Unit 10

Interior Finishes

Part Illustrated Words and Concepts Figure 10-1 The Arrangements for Building Services of a Three-story Office Building Figure 10-2 Installing Gypsum Lath over Light-gauge Steel Studs with Self-drilling, Selftapping Screws Part Passages Passage A Interior Finishes Passage B Interior Finish Systems

Unit 10 Part

Interior Finishes

Illustrated Words and Concepts

Figure 10-1 The Arrangements for Building Services of a Three-story Office Building Three diagrammatic plans for an actual three-story suburban office building show the principal arrangements for plumbing, communications, electricityheating, and cooling. Heating and cooling are accomplished by means of air ducted downward through two shafts from equipment mounted on the roof. The conditionedair from the vertical ducts is distributed around each floor by a system of horizontal ducts that run above a suspended ceiling, as shown on the plan of the intermediate floor.

Unit 10 Part

Interior Finishes

Illustrated Words and Concepts

Figure 10-2 Installing Gypsum Lath over Light-gauge Steel Studs with Self-drilling, Self-tapping Screws The electric screw gun disengages automatically from the screw head when the screw has reached the proper depth.

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage A

Passages

Interior Finishes The installation of interior finish materials ceilings, walls, partitions, floors, finish carpentry cannot proceed at full speed until the roof and exterior walls of a building are complete and mechanical and electrical services have been installed. The roof and walls are needed to shelter the moisture-sensitive finish materials.

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Part

Interior Finishes
Passage A

Passages

The mechanical and electrical services generally must be covered by the interior finish materials, and thus must precede them. The finish materials themselves must be selectedto meet a bewildering range of functional parameters: durability, acoustical performance, fire safety, relationship to mechanical and electrical services, changeability over time, and fire resistance. They must also look good, presenting a neat appearance and meeting the architectural goals of the building.

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage A

Passages

Installation of Mechanical and Electrical Services When a building has been roofed and most of its exterior cladding has been installed, its interior is sufficiently protected from the weather that work can begin on the mechanical and electrical systems. The waste lines and water supply lines of the plumbing system are installed, and, if specified, the pipes for an automatic sprinkler fire suppression system.

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage A

Passages

The major part of the work for the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system (HVAC) is carried out, including the installation of boilers, chillers, cooling towers, pumps, fans, piping, and ductwork. Electrical, communications, and control wiring are routed through the building. Elevators and escalators are installed in the structural openings provided for them.

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage A

Passages

The vertical runs of pipes, ducts, wires, and elevators through a multistory building are made through vertical shafts whose sizes and locations were determined at the time the building was designed. Before the building is finished, each shaft will be enclosed with fire-resistive walls to prevent the vertical spread of fire. Horizontal runs of pipes, ducts, and wires are usually located just below each floor slab, above the ceiling of the floor below, to keep them up out of the way.

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage A

Passages

These may be left exposed in the finished building, or hidden above suspended ceilings. Sometimes these services, especially wiring, are concealed within a hollow floor structure such as cellular metal decking or cellular raceways. Sometimes services are run between the structural floor deck and a raised access flooring system. To house the pipes where several plumbing fixtures are lined up along a wall, a plumbing space is created by constructing a double wall with space between.

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage A

Passages

Specific floor areas are reserved for mechanical and electrical functions in larger buildings. Distribution equipment for electrical and communications wiring and fiber optics networks is housed in special rooms or closets. Fan rooms are often provided on each floor for air handling machinery. In a large multistory building, space is set aside, usually at a basement or subbasement level, for pumps, boilers, chillers, electrical transformers, and other heavy equipment.

Unit 10
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Interior Finishes
Passage A

Passages

At the roof are penthouses for elevator machinery and such components of the mechanical systems as cooling towers and ventilating fans. In very tall buildings, one or two entire intermediate floors may be set aside for mechanical equipment, and the building is zoned vertically into groups of floors that can be reached by ducts and pipes that reach up and down from each of the mechanical floors.

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage A

Passages

The Sequence of Interior Finishing Operations Interior finishing operations follow a carefully ordered sequence that varies somewhat from one building to another, depending on the specific requirements of each project. The first finish items to be installed are usually hanger wires for suspended ceilings, and full-height partitions and enclosures,

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage A

Passages

especially those around mechanical and electrical shafts, elevator shafts, mechanical equipment rooms, and stairways. Firestopping is inserted around pipes, conduits, and ducts where they penetrate floors and fire-rated walls. The full-height partition and enclosures, firestopping, joint covers, and safing around the perimeters of the floors constitute a very important system for keeping fire from spreading through the building.

