Our coolant line was pierced by a hardwood floor staple. The Flooring people say the line was not to code and should have been mounted lower on the joist to avoid just such an issue. The air guys say it's not their problem, that code IROC P2603.2.1/M1308.2 (Protection against physical damage) do not apply. How would the flooring people know (the basement is finished, they could not have seen the lines if they wanted to. Help

Good luck! You are going to need it. I would say that the installer of the "coolant line" could have been more careful. Placement that close to a floor membrane is not good workmanlike practice unless there was no other way to do it. As to proving fault.. I hope your homeowners policy is up to date.

Wow must have been a huge staple. Hope you never want to take that floor up.

The line was attached directly to the subfloor (underside) not to a joist. The staple was standard used for 3/4 " hardwood, into the subfloor, only through the subfloor about 1/4".

I agree with EPMiller. I do put the AC people at fault especially if this is new construction. Electricians must use nail plates when electrical is run too close to a stud. e.g. the stud is notched. I forget the distance. The AC guys should abide by that. The problem is there is no code saying that they should.

Similar issues occur with plumbing to. Drilling a hole in the wall to mount something and running into a PVC pipe.

Wires would not be allowed to run on the underside of the floor.

I don't have any ASHRAE or ANSI documents to see if it's there. A few are mentioned here: http://www.sandia.gov/engstds/ConstSpecs/Div_15/15183_Refrigeration_Systems_1001.pdf