Appraisal of the JMK on-site floor panel cut-out service.

Robert Stevens BSc. C.Eng M.I.Prod.E

Raised access flooring is commonplace within commercial office buildings providing an inconspicuous method of concealing the distribution of power, data, telecom cabling, and increasingly, conditioned air to the occupied office space. Raised access flooring allows the building occupier flexibility to implement changes within the office space as the demands on the business develop.

The raised access floor installation is usually undertaken reasonably early in the construction programme as a means of providing protection to “First fix services” on the sub-floor and also as a means of providing a flat platform for following trades to work off. Then subsequent to the raised floor installation there will be a requirement to cut apertures (cut-outs) within specific raised floor panels. This need arises for two major reasons; firstly to accommodate floor boxes or grommets, for power, data and telecom services and secondly to accommodate floor diffusers for delivery of conditioned air to the office space.

At present there are two methods of providing floor panel cut-outs, both of which have significant disadvantages.

5

Firstly, the raised access floor manufacturer can provide panels with cut-outs direct from their factory. Whilst this provides a good quality of aperture to the exact size required, it means the design team has to provide the appropriate specification, and the final numbers and locations of all floor boxes, grommets and diffusers quite early in the construction programme. 

When floor panels with factory made cut-outs are installed into the raised floor significantly before the installation of floor boxes, grommets and air diffusers, a safety problem arises from the number of large holes in the floor. This problem can be overcome by the use of cover plates, with the associated cost.

 

Because of the problems outlined above the majority of floor panel cut-outs are undertaken on-site at a later date in the construction programme by raised floor installers. These cut-outs are cut by the use of a hand held jigsaw. Whilst performing the operation just prior to the installation of the floor boxes, grommets or air diffusers can overcome the problems associated with factory provided cut-outs outlined above, on site cut-outs have one significant disadvantage – quality. It is extremely difficult to maintain the exact size and shape of the cut-out when executed by hand held tool on site, which can lead to problems of providing adequate support to the floor box etc. There have been many instances where the cut aperture is of such a poor quality that the subsequent installation of the floor box or grommet has not been possible resulting in delays to the final finishing of the project.

 

2

Having worked in the raised access flooring industry for almost 20 years within senior technical and production positions I have witnessed various attempts to offer a realistic solution that takes due regard for all of the issues relating to design issues, quality and on-site working with regard to increasingly stringent Health and Safety issues. To date there has been nothing that has successfully resolved all of these issues.

The JMK solution does successfully tackle all of the relevant issues. Bringing together his significant raised access flooring and diamond drilling experience Mr Kelly has taken a fresh and original view of this on-going problem. The result is equipment that provides factory quality cut-outs and is clean and safe to use on-site. Furthermore the equipment is suitably portable to be able to be man handled to its required location on site. This is a very important issue when considering the practicalities of site working. The issue of safe working is taken due regard of allowing the use of this equipment on the most stringent of construction sites.

Operating on 110 volts the system utilises specially designed tungsten carbide cutters. These cutters have had to take due regard for the different materials being cut in a traditional raised floor panel, namely steel and chipboard. The cutting requirements for these materials are quite different; high speed for chipboard and yet a significantly slower speed for steel. A satisfactory performance in relation to quality of cut, speed of cut and life of cutter has been achieved after a significant development period.

The end result is a cost effective, efficient solution that provides factory-quality floor panel cut-outs made on-site using equipment that is specifically designed for this purpose. This approach certainly brings many advantages to a project by providing an effective solution to a problem that has been present for many years.

Request a Call Back?

Fill out the form below and we will contact you within 24hours or the next working day if submitted on a weekend.

Request More Information

Please complete the form below

    Contact

    For enquiries please email

    enquiries@jmkcutouts.co.uk

    Russell Farm House, New Road, Maulden, Bedfordshire, MK45 2BG
    Tel: 07836 251 999
    Tel:      01525 796 886