What does ‘service riser’ mean in construction?
Roof penetrations such as service risers allow mechanical and electrical utilities to flow through a concrete roof of construction.
They are often used in combination with rooftop plant decks and house ducts, pipes, or cable trays. They may also allow services such as gas and water supplies, power, and data to pass between the inside and outside of the structure.
When installing service risers, care must be taken to ensure that the roof’s structural and thermal integrity is maintained, as well as the prevention of water infiltration and wind damage during its lifetime. Weatherproofing is critical in this case, and GRP offers an efficient answer.
Service Riser Definition in Construction
In the construction business, a riser is any form of pipe, culvert, shaft, or other structure that rises upwards. A riser may be a waterline, sanitary line, air shaft, ventilation pipe or shaft, catch basin vertical section, manhole vertical section, or any combination of these.
A riser is defined as anything that rises. In the building sector, care must be taken to correctly determine what is intended by a riser. An architect may use a riser differently than an engineer, who uses it differently than the site contractors.
A riser is a generic name for any open conduit, shaft, tunnel, pipe, vent, or other structure that rises in the ground, inside a building, or in a sophisticated mechanical assembly.
Riser Development
Some floor slabs are manufactured to suit a riser design, while others must be carved out in situ after the slab is installed. Prefabricated risers will have a continuous rising area incorporated into the structure, which may need fire stopping (horizontal barrier).
Other Risers may be cut through the rebar and concrete slab to a size large enough to enable a service breakthrough. The horizontal barrier must be re-established after the breach is complete.
A problem might be that the opening is too big, putting people or equipment at danger of falling through unprotected gaps, or that the opening is correct but is poorly maintained, leaving an unsecured open area prior to the installation of utilities. Smaller
However, bigger risers may be utilised as store space; in this case, ensure that the load calculations have accommodated this usage and that safe working load signs are supplied along with information in the health & safety file.
Maintainability may need the installation of riser doors. These doors, which may be hatch-style or full-height, will provide access to the vertical shaft and may also have a toe
board and mid rail inside the access frame for further protection. Riser doors should be locked using an access control mechanism agreed upon with the end user.
Protection Against Fire
A riser inspection door may be included with the riser. The door may have a customised fire seal to create a vertical barrier and separate the riser from the rest of the structure.
This approach provides the following benefits over the horizontal barrier method:
There is no need to install intumescent collars around pipes and wires at each level. New pipes and wires may be routed up the riser without breaking through the barrier.The integrity of the fire barrier may be evaluated swiftly and safely. If required, the whole riser may be quickly and easily reopened.
