned radiators or water taps, involves another and very significant advantage, namely that the floor may be finished at once, also in the areas where pipe upleads are to occur. Otherwise it is customary that the floor surface adjacent these areas is left unfinished, unti l the subsequent mounting of the conductor pipes has been completed. ith the use of the invention neither the owner of the bui lding nor the insurance company of the owner wi ll need to fear damages by burst pipes from hidden pipe installations, and the pipes may be arranged in an economical manner in any suitable pattern underneath the floor, i.e. ithout for reasons of security being arranged to extend along the outer footing of the bui lding. An installation according to the invention, of course, may also be provided in connection with renovation works on or in existing bui ldings. It may be preferable to make use, consequently, of the principle that all pipe joints should occur inside accessible collector wells, which may also apply to heating coi l pipes in bath room floors; it is well known that leakages occur mostly at pipe joints, and already with the above arrangement some required repair wi ll be easy to carry out. The invention, which is defined in the claims, i ll now be described in more detai l w th reference to the drawing, in which:- Fig. 1 is a perspective sectional view i llustrating the cons ruction of a floor with a pipe installation according to the invention, Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view of the floor, and Fig. 3 is a more detai led sectional view of a pipe uplead therein. In Fig. 1 is shown the construction of the floor foundation in the ground level of a new bui lding. After the casting of the outer footing 2 the required drainage pipes 4 with associated upstanding portions 6 for connection ith various drains of the bui lding are laid out on the ground. Thereafter a layer 8 of said covering the pipes 4 is laid out. One of the prepared floor drains has a bowl 10, which is located in or close to the surface level of the sand, and the area above this bowl is used as a collector area for the ends of different mantle pipes 12, which are laid out on the sand layer pointing in different directions towards respective desired uplead places for conductor pipes, which are later on mounted inside the mantle pipes. Typical upleads relate to radiator connections and connections to taps for cold and warm water, and the mantle pipes 12 are prepared with upleading bendings 14 and, optionally, branchings 16, such that the bendings 14 are mountable just where they are planned to be used. • As shown in Fig. 2 the pipes 12 are laid with a certain fall towards the drain bowl 10, and after or in connection with the laying of the pipes the pipe ends are fixed relative to the bo l 10 in that around the bowl a casting 18, e.g. of concrete, is built up so as to constitute a throughlet wall for the ends of the pipes 12. The cast wall 18 is extended upwardly, e.g. by means of bui lding blocks 20, such that a drainage well 22 is formed, the top edge of which is located in or close to the final floor surface level of the bui Iding. Thereafter a layer 24 of furnace coke, Leca or the like is laid out onto the sand layer 8 so as to cover the pipes 12, however without raising to the upper ends of the upleads 14 thereof, and on the top of the layer 24 is laid out, in quite usual manner, a concrete layer 26 to form the upper floor surface. It will be appreciated that the casting out of this layer may be effected over the entire floor area, without any temporary exeption of the uplead areas 14, inasfar as the upleads 14 may simply be fixed in the cast floor, whereby the casting can be finally terminated at the same time or in the same operation. The upleads 14 are adjusted in height such that they wi ll project somewhat above the final floor surface, but they are easi ly out in the floor level, as they consist of plastic pipes. A cut or tri mel uplead is shown at 28 in Fig. 1. When the floor 26 has been cast the pipe fitter can easi ly insert the required conductor pipes into the mantle pipes 12, preferably by insertion of flexible copper pipes down into the upleads 14, unti l the copper pipe ends appear in the collector well 22. Such a pipe 30 is shown under insertion in Fig. 2, in which it is also shown that it is possible to carry out in the collector well 22 all required joints 32 between inlet and outlet pipes for the various liquids of the entire installation, inasfar as the well 22 is covered with a removable lid 34. It wi ll be fully in order to introduce two or more conductor pipes in each mantle pipe 12. In Fig. 3 it is shown that on the cut off top end of an uplead 28 there may be placed a thin, loose cover plate 36 having a hole for the narrow throughlet of the conductor pipe 30, whi le a flooring such as a rug 38 is laid onto the plate 36. Since the mantle pipe 12,1 * 4 is somewhat thicker than the conductor pipe 30 the latter, in its final position, may well project eccentrically in the uplead 14, whereby a suitable mounting tolerance wi ll be achieved, e.g. for the connection of the pipe 30 to an overlying radiator. It wi ll be readi ly understood that any leakage occurring in a conductor pipe 30 underneath the floor level wi ll only result in the leaking water or liquid being collected in the associated mantle pipe 12 and being guided through t is pipe to the collector well 22, from which the liquid is readi ly drained off to the drain 10. Due to the uplead bendings 14 and the thorough lay-out of the mantle pipe system as a real drainage system the leaking liquid wi ll be absolutely excluded from penetrating into the building outside the mantle pipes, and it is even possible to mount in the dra n 10 a moisture detector, which wi ll produce an alarm signal whenever a leak occurs somewhere in the entire pipe system. In a given building may well be used more than a single collector well 22. It wi ll even be preferred to make use of at least two wells, one being an inlet well placed e.g. under a scullery or a heat supply room having connection with the outside water ma ns or with a hot water supply, whether external or