I plan on constructing decorative timber trusses in the main living area of my new home. The challenge I am facing is how to run HVAC ducts given that the house is on a slab. The exterior roof pitch is 9:12 and I would like to maintain that pitch inside. The room is 24 feet wide.
Does anyone have any suggestions?? The best solution I have come up with thus far is to frame the roof with scissor trusses and apply the non-structural decorative trusses underneath!
Thanks!!
Replies
ask the hvac dude if he can hang a spiral duck, to be left exposed
no turn left unstoned
Some more information would be helpful. The house is going to be on a slab, what type of wall construction? And when you say that the timber is to be decorative, does that imply that there is conventional framing above it? It is possible to run ducts under the slab (use PCD coated spiral duct) and then transition to rectangular duct to go up a stud bay, and then angle into a rafter bay. The key is doing the correct calculations for good airflow, and very careful planning. Once the duct is under the slab there isn't much you can do with it. Is this for heat and AC, or just AC?
Nick:
Thanks for your reply. The ductwork is for both heat and A/C. Wall construction is typical 2x6 framing. Typical slab on grade. Im really trying to avoid putting anything but plumbing in the slabs, especially ductwork. Putting the ductwork inthe slab will require extremely long runs as the main trunk lin ewill be coming from the adjacent parts of the house in the mid-floor (ceiling height 9' with 16" open-web truss joists.
A good thought though. Additionally, this great room is mostly windows and stud packs not much room for anything else.
Right now I am planning on using engineered scissor trusses for this section of the roof. We have them designed to 9:12 outside and 7:12 inside. These trusses will accommodate the duct runs.
The thing is that I really want to keep the inside ceiling height up as much as possible to keep the deco trusses looking better.
I can framed the room with a ridge beam and rafters. maybe i should just underframe the entire ceiling by 12" or so to allow for the ducts. This seems like a lot of extra work and expense.
I do appreciate your thoughts! Howard Feldman
There are some in-wall units on the market that address the needs of timbered rooms. Basically you pump the refrigerant/run a gas line to each unit. This eliminates the need for ductwork. Search internet on "ductless AC".