What Project?
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When I first started in the industry I worked on a long line of high-end retail projects scattered across the United States. Six months after starting I got a question from a project manager about concealed space wood-structure sprinkler protection on a particular store in San Jose.

San Jose? I was positive I never worked on a project in San Jose.

A little digging later revealed I did in fact work on a small retail shop in San Jose. The only problem was that it looked just like the other 30 stores I had worked on in-between. Did I evaluate protection or even consider the combustible above-ceiling space? Did I discuss anything with the AHJ?

No idea.

I quickly realized that if I didn't take project-specific design notes I'd have no way of revisiting my thought process when a question inevitably arose later in the project.

The Mad Man
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Ever since then, and not entirely due to my undiagnosed organization issues, I've been on a mad hunt to find the best way to record project notes in the cleanest and most insanely-quick process possible.

For me it's partially about recording the design thought process, and partially about reminding myself about all the considerations that need to occur for a project.

I can't say I've tried every method for project note taking, but I have used word templates, checklists, spreadsheets, OneNote files, linked databases, access databases, and the good old pen and paper.

Important Pieces
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I have several goals when devising project notes for me and the staff I work with:

1. It must be easy to edit
2. It must be clean
3. It must be consolidated (one page maximum)
4. It must be insanely quick to edit

If any one of those four items above aren't considered, the likelihood of adoption by people outside me is minimal.

Latest Rendition
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Here's where I am now - an excel-based, single page note page where a quick "X" above a cell highlights the one below. If I know all of the information in a project, it can be filled out completely in less than 3 minutes.

It can be a helpful accompaniment for sprinkler contractor clients when we're submitting a bid, or helpful notes to accompany a QC set of drawings.

What Am I Missing?
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I'm sure your checklists and cheatsheets include a wide variety of considerations. In my attempt to better this one and incorporate the whole spreadsheet, what important elements am I missing? View PDFs below, and post your comments & feedback about important things to add here.

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If you've been following the blog for awhile, you might already know about the Toolkit that has really taken off lately. This past week I've incorporated some (great) user feedback and now have a new version to present:

I've revamped the organization and it's FAR easier to navigate and use now.

With a new main menu and crisp pages the Toolkit is FAR easier to navigate. Now you can get what you need, quickly.

If you're already a subscriber to the Toolkit, use the download link below to get the latest version right now. No need for any new access codes - it just updates the Toolkit right over your current version.

​What is the Toolkit, and what does it include?

The MeyerFire Toolkit is a downloadable series of excel-based tools that allow fire protection designers, engineers and code authorities to quickly calculate a myriad of regular applications. With this tool you can save time with quick but powerful tools that you can save, PDF, or print.

The Toolkit contains all of the tools you see on this website - plus the popular Fire Sprinkler Database - which is a live collection of all fire sprinklers on the market where you can sort and filter to see what products exist for your application, and then specify or design the ones that best match your design goals.

A Free 30-Day Trial, Starting Today

​If you've never seen the Toolkit, or have used a trial version before and are interested in testing the new look, download the toolkit with a trial code (good through late March) here:

What's Next?

There's a few new additions to the Toolkit I hope to debut in the next couple weeks based on suggestions from users just like you. If you're an expert in fire flow calculations or water storage tank design and are interested in early testing, email me at jdmeyer@meyerfire.com. 

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If you know someone who might be interested in giving the Toolkit a try, email them about downloading it today. This free trial only lasts through late March 2019. As always, you can subscribe to these weekly articles & resources here.

This week we're covering a basic riser manifold configuration for wet-pipe fire sprinkler systems. This is not for a shotgun-style single riser, nor for a wet riser using an alarm check valve (we'll explore both of those later).

​If you haven't checked it out, there are great ongoing discussions (some of which covered these topics) on the MeyerFire Daily page here. 