internal, while one oc more other wells may be used as pure distribution wells for the d fferent media. As far as floor mounted short pipes are concerned, e.g. pipes for cold or warm water connections between a sink and a shower in a bath room, it wi ll be possible to renounce the use of an associated collector well, when the associated mantle pipe or pipes are only provided with upleads at both ends. Correspondingly, the connection between a place in dry surroundings, e.g. kitchen water taps, and a place in a room having a floor drain, may be established through a mantle pipe having upleads at both ends, when only the uplead at the dry place projects to a level higher than the uplead of the drained room. A particularly critical installation is the system of heating coil pipes under a floor in bathrooms and the Like, where it is customary to make use of copper pipes with several joints. Optionally the main principle of the invention may here be renounced, viz. by sti ll arranging for the pipe to be directly cast into the floor, but now only as a "whole length" pipe, i.e. a pipe length without joints, while care is taken that the connection joints of the pipe are located in an accessible collector well. Preferably the pipe coil is preshaped and pre ounted on a carrier network and is subjected to a pressure test, preferably at a pressure e.g. double as high as conventionally, whereafter the pipe coi l in its final shape is carried to the bui lding site and is mounted in a prepared recess or depression in the floor, whereafter the recess is cast out. Inasfar as the mantle pipes are rather cheap it wi ll be perfectly possible, however, to make use of the main principle of the invention even in connection with floor heating coi ls, preferably in that the coi l is arranged with fan shaped bulges or singular loops, the opposite ends of which are located in a collector well, in which the loops wi ll be connectable mutually and with the supply and return pipes. The collector well may be drained directly to the drain system or may be pipe connected with another such collector well. As mentioned, the mantle pipes may be used, generally, even for holding two or more conductor pipes, typically a supply pipe and a return pipe of a radiator, and it is well arrangable that a warm consumption water p pe may be housed in a mantle pipe together with a heat supply pipe, whereby it may even be possible to save a powered circulation of the warm consumption water. Also, the cold water supply to a toi let cistern may well extend in a mantle pipe together with a heating pipe. On the other hand, a cold water pipe, e.g. to a kitchen tap, should not normally be laid together with a heating pipe, because it is generally preferred that a cold water tap, when opened, wi ll supply cold .water immediately. The invention is not limited to pipe installations in or underneath concrete floors, as it may well be applied to installations underneath wooden floors or even in horizontal divisions in multistory bui ldings. In practice it may be preferred that the collector well is a well, which is required beforehand, typically mounted in connection with a bathroom.

Claims: CL A I MS 1. A floor mounted pipe installation in bui ldings, comprising liquid conducting pipes such as for heating water and for warm and cold consumption water, such pipes being laid in the floor inside surrounding mounting or mantle pipes, characterized in that the system of installation pipes is bui lt as a real, sealed drainage pipe system, in which the single installation or mantle pipes adjacent the various upleads of the conductor pipes project upwardly together with the conductor pipes, substantially to the floor surface level or thereabove, while the pipes from such upleads projects, preferably with fall, towards a drained collector well, wherein the respective ends of the conductor pipes projecting from the ends of the mantle pipes are connected in the relevant manner with each other and/or with connecting pipes leading down into or upwardly from the collector well. 2. An installation according to claim 1, characterized in that the mantle pipes adjacent the upleads are shaped with soft bendings enabling the conductor pipes to be pushed or drawn therethrough. 3. An installation according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by comprising more collector wells, between which conductor pipes project inside mantle pipes, which, without upleads, project directly between the collector wells. 4. An installation according to claim 3, characterized in that a connector mantle pipe extends between a non- drained collector well and a drained collector well. 5. An installation according to claim 1, comprising a floor heating coi l, characterized in that the heating coi l is made ith several bulges or loops, each located ins de an associated mantle pipe, said loops terminating in a common collector well, box or channel, in which the loop portions are in erconnected, preferably in series. 6. A method of providing an installation according to claim 1 by the bui lding up of a bui lding foundation with a floor mounted conductor pipe system, characterized in that prior to the mounting or casting out of the floor a system of mantle pipes is laid out, said mantle pipes at each uplead place having an upwardly projecting bending, the upper end of which is located adjacent or above the surface level of the later on laid out floor, said mantle pipes being laid with a fall from the uplead places towards a drained collector well placed on the support of the floor, whereafter the floor is laid out and completed also in the areas adjacent the upwardly projecting ends of the mantle pipes; before or preferably after the completion of the floor flexible conductor -pipes a e inserted or drawn into the mantle pipes and are connected with the relevant pipes or elements adjacent the uplead places, whi le in the collector well the conductor pipes are joined with other relevant conductor pipes merging or starting in the collector well.

Inventors: KOUDAL BENNY, KOUDAL, BENNY
Applicants: KOUDAL BENNY, KOUDAL, BENNY
Application year: 1986
Main classification: E04B5
IPC codes: E03B1, E03C1, E03F3