Is it possible to ditch the ventilation shaft in the apartment: the legal nuances of the issue and the rules for ditching

Specific features of gating

Next, we will consider in detail the gating of walls made of different materials.

How to make strobes in wood

For wooden walls, all of the above tools are suitable, with the exception of a perforator. Instead of a chisel, it is better to use a chisel, but the principle of operation remains the same. Create two parallel cuts at the same distance and remove the wood between them with a chisel. More specific tools can also be used:

1. A circular saw allows you to make even strobes, but a high skill in using the device is required. The principle is based on repeated passes with a circular saw and the gradual expansion of the cut to the desired width.
2. A hand-held milling cutter allows you to create a neat groove. To do this, a guide bar is attached to the wall and a tool is led along it, making an even recess. It then expands to the desired width. For such work, a special cutter is often used, but you can handle the usual nozzle that forms the groove.

Thus, there are more tools for chipping wood, as well as opportunities to do it. Ideally, you should choose one of the listed tools, as they are designed for woodworking.

How to make grooves for wiring in aerated concrete

Ideally, a manual aerated concrete wall chaser should be used, as the blocks are easy to work with. The tool is a metal tube with a handle and a protrusion on the other side. It is easy to use and leaves little dust behind. An alternative is to use a circular saw or angle grinder, but good respiratory protection will be needed.

There are certain nuances. Walls made of aerated concrete or foam concrete blocks often contain reinforcement, so the process of their gating requires a special approach.Before making recesses, make sure that your actions will not lead to a decrease in the strength and integrity of the structure.

Chasing brick walls

If you need to lay wiring in a house without finishing on the walls, then they usually do not do gating. Instead, a flat cable is installed on the brick wall, having cores of the required cross section, after which it is hidden under a layer of plaster with a thickness of 30 mm or more. This is enough to hide a 3x2.5 or 3x4 cable. Larger wire is used much less often.

Shtroblenie walls, if it is still required, produce any of the listed tools. The process is identical to creating recesses in concrete walls. However, the brick is softer and better processed.

Chasing drywall

Drywall sheets are very thin, so it is impossible to make strobes in them. Usually the cable is hidden under the fragile structure of the sheet, and the only option may be to drill the holes necessary to install the socket or the seat under the switch. This is done with a perforator.

Strobe in tiled floor

Tiles are often used as decoration in the bathroom or in the kitchen. Often there is a need to make strobes in the wall. And there shouldn’t be any problems in this regard: the only caveat is that it requires the installation of special diamond circles on the grinder or wall chaser. To prevent the formation of cracks in the tile, avoid using a perforator.

Nuances with load-bearing walls

Before performing repairs related to laying new or replacing old electrical wiring, you need to draw up a project.Approval documents will be required, which indicate the location of the load-bearing walls and the possibility of making recesses in them. The resulting plan clearly indicates where, where and how to lay the cable, what width and depth the strobes should be, etc.

If you have doubts about the advisability and admissibility of making a strobe in a load-bearing wall, then try to obtain the appropriate permission from the BTI. The organization involved in the design of the house will provide all the documents and clarify the margin of safety of the building. Permission will be issued in most cases.

Chasing walls for air conditioning

Particularly dimensional gates are required for the installation of standard air conditioners, consisting of indoor and outdoor units. The width of the strobe should be at least 60, the depth - 50 mm. This will hide all copper pipes with insulation materials, wires and corrugation used as a condensate drain.

Drilling or chasing

Drilling niches for socket boxes is one of the most labor-intensive operations when installing all rough electrics.

Often, for the manufacture of 3 holes for a recessed block of sockets, it takes no less time than for all the strobes taken together, resembling this niche.

To date, there are three main ways to do this work:

diamond crown + hammerless type puncher

percussion drill bit for rock drills SDS plus or SDS max

wall saw with 230mm discs

The simplest, fastest and most labor-efficient is the third option. Why this is so can be explained by several reasons.

maximum versatility

The wall cutter-wall chaser copes with any material, from foam block to high-strength reinforced concrete. Correspondingly, impact bits of the SDS plus type are omitted here.

If you hit the rebar, you simply can’t save enough crowns. It's only in advertising they cut it like clockwork.

delicate treatment of the surface

Let's say you have masonry that was laid just a couple of days ago, then plastered and at first glance everything dried up. But it is worth chiseling it with an SDS max perforator and you will see that the plasterers will have to be called again. Or do the work for them.

Even taking into account the fact that the puncher has the ability to work “at half strength”, this does not guarantee that microcracks will not appear between the blocks at the joints, which will become even wider over time.