Overview
Wet-pipe systems form the backbone of traditional fire sprinkler system design, comprising the most popular and most economical system type available. Here's the major components that go into a wet-pipe fire sprinkler assembly:

Check Valve

• Purpose: Allows the system to retain pressure over time, prevents and siphonage of water in a system to serve standpipes or other systems, and helps prevent nuisance waterflow alarm paddle movement by maintaining water in each system.
• Where Required: a check valve is required in any system, but may also be accomplished by a single backflow preventer in a multi-system manifold. Check valves are required on each sprinkler system where the supply serves both sprinklers and standpipes.
• Orientation: must be horizontal or vertical-up in accordance with its listing (NFPA 13 2002 8.15.1.1.3.4, 2007 -16 8.16.1.1.3.4, 2019 16.9.5.4)

FDC Connection

• Purpose: Allows the fire department to supply supplementary pressure and flow to the system during a fire event.
• Where Required: on any sprinkler system that does not meet exceptions for being inaccessible, large-capacity deluge systems, or single-story buildings not over 2,000 sqft (185 sq.m.). (NFPA 13 2002 8.16.2.2, 2007-16 8.17.2.2, 2019 16.12.2)
• Where Located: for a single system it must be on the system side of the main system control valve, check, and alarm valves, and is permitted to be connected to the main piping directly (NFPA 13 2002 8.16.2.4.2, 2007-16 8.17.2.4.2, 2019 16.12.5.2), for multiple systems the FDC connection must be between the supply control valves and system control valves (on the manifold) (NFPA 13 2002 8.16.2.4.3, 2007-16 8.17.2.4.3, 2019 16.12.5.4).

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I receive feedback regularly from many users and observers - and I'm very grateful for both!

Sprinkler Database Interest & Feedback
One member recently reached out about the Sprinkler Database and said:

"I appreciate all the work you’ve done on that site.  The sprinkler database has helped tremendously when looking for specialty sprinklers, specifically available storage sprinkler is odd configurations!"

It's a tool that is basic in premise but can save tons of time when you're looking to compare sprinklers, find a specific type of sprinkler, or see if a solution exists for your specific problem. Here's a quick overview
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Fire Pump Database
With the interest and feedback from the Sprinkler Database, it was only a matter of time before I expanded this into other areas. You may already have seen the Backflow Database, but now we have a beta version of a Fire Pump Database. 

With the fire pump database you can now search for fire pumps of various configurations, drivers, sizes, and then instantly link to CAD and Revit models, performance curves, website links, product data, and dimensions. The current beta version includes AC, Armstrong, and Aurora Fire Pumps.

All-inclusive Toolkit members can log in and use the database now.

Know a Contact for Patterson or Peerless?
If you work for or know a great contact for Patterson Fire Pumps and Peerless Fire Pumps, please let me know their contact information. I'm looking to partner with both of these companies to also help connect users to their products.

Toolkit Sale Through November 30th
Interested in getting the Toolkit and access to all of our tools? Join between now and Friday the 30th for $30 off your first year's subscription. Just use coupon code CYBER18 ​when you checkout here before Friday November 30th.

Lastly, if you're in the US, I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!

First, a big thank you to those who commented and emailed ideas and topics that contributed to the latest tool for this site - the Trapeze Calculator. 

Quick Calc
With only a few "knowns" (pipe diameter and schedule, and distances to nearest structure), you can now quickly calculate the section modulus that's required, visit options for the trapeze bar, and see these options schematically in a to-scale detail.

Multiple Pipes
Have multiple pipes on a trapeze? Calculate the section modulus required for each, add the two moduli together, and simply override the Section Modulus Required value below to see your options.

Get CAD Details
Want a CAD version of the detail? Sure thing - the downloadable All-Access Toolkit allows you to save and print these calculations as PDFs, which can then be imported directly into AutoCAD and use the ALIGN function to scale it to your drawing.

​Toolkit Users
Already a Toolkit user? Install the latest version from your dashboard to get the updates to this tool. No new activation code is necessary.

​Don't see the tool below? Try it out here - 

This site is all about finding ways to help you be the office hero with quick and helpful fire protection tools. 

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