ᐅ Ducting enclosures for centralized mechanical ventilation systems with heat recovery

Hello everyone!

Our construction manager just sent us a sketch showing that there will be bulkheads both in the floor and ceiling areas of the cloakroom. Attached are the sketch and the ground floor plan. We feel that such bulkheads would greatly detract from the cloakroom space and make it less functional. It also seems strange to us that such bulkheads would be accepted in a new build. I can’t imagine that ventilation couldn’t be planned without these bulkheads. This is something you usually only see in older buildings where ventilation systems were installed retrospectively.

Our question to the building experts in this forum:
Are such bulkheads common and simply an unavoidable downside of having a central controlled ventilation system, or do you consider this poor planning that we shouldn’t accept? How is it arranged in your homes?

Best regards

jx7

Well, the cables have to go somewhere... however, you could avoid installing bulkheads at floor level by relocating all the distribution boxes entirely to the basement. (This is usually done anyway.)

I am not entirely sure about the bulkheads in the ceiling area, but why not use the necessary and existing bulkheads in the bathroom to reach the upper floor?

Of course, this means that cables will have to run across the basement, which in my opinion is a better solution than installing bulkheads again on the ground floor.

The boxed soffits in the ceiling area are necessary because the ceiling contains steel beams at this point and cannot be drilled through. The boxed soffits near the floor are supposedly required because of the distribution box.

Let’s see what comes out of the meeting on Monday. We will definitely suggest either relocating the distribution box completely to the basement or making use of the existing boxed soffits in the guest bathroom.

Aha... well, it definitely makes sense to run ventilation ducts with, among other things, considerable diameters through walls that are then closed with a steel beam...

So I would reconsider whether to hire someone who is experienced with ventilation systems...

I’m not sure if “steel beams” is the right term, maybe “reinforcement” is more accurate. We are building with a general contractor and cannot choose the ventilation installer freely.

Yes, I figured as much, but you still have the right to qualified professionals...

What does the rest of the ventilation plan look like?