Overhead Fastening Without Ladders And Lifts

Overhead Fastening to Concrete Decks

Many times on the site, you are called on to suspend items from a concrete deck, bar joist or metal deck. This article will give you a few ideas to fasten to the deck from the floor in particular, hanging ceiling grid wire, jack chain and threaded rod. Just some applications include electricians suspending light fixtures and cable, low voltage contractors suspending cable runs or speakers, ceiling contractors suspending grid and many others.

To Concrete

If you do any amount of fastening at all to concrete, you likely have a Hilti or Ramset gun, but do you have an extension pole? Most of these tools can be mounted on an extension pole allowing the worker to reach the deck without a lift or ladder. The most common type of pole tool is a fixed length pole, usually 6' that you mount your tool in. The tool will have a actuator lever at the other end like a clutch lever on a motorcycle to actuate the tool. Some tools l ike the Ramset Viper tool are specifically made for use on a pole tool. There is a telescopic pole tool that will extend from 6'-12' in one foot increments allowing you to reach almost a 20' deck from the floor. You can shoot ceiling clips with grid wire, or jack chain or a threaded rod clip to suspend threaded rod.

To Bar Joist

Tall buildings with bar joist ceilings can be a real challenge when the deck is 20' in the air. While some electricians have a "trick" they use with piece of EMT to twist around the bar joist, this can be difficult to do all day. Flange clip tools can make this job easier. You can get a flange clip that you can fasten to grid wire or jack chain and then using a special install tool, you can raise the clip to the bar joist and engage the clip and your done. You can also get flange clips that will screw on to a piece of threaded rod, and you can reach up and install to the joist.

Wood Ceilings

Fastening to wood beams from the floor can be easy if you have the right tool. Look for a tool called the lagmaster that will telescope from 6'-12' and drive an eye lag and tie the grid wire to the lag all at once. There is a version of this tool that will allow you to install Sammy screws (rod hangers) from the floor with the threaded rod already installed.

Metal Decks

Metal decks can be handled much like the wood ceilings mentioned above, you would just use a self drilling eye lag for metal on the end of a lagmaster pole and you can zip right along.

Even Faster

Want to move along even faster? The above mentioned ceiling clips and flange clips can be purchased pre tied with grid wire, saving you the time of tying them your self. You may pay a little more but many of these costs can be passed to the end user. Also, I often figure it costs a buck a minute to run a guy, I would rather have him focus on his trade rather than assembly work.

You can find Ramset and Hilti extension poles , Lagmaster ceiling tool and the Ramset Viper tool at ConstructionFastening.com