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Considerations for Raised Floor Installation?
shanm asks: "I'm wondering if the community would have any recommendations and or cost rules of thumb on a raised floor installation. I'm considering doing that in a basement room (soon to be PC room and office) to make network/power wiring easier, modifiable, and expandable. The biggest constraint is that the basement doesn't have a 9 or 10 foot ceiling. So I don't have an unlimited height on the floor."
basement bad! water, flooding, other things in basement! You definitely don't want to do it in your basement, especially in a normal house.
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Ask your local municipal code inspector. You typically need 7 foot + (usually more) clearance from floor to ceiling or else your room won't pass code. Raised floors need to be done professionaly. I wouldn't recommend any other way - everything from electrical outlets to height, fire and safety codes will have to be inspected.. you wouldn't want to tear it out when you sell/move so get inspection on your plans before you start or hire a pro
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What about installing a hanging ceiling and running the wires overhead? ... You could run the wires inside PVC tubing (or whatever you prefer) that's strapped to the beams of your basement ceiling, then hang the ceiling tiles afterwards, at your leisure.
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They were invented not because of any type of ceiling height excess, but because the distance from the walls were too far to channel and cable around lots of annoying things.
You basement, forget the ceiling height, that is oh so redundant.
Are you going to have more than 10 PC towers plugged in at seatable desks? (and that is still a low return on investment).
If you room isn't being planned to fit 5/6 desks and some central desks that do not have easy wall access, then I think the idea of a floor installation is laughable.
Once again: unless you *need*, and by need I mean you understand the reasoning behind raised floor 'stalls, them for a purpose, why bother?
Also there is a new technology just around the corner, I mean, like maybe in 20-50 years, called WiFi, I think that is what it is called, i am sure I was googling for something unrelated and an engadget page with info on it popped up (WHATEVER I search for on google I end up with an FUCKING engadget page showing in the results, weblogs inc shoudl be sued for aggressively poisoning google. fucktards).
Shit, I lost track of parenthesis, this started out as an insightful post, I don't know where it ended up.
fucking weblogs inc.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
Thirded. Parent described "rat's nest of cables." Take that very literally. Finding the spot where the rats/mice have eaten the insulation off your ethernet cables and chewed through the wire is no fun.
Rats are not threatened by dust kitties, even those as large as will grow under a raised floor.
Overhead 220v power and cable ladders are definitely the best way to go. Hire a good HVAC guy to design your airflow system to keep the whole room cool.
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I used to design labs and data centers for Cisco. IMO, the best reason for raised floor is to provide controlled, high volume HVAC directly to racks as needed. If you don't require additional cooling, then a wire-only raised floor is less useful (besides more expensive) than simply running overhead cable trays.
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Very much agreed with the parent. I work in a lab with a raised floor that we took over when they moved some mainframes and communications equipment out, back in the late 80s. It's pretty much a total mess - I spent a solid couple of weeks last year pulling out thousands of feet of unconnected abandoned cable and vacuuming out all manner of nastiness.
You're better off with some overhead trays or some good on-the-floor cable channels, combined with some well-planned wiring. It's really no fun at all dragging cables around under a raised floor.
JRjr
It seems every reponse that has been modded up are people who are pointing out things you likely have already thought of. Today's slashdot: Ask for suggestions, get flamed. Nice.
.I just used them to bolt that extra 4x4 post come up off the floor.).
Once you have the base frame (think 'cornerlines in a cube' to visualize) you will want to place support beams through the middle parallel to the short side to support the plywood top you'll be putting on. Use 2x4 hangers screwed into the 2x6 sides and place them approximately every 14-18 inches giving you 2x4 cross beams. This will help support the plywood top and give you a firm surface.
Let us assume that you have considered the possibility of flooding, you understand you *could* put in a ceiling, and you really are looking at making it look nice. You said the constraint is the ceiling, but the fact of your asking makes me think the constraint is the pocket book. I'm assuming this isn't a server room since you did say 'pc room'.
I had a similar issue with space. I wanted to house 8-14 machines at any one point running off up to 3-4 monitors with an 'L' shaped desk that covered about 7x5 feet. No amount of ceiling is going to help me find room for my legs when some of them are consumer towers, some are 4U rackmounts on their sides, and some are cute little systems. I knew I'd be moving systems in and out on occasion. I wanted a raised floor to put them all under so the machines were close enough to be hooked to my monitors and switch boxes without extensions, yet still be out of the way, accessible enough, and more importantly quiet (without spending gobs of money every time I brought a new system in to add to the bunch every couple weeks just to make it quiet). My solution was a raised floor for my desk (and only my desk). To do something like this economically (though not necessarily prettily) can be accomplished for under 200 bucks.
Picture of mine
Building a free standing platform that will hold a good half ton (put down the fritos if this isn't enough) for you, your desk, rolly chair, and 2 or three others isn't too difficult and all you need is a workbench to do some sawing and drilling.
You can build a platform that has 18" of clearance (enough space that a mid tower can slide under) that stands 24" tall (you can get a full tower in tilted and lean it upwards between crossbeams) with a single 4x4x8', two 2x6x12', eight or so 2x4x8', a couple sheets of 1/2" plywood (preferably higher quality so you dont have to sand) and a plethora of bolts, braces, joist hangers. If you check out the first link there, you can see the mid towers that just fit under the floor, and a full tower showing it being the same height as the floor.. Build the base of the frame by attaching 2x6 pieces to the 4x4 legs with a pair of bolts at each juncture (so each 4x4 would have 4 bolts running through, 2 per side in that corner). When drilling the holes (a drill press helps here), make sure to offset one side by 1/2" up or down (you dont want the bolts meeting each other in the middle of the 4x4). Picture of a corner (with braces leading up to an extra post I was using to let a cockatoo visit, dont ask. You can use similar big corner braces like those if you want, but they arent necessary .
Once you have your crossbeams in place and everything bolted in, this platform should be rock solid before you put your plywood top on. The plywood you can cut however is most convenient for you. I didn't need a traditional raised floor where you could pull up a 'tile' at any 2 foot interval. I was happy enough to crawl under for the few times I'd need to get under there for initial setups. You may want to work in some access panels or make the top modular. It is really up to you (though you'll need to figure out the way to make it stable and size your crossbeams appropriately). You may also need to deal