When cutting with a wall cutter, the wall material does not resist the disk at all, so such damage does not occur here. Moreover, after cutting out a strobe or niche, you can use an ordinary chisel and carefully hollow out everything you need from the inside.

Again, without the use of a perforator and its impacts.

Of course, professionals can make neat holes with a hammer drill in a bare, unplastered concrete wall. However, it is right to do the electrician after the plaster, and not before.

fittings

Not always SDS-max puncher can go through and cut through the reinforcement. And in this case, don’t dream about any in-depth 60mm sockets and wiring without junction boxes.

True, in this work, never forget about such a factor as load-bearing walls. About whether it is possible to ditch in them, and if so, in what way, read in more detail at the end of the article.

Supply and exhaust ventilation in a room with plastic windows

A standard exhaust system in a room where plastic windows are installed should contain:

• exhaust fan with exhaust air duct;
• check valve to prevent cold air from entering through the vent during the engine off period;
• supply mechanisms that allow for a full-fledged air exchange between the external and internal environment.

For each specific room, it is necessary to calculate the performance of electrical and mechanical equipment. With the wrong choice of technical base, material investments in the system may be unjustified. This primarily concerns the operation of ventilation in the winter.

In the absence of the ability to adjust the performance of the ventilation system, up to 60% of the heat can escape through the ventilation pipe during the cold season.

Self-cleaning the ventilation duct

Despite the existing rules, many management companies do not appear in the apartments of tenants for years to check the operability of the ventilation system. Therefore, residents of high-rise buildings are forced to periodically diagnose and clean their exhaust vents on their own.

With small contamination of the exhaust hole, you can achieve results with a conventional brush

The ventilation hatch can be cleaned with minor contamination, but if the dirt has accumulated in it for years, then it is better to call specialists. Self-cleaning is carried out as follows:

• first, the ventilation grilles are removed, they are well cleaned of dirt and dust and washed under running water;
• using a metal brush or wire, carefully clean the walls of the ventilation duct, which can be reached;
• the next step is to clean the hole from debris with a vacuum cleaner.

Actually, this is where all the homework for cleaning the ventilation holes ends. If they did not lead to the desired result, and the thrust in the channel remained at the same level, then there is a blockage in the common shaft. This is the work of special services, which can be called through the Criminal Code.

Licensed companies use professional equipment and special cleaning technologies, which are selected after a thorough examination of the canal and taking into account its current condition.

Choosing a tool for chasing walls

The oldest approach is the one where the hammer and chisel are used.

This option, however, has one important advantage, which is no cost. You can ditch the wall without power tools, because such devices can be found in every home

But in the end, you will pay with a loss of strength, as well as the formation of a large amount of garbage.

Chasing concrete walls for wiring can be done with a chisel and a drill. Although this approach is more effective, it cannot be called the most convenient. Through each meter you will have to drill holes, and then connect them into a single line with a chisel. Initially, you will need to carry out the markup on which you will act. The time and effort costs here will be much less, but it will take a lot of time to work, and there will be much more dust than if you used, for example, a grinder.

What is suitable from the arsenal of a home master

More recently, an angle grinder was a rarity for an amateur master. Today, an angle grinder can be found in almost every home. If you have it available, then it is perfect for wall chasing. The equipment will need to be supplemented with a diamond blade, and this will be all the costs, except, of course, time and power. The process will go faster, and the contours of the groove will be even.

A strobe disc, although it will allow you to work efficiently, will only allow you to make a groove with it in two passes. This lengthens the markup process. Another disadvantage is that you will not be able to work in the corner with the help of a grinder, and the whole process will be accompanied by a high level of noise, which means that you will have to work quickly, excluding weekends. It is these disadvantages that quite often force craftsmen to abandon the use of this power tool. It is rarely used for cutting.

In order to lay one small wire into a new wall, you can use a puncher. You will have to purchase or use the available suitable nozzle. The tool will need to be used in shock mode. They need to walk along the marked lines. The disadvantage of this approach is the strobe curve, but at home, a puncher is used quite often.

When repairing premises, home craftsmen often also use a wall chaser. This option is the most efficient and allows you to cut through the wall evenly without generating dust. Not much noise will be generated, and a vacuum cleaner can be additionally connected to the tool, which means that the room will not be so dusty after the process is completed. In general, this tool for wiring is the most effective and safe.

A simple power tool to help manual labor

If you want to achieve a good result, saving time, it is better to use an electric drill. But if you work with a concrete surface, this tool will manifest itself as burning drills, so you need to familiarize yourself with some of the nuances before starting the process.

