How to mount large hot water cylinder

[Christian McArdle]

I am installing a large 180 litre cylinder in my loft. (It will probably be an indirect plate heat exchanged heat bank, if you are interested). It will be installed next to a party brick wall (not sure if single or double skin), and directly above what I believe to be a transverse structural wall supporting the joists. The joists are boarded, look to be about 100mm thick and run parallel with the wall. I intend to convert the loft in the future, which must involve the joists becoming considerably thicker. (Possibly doubling in thickness).

How should I mount the cylinder? Should I rest it on the floor on a wooden pedestal that can be removed/or made smaller when the floor becomes thicker? Will this take the weight? Should I involve the wall in the mounting at all? I could mount one mounting plate of the pedestal to the wall and have the other end resting on the floor. Is this a good or bad idea? Should I strap it to the wall for restraint? Should I use gallows brackets and forget about using the floor?

Christian.

[Christian McArdle]

The location was chosen as being its final resting position with the proposed conversion in mind. I suppose careful consideration of the runs of pipe could mean that they only need adjusting for height when the cylinder is moved up 10cm.

It is still tempting to build a 20cm high platform out of 2 by 4 that can become a 10cm high platform when the joists are thickened, but then, subsequently changing the pipe lengths is probably no more work than making the platforms.

The cylinder will be directly above the wall not through coincidence. The wall is directly below the ridge line of the roof. The cylinder needs to be installed below the ridge line due to the height required. (The conversion will be a full width dormer extension to the rear).

Would a thick lump of plywood be stronger than chipboard?

Christian.

[stefek.zaba]

[to support a hot water tank] I'd *much* prefer decent (but not madly expensive) ply to chipboard. The "WBP" quality - nominally meaning "wash and boil proof" of midpriced hardwood ply will shed hot water, should you ever get a drip you don't notice, rather well (a quick coat or two of varnish or Danish Oil won't hurt). Chipboard, even bathroom spec "moisture resistant", is *not* what I'd want 180kg of 60-degree water resting on ;-)

Stefek (who's just spent the whole weekend building a wheelchair/impaired mobility ramp out of two sheets of 18mm WBP hardwood ply, (nearly 50 cm of height to cover, so two sheets totalling 4.8m length needed to give even a 1:10 slope) and is impressed by its rigidity even before adding three 6.5cm deep ribs down each length. Oh, if anyone's in Bristol, the reason it rained last night from about 10pm onwards is that I'd put the next coat of varnish on at about 9pm... some rather more vigorous rubbing-down needed before tonight's coat goes on, dammit.)

[Andy Hall]

Stefek,

As a matter of interest, is 1:10 the recommended slope for a wheelchair/impaired mobility ramp in general?

Presumably for a wheelchair this would be for where another person is pushing the chair? It seems quite steep for somebody to self propel themselves, although perhaps an electric model would manage it?

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[stefek.zaba]

No; a few moments' googling suggested 1:12 as a minimum, and 1:20 preferred, for self-propulsion. My 1:10 was dictated by "what slope will I get with N sheets of 8-by-4 ply", for small integer values of N, and the amount of intrusion into the space at the front of the house (as it happens the house is L shaped, with the front door in the inner corner of the L, so the ramp goes nicely along the other wall), knowing that for the foreseeable future it's indeed someone else pushing the chair, or the restricted-mobility person themselves walking up/down the ramp, which is much easier for them than the relatively steep existing steps, with the vague possibility of an electric chair at some point. 1:10 came out as a liveable compromise for these requirements - a third sheet would've reduced the slope to about 1:15, but the ramp would have ended rather close to the more cluttered end of the wall. I believe a 1:10 is quite self-propellable for the fit wheelchair user, but not for the relatively infirm.

The gods of rain are holding off tonight, as it happens. They'll wait until I put the final coat on, which will have the boat-deck style anti-slip little polystyrene beads mixed into it, before sending a deluge just after the idiot cats have finished playing in it ;-)

I have another adaptation yet to do, which I'll post a separate basenote to ask about - thanks for prompting me!

Cheers, Stefek