Why is it Unsafe to Use Timber Platforms for Air Conditioning Units?

Timber is a mainstream construction material; let’s establish that fact from the start. Wooden beams support home walls and ceilings. Exposed timber, painted an attractive colour, shows off attractive residential decks and patios. It’s a popular building material, plus it’s sustainable. Nevertheless, wooden platforms are not intended to support air conditioning units, and here’s why.

Treated Woods Abhor Fluid Contaminants

While it’s true that a treated wood deck can easily shrug off the effects of inches of annual rainfall, a timber platform, one built to support heavy air conditioning housing, won’t emulate that achievement. Imagine the situation on that wooden pad. The rain sloshing off an outdoor AC unit collects on the flat panel of timber. The wood soaks through because the puddle won’t drain, and the timber rots. Okay, a few drainage holes might just remedy that issue. What about the condensation created by the equipment coils? That liquid load will just exacerbate matters. Again, the wood rots, the heavy equipment frame droops, and system pan leaks worsen. The downward spiral becomes a tailspin, which assumes catastrophic proportions. And we haven’t even talked about a possible refrigerant leak, one that could aggravate this predicament.

Substituting Reliable Steel-Reinforced Plating

Treated timber beams and boards are good for residential projects, but they’re not meant to be used as AC housing platforms. The timber rots when exposed to corralled fluid pools. As the wood rots, fragments break off and get sucked into the equipment. From here, the coils and compressor end up damaged. Meanwhile, unable to soak up the condensing water, the wood softens. The air conditioner tilts and becomes less effective because its various fluids and vapours aren’t moving along a level plane. Okay, let’s fix this situation right now. Let’s replace the wood with steel plating. With the hypothetical timber platform removed, that half-rotted board can be discarded. A galvanized steel sheet takes its place. Corrosion-resistant by design, the sheet is slightly malleable, so it absorbs the unit’s compressor-produced vibrations. Fabricated by an expert machine shop, the welded or fastened sheet sections drain the collecting fluid condensate.

Sticking with a steel frame, a grid-like drainage pattern can be cut into the metal so that rainwater and condensate accumulations don’t pool around the equipment housing. That solution works on wood, too, but it also acts as an additional weak spot if the timber goes bad. The equipment weight and its vibrational load will only compound the issues we’ve described here, so the best solution is still a steel-plated one. Of course, the steel must be corrosion-resistant and fully galvanized so that the metal doesn’t experience its own unique form of orange-blossoming rot.

Optimized by NetwizardSEO.com.au