First, you need to make markings on the surface, and then use a tool with an 8 mm drill. Several holes of a certain depth are made along the line, between them must be observed step up to 1 cm. The drill must be positioned perpendicular to the surface, otherwise it may bend and break. If the groove is to be large enough in width, the holes should be staggered. If it is necessary to carry out the same work in masonry, you need to use the tool at low speeds. Stop periodically to allow the drill to cool in the water.

It is important to exclude the penetration of liquid into the structure. Using a hammer and chisel, the next step is to knock out the gaps

Professional equipment for quick installation

The first thing that comes to mind is a shredder. It is he who allows you to do the task with a minimum of effort and time. If desired, two discs can be placed on the tool at once, thanks to which the strobe will turn out to be perfectly even, and the second approach will not be needed.

Circles are closed with a casing, where there is a branch for a vacuum cleaner. It is good if the design provides for the ability to change the distance between the disks and provide the required depth of the future groove.This method has one main disadvantage, which is the cost of the equipment. If you do not have it, then it will not be advisable to purchase for a single repair. An alternative solution would be to rent a device.

The order of work and the rules for the location of the gates

The preparatory phase includes drawing up a plan for future cable laying. Follow the following step by step instructions:

1. Choose the location of the switches, sockets and stationary lights to which the wires will be laid. The latter include ceiling chandeliers, built-in lamps, wall sconces.
2. Create a wiring diagram: you need to clearly understand where and where the wires supplying electrical installations will go from.
3. The created scheme should be displayed on the walls and ceiling. A simple pencil or a bright marker will come in handy. Mark the points of location of the devices listed above, draw vertical lines from each, perpendicular to the adjacent plane (or horizontal for ceiling chandeliers and built-in lights).
4. Distribution boxes must be installed at the points of contact between the lines. Each room must have at least one junction box. All of them are connected in a horizontal plane and connected to the electrical cabinet.

1. At all points where holes for electrical installation products and wires will be drilled, there should be no other wiring (for example, old). To verify the absence, use a special wiring detector. If there is an electrical line or frame nearby, then move it by making changes to the wiring structural plan.
2. When everything is transferred to the walls and ceiling, taking into account the adjustments, then you can proceed to the chasing of the walls. To begin with, holes are made for the boxes used to mount sockets and distribution boxes. Then they are connected by strobes (grooves).
3. When everything is prepared for the installation of wiring, it is necessary to take measurements and transfer them to the plan.

Then you can proceed to the process of laying and fixing the cable inside the strobe. It will not be superfluous to re-verify the integrity of the product (insulation) before installation. This check is then repeated after the laying is completed. A special megohmmeter or a conventional tester used to ring the cores will do. Then the strobes are sealed with cement mortar and the cable must be re-called by the tester.

Do-it-yourself strobe laying rules

When driving a nail into the wall to place a mirror, shelf or picture, first make sure that there are no hidden wires. If this is done in a new apartment or a relative's house, then it is unlikely that there will be a documentary registration of the wiring with a cable layout. Therefore, certain rules and regulations have been adopted. A professional electrician, looking at the outlet or switch, will mentally determine where the wires that power the device are located. Thanks to this, he will avoid violating the integrity of the wiring when he drives a nail into the wall.

When planning the location of the strobes for the cable, follow simple rules:

1. The grooves must be located strictly perpendicular to the walls and ceiling - horizontally and vertically. Inclined sections of wiring can be placed exclusively on attic floors, where bevels are installed parallel to the roof.In other cases - strictly across or along the walls.
2. Place strobes without crossing each other.
3. When placing the wiring under the ceiling, moving from the corner between the floor slab and the wall, you need to indent 150-200 mm.
4. The distance from another corner, door and window openings must be at least 100 mm.
5. The average distance from sewer and water pipes, gas lines is 500 mm.

The average depth of the strobe is 20 mm, and the width directly depends on the number and dimensions of the wires being laid. However, the overall dimension is usually 20-25 mm. Compliance with these rules is a mandatory and sufficient condition for the implementation of high-quality and technically competent wall chasing.

Features of reinforced concrete walls

The rules listed earlier are universal regardless of the materials from which the walls are made. Depending on the structure of the surface, certain features are added. Reinforced concrete products contain reinforcement that absolutely cannot be cut.

The overall dimensions of the future strobe directly depend on the depth of the reinforcement in reinforced concrete blocks. To search for a metal frame, a conventional wire detector is suitable. Rarely, small recesses are made for panel houses, then the wiring is hidden to a greater extent not inside the wall, but under a thick layer of putty (plaster).