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage A

Passages

After the major horizontal electrical conduits and air ducts have been installed, the grid for the suspended ceiling is attached to the hanger wires so that the lights and ventilating louvers can be mounted to the grid. Then, typically, the ceilings are finished, and framing for the partitions that do not penetrate the finish ceiling is installed. Electrical and communications wiring are brought down from the conduits above the ceilings to serve outlets in the partitions.

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage A

Passages

The walls are finished and painted. The last major finishing operation is the installation of the finish flooring materials. This is delayed as long as possible, to let the other trades complete their work and get out of the building; otherwise, the floor materials could be damaged by dropped tools, spilled paint, heavy construction equipment, weld spatter, coffee stains , and construction debris ground underfoot.

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

Interior Finish Systems Appearance A major function of interior finish components is to make the interior of the building look neat and clean by covering the rougher and less organized portions of the framing, insulation, vapor retarder, electrical wiring, ductwork, and piping.

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

Beyond this, the architect designs the finishes to carry out a particular concept of interior space, light, color, pattern, and texture. The form and height of the ceiling, changes in floor level, interpenetrations of space from one floor to another, and the configurations of the partitions are primary factors in determining the character of the interior space.

Unit 10
Part

Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

Light originates from windows and electric lighting fixtures, and is propagated by successive reflections off the interior surfaces of the building. Lighter-colored materials raise interior levels of illumination; darker colors and heavier textures result in a darker interior. Patterns and textures of interior finish materials are important in bringing the building down to a scale of interest that can be appreciated readily by the human eye and hand.

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Part

Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

Durability and Maintenance Expected levels of wear and tear must be considered carefully in selecting finishes for a building. Highly durable finishes generally cost more than shorter-lived ones and are not always required. In a courthouse, a transportation terminal, a recreation building, or a retail store, traffic is intense, and longwearing materials are essential.

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Part

Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

In a private office or an apartment, more economical finishes are usually adequate. Water resistance is an important attribute of finish materials in kitchens, locker and shower rooms, entrance lobbies, and some industrial buildings. In hospitals, medical offices, kitchens, and laboratories, finish surfaces must not trap dirt and must be easily cleaned and disinfected. Maintenance procedures and costs should be considered in selecting finishes for any building.

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Part

Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

Acoustic Criteria Interior finish materials strongly affect noise levels, quality of listening conditions, and levels of acoustic privacy inside a building. In noisy environments, interior surfaces that are highly absorptive of sound can decrease the noise intensity to a tolerable level. In lecture rooms, class-rooms, meeting rooms, theaters, and concert halls,

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Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

acoustically reflective and absorptive surfaces must be proportioned and placed so as to create optimum hearing conditions. Between rooms, acoustic privacy is created by partitions that are heavy and airtight. The acoustic isolation properties of lighterweight partitions can be enhanced by partition details that damp the transmission of sound vibrations,

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Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

by means of resilient mountings on one of the partition surfaces and sound absorbing batts of mineral wool in the interior cavity of the partition. Manufacturers test full-scale sample partitions of every type of material for their ability to reduce the passage of sound between rooms in a procedure outlined in ASTM E90.

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Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

Fire Criteria A building code devotes many pages to provisions that control the materials and details for interior finishes in buildings. These code requirements are aimed at several important characteristics of interior finishes with respect to fire, for instance, the combustibility and fire resistance ratings.

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Part
Cost

Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

The cost of interior finish systems may be measured in two different ways. First cost is the installed cost. First cost is often of paramount importance when the construction budget is tight or the expected life of the building is short. Life-cycle cost is a cost figured by any of several formulas that take into account not only first cost,

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Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

but the expected lifetime of the finish system, maintenance costs and fuel costs (if any) over that lifetime, replacement cost, an assumed rate of economic inflation, and the time value of money. Lifecycle cost is important to building owners who expect to retain ownership over an extended period of time. Because of higher maintenance and replacement costs, a material that is inexpensive to buy and install may be more costly over the lifetime of a building than a material that is initially more expensive.

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Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

Toxic Emissions from Interior Materials A number of common construction materials give off substances that may be objectionable in certain interior environments. Many synthetics and wood panel products emit formaldehyde fumes for extended periods of time after the completion of construction. Solvents from paints, varnishes, and carpet adhesives often permeate the air of a new building. Airborne fibers of asbestos and glass can constitute health hazards.

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Part

Interior Finishes
Passage B

Passages

Some materials harbor molds and mildews whose airborne spores many people cannot tolerate. In isolated instances, stone and masonry products have proven to be sources of radon gas. Construction dust, even from chemically inert materials, can inflame respiratory passages. There is increasing pressure, both legal and societal, on building designers to select interior materials that do not create objectionable odors or endanger the health of building occupants. And data on emissions of pollutants from interior materials are increasingly available to designers, and it is wise to select materials that give off the smallest possible quantities of irritating or unhealthful substances.