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Building components

Service Zones & Penetrations

The voids, shafts, chases and openings left in the fabric so services can pass through it and be reached again afterwards.

7 entries in this category.

Overview

About this category

Services need routes, and those routes are cut, formed or left in the building fabric. A riser is a shaft; a chase is a recess; a penetration is a hole through something that was otherwise continuous. Each is a position in the construction, and each one interrupts a layer that was doing a job before the service arrived.

These entries are about the fabric, not about the services. They describe what the void or opening is, what continuity it breaks, and what has to be re-established around it. They specify no pipe, duct, cable, plant or sealing product, and state no rating, size or spacing.

Boundaries

What this category covers, and what it does not

  • Covers the fabric positions made for services: penetrations, riser shafts, chases, builders-work openings, sleeves, horizontal service voids and equipment plinths.
  • Does not cover mechanical, electrical or plumbing equipment, its sizing, or its routing design — this library covers building fabric.
  • Does not cover the sealing ASSEMBLY applied to a penetration, which is published as a building system, nor the sealants and collars themselves, which are materials.
  • States no fire rating or period, no size, no spacing and no separation distance, and makes no compliance determination.

Browse

Forms and roles in this category

Descriptive labels for what is here. They are a way of reading the list, not a filter and not a ranking.

Forms:Connector or supportProfile or trimVoid or cavity
Roles:ProtectionSeparationSupportTermination

Entries

Service Zones & Penetrations components

Every entry in this category. Each explains what the element is, what it depends on, and how it relates to materials, systems and junctions.

Void or cavityBuilders Work Opening →An opening formed in an element in advance of the service that will pass through it, so the crossing does not have to be cut later.Void or cavityDuct Void →An enclosed horizontal route formed through a building's fabric so services can travel between areas within a bounded space.Profile or trimPipe Sleeve →A short lining built or cast into an element so a pipe passes through without bearing on or bonding to the structure.Connector or supportPlant Support Plinth →A raised base formed to carry equipment clear of the surface it stands on, most often on a roof where that surface is waterproofed.Void or cavityRiser Shaft →The vertical space carried through successive floors so services can travel between levels inside a bounded enclosure.Void or cavityService Chase →A recess cut or formed in the thickness of a wall so a service can be buried within it and covered by the finish.Void or cavityService Penetration →The position at which a service crosses a wall, floor or roof, interrupting every layer that element was relied on to keep continuous.

Related reference libraries

Components are what materials become and what systems are made of. The three libraries answer different questions and are kept deliberately separate.

Materials Library →Building Systems →