The second option is to use the open laying method, fixing cable channels along the walls and ceiling or choosing retro wiring. Chasing reinforced concrete walls is allowed with a special permit issued by the design organization that was involved in the design of the residential building.

Bearing walls of a panel house

Before chasing, you need to determine the type and design of the wall. Bearing walls

Supporting vertical structures perceive the bulk of the weight of the floors or roofs above. Depending on the location, they may have openings for windows, balcony doors.

Bearing wall panels consist of the following layers:

• The outer layer is a huge mass of high-strength concrete grade M400 evenly covering the reinforcing cage.
• Rebar frame - a mesh that occupies most of the volume of the panel and gives it strength and rigidity. As a material for such a frame, reinforcing bars with a diameter of 12-14 mm are used, interconnected using a special steel flexible and corrosion-resistant wire.
• Protective layer - a thin layer of concrete of the same grade as the outer covering frame of reinforcement on the inner side of the panel facing the living room. It has a thickness of 10-20 mm and serves to protect the reinforcing cage from damage.
• Inner finishing layer - poured with easily processed finishing solutions. It has a thickness of 15 to 20 mm and is used for various repairs.

In many modern panels, between the outer layer with a reinforcing mesh and the inner finishing layer, there is a layer of insulation - stone or basalt wool.

It is strictly forbidden by building rules to ditch the following structures of a panel house:

• ceiling or floor slabs,
• crossbar.

Inside the floor slabs there are ready-made oblong cavities through which wiring can be pulled. It makes no sense to ditch the crossbar, since they will still be covered with decorative trim, under which it will be possible to place electrical wires.

How to identify a load bearing wall

Bearing walls include the following structures:

• facing the street or landing, into the entrance;
• separating two neighboring apartments;
• located perpendicular to the floor slabs;
• having a thickness of at least 20 cm, excluding finishing layers of plaster, putty.

All other wall structures are classified as partitions.

When determining the load-bearing walls in an apartment, I also take into account which project this residential building belongs to. Panel houses of the 1-464 series have not only external, but internal load-bearing walls, while the houses of the 1-335 series are characterized only by external panels.

Is it possible to ditch load-bearing walls and ceiling

According to all currently existing rules and building codes, regulations and legislative documents in the field of construction, laying strobes in load-bearing walls and floor slabs with a large number of voids is prohibited.

Chasing load-bearing walls in a monolithic house for wiring or other communications is prohibited. The same applies to the ceiling, since it consists of floor slabs. If the wall is not load-bearing, chasing can be done without any restrictions.

What can be difficult

Chasing the supporting structure is also not allowed for the reason that when the reinforcement is exposed, it may be susceptible to corrosion. Brick walls also fall under this ban, but if the laying was carried out in vain, then communications can be laid in an empty seam between horizontal rows. Such difficulties are often solved by laying an electrical communication line in the plaster layer. If the wiring is quite thin, they can easily be hidden in drywall walls as well.

If you want to take a closer look at the norms according to which the distribution of wiring in the walls is carried out, you should read SNiP 3.05.06-85. From these regulatory documents, you can find out that the grooves must be located strictly vertically or horizontally. The wiring should not run close to the floor slabs, but this problem can be solved by removing it by 15 cm. If you need to gouge load-bearing walls at all costs, then you must remember that laying horizontal grooves will be especially dangerous.

Danger of hidden pipe laying

Before you start chasing walls for pipes, you should familiarize yourself with what consequences this can lead to. For example, a wall material under mechanical action receives dynamic and static loads. This entails a change in the distribution of stresses, which causes the destruction of the material. With load-bearing walls, even subject to the rules that prohibit touching the reinforcing cage, such manipulations are prohibited. After all, even if the bearing capacity was reduced only slightly, and the margin of safety is still at a fairly good level, over time the walls can become cracked, because the pipes vibrate during operation, especially when they are poorly secured with clamps.

Of course, there are several bearing supports for building structures, but if one of them has a broken structure and a reduced level of bearing capacity, this may lead to the collapse of the entire building. The building acquires the status of an emergency.

Danger of hidden wiring

Despite the fact that there is a ban on the gating of load-bearing walls, many would-be craftsmen still continue to carry out such work, not paying attention to SNiP. They believe that brick walls that do not have a reinforcing cage can be used for laying electrical wiring.

But if the structure is made according to the masonry technique and does not accept a bearing load, it cannot be touched, because mechanical action may disrupt the connection between individual products along the body of the brick and along the seam. If the wall is not thick enough, this further increases the risk of laying communications.

Distances, depth, strobe width

What nuances should be paid attention to when chasing walls for cable? First, these are the minimum distances and indents. Please adhere to the following guidelines and rules:

The name of the dimension to the strobe	Minimum distance
From the corner of the wall	10cm
From the door frame	10cm
From the ceiling	15-20cm
From the floor	15-20cm
From the slope of the window	10cm
From the gas pipe	40cm

max strobe depth — 25mm

when installing one cable without corrugation, a width of up to 5 mm is sufficient

when using corrugations - 20-25mm

Also pay attention to the location of the groove relative to the socket. It shouldn't go straight down the middle.

Always orient it closer to the edges. And left or right also plays a role.

If the future socket or switch is close to the doorway, then it would be more correct to hold the gate exactly to the far edge from the door. Otherwise, when installing the doors, installers with a long dowel will damage the cable when drilling.

Even when gating, they often use a laser level. First, it facilitates and speeds up the work.And secondly, the cable will be laid perfectly evenly.

In the future, when drilling a screw into the wall under the picture, you will know exactly how many millimeters away from the outlet you have a cable under the plaster.

There will be no need to use all sorts of tricky devices and fancy wall scanners to detect wires under the plaster.

The correct cutting direction is from top to bottom. You will be less tired, and gravity, on the contrary, will be an assistant during work.

It is enough to attach the wall chaser to the wall, and then high-quality discs and the force of gravity of the earth will do most of the work for you.

How are apartments in panel houses ventilated?

In practice, it often happens that living in a new building does not guarantee that the ventilation there is of high quality. If we compare new houses and houses that were built several decades ago by this indicator, then there will not be much difference.

That is, there will be a ventilation shaft in the apartment, but the process itself as a whole will be organized according to the budget principle. Only in expensive new buildings can we note the presence of systems made in accordance with new standards and using new materials.

The air circulation in the house can be represented as follows:

1. Natural air intake with exhaust.
2. Ventilation units that provide forced air circulation.
3. Combination of natural ventilation and mechanical systems.

Panel houses have only natural air exchange, and old multi-storey buildings also have such an exchange. Air enters through old wooden windows or through channels in double-glazed windows. Air is taken in through a shaft that leads to the roof.

That is, fresh air entering through the window, after a while, will be taken in by the mine due to natural draft. Similar shafts are usually found in the kitchen, in the bathroom and in the toilet - if you give the request "ventilation shaft in a multi-storey building scheme", then it will look exactly like that. The mine will cease to perform its functions if serious mistakes are made during the construction phase that disrupt the exchange of air. You can note the absence of a gap between the door leaf and the floor or the installation of deaf double-glazed windows.

Features of working with various materials

Before you go through the wall for wiring, you need to figure out what you plan to work with, as well as what material is the basis. For example, if you have a brick wall in front of you, and the products are laid on a mortar of cement and sand, horizontal grooves can be done in the easiest way using a hammer and chisel. The main condition for this is to get into the seam.

Strobes in concrete and brick

For a vertical groove in a brick, a power tool is suitable, here they will come to the rescue:

• wall chaser;
• perforator;
• angle grinder.

You may be interested in the question of how to ditch the wall if the masonry is covered with plaster. In this matter, manual equipment comes to the rescue, but you need to be prepared for the fact that the process will take a long time. Do not be afraid that the wiring will need to be laid in a concrete wall. Although it is quite strong, the grooves in it can be done with almost any tool. The only exceptions are a chisel and a hammer.

Experts say that a puncher becomes the best solution, but when working with it, the evenness of the grooves will not be ideal.A puncher with a nozzle on the tool will allow you to cope with the concrete surface, and the plaster layer will correct all the shortcomings in the work. Dust clouds will not hang in the room, this is what distinguishes the puncher from the grinder. And an additional plus will be that you don’t have to get rid of the remnants of the material inside. If necessary, make rounded holes, you can use a drill and puncher.

How to work with wood and aerated concrete

If you want to lay wiring in a bathhouse or a wooden house, you need to remember that such work in such buildings is prohibited by fire safety standards. For such cases, external wiring is provided, it is subsequently hidden with decorative materials in imitation of the original coating or decorative products.

As for aerated concrete, you can work with it with a wall chaser, making grooves only vertically or horizontally. The indentation recommendations that were mentioned above are also true for this material.

Nuances with load-bearing walls

Bearing walls should not have strobes. After all, they contain reinforcement, which is responsible for the strength of the structure. If you place a strobe there, it will damage the steel frame and violate the main characteristics of the wall. This will pose a danger to the inhabitants of the house.