"Sure it's a Fire Wall" & My Top 6 Misnomers

4/1/2018

Please don't take me to be an elitist.

I know what you’re thinking – yeah, right – this chump is from St. Louis and he’s not full of himself!?

It’s true I was raised in and have since circled back to St. Louis, Missouri. If you've heard of St. Louis it's probably because we're the most dangerous city in Missouri, or the Midwest, or the world or something. It's really not that bad if you don't have kids or go outside after sunset.

The other knock on St. Louis is that we're secretly wishing we were Chicago and, in terms of self-inflated ego, consider ourselves the last city on the East Coast.

Yeah that's also true.

While I am proud of our baseball team and beer production, please don't take me to be an elitist.

For instance, if you and I are talking fire protection and you use any of the following common wrong terms, I won't correct you. I don't even see a need to correct any of these terms, but I do find it interesting that several slightly incorrect phrases have been so pervasive in the fire protection industry.

Here’s my top list of misnomers in fire protection:

6. "Semi-Recessed" Sprinklers

I mentioned that I don't try and correct terms. The "semi-recessed" sprinkler is the reason I don't.

I had some very knowledgeable and technical counterparts in a prior role that were driven a little crazy with the term "semi-recessed".

A sprinkler can be concealed (only coverplate showing), can be fully-exposed pendent, or it can be recessed (deflector located closer to the ceiling as to show less).

If you consider a concealed sprinkler to be "fully-recessed," then I understand the logic that gets us to the "semi-recessed" designation.

However, some read "semi-recessed" a redundant term along the lines of "we want this partially exposed, but only partially." Putting the semi- is asking for partial of the partial.

5. Goose Necks

“Fire sprinkler return bend” is not as much fun as saying "goose neck," yet the two terms are synonymous for fire sprinkler systems. Of any of the odd or misappropriated terms in fire protection this one is the least offensive and is technically not even a misnomer.

That being said, three sticks of pipe and a couple elbows off a pipe outlet just doesn't scream goose to me...

The Goose Neck, also known as a fire sprinkler return bend.

4. Everything Is Awesome... and apparently is a Fire Wall

I enjoy working with architects. I do, and I'm not just saying that because my mortgage depends upon their continued blessing.

One requirement I'm convinced is part of the architect licensing is to call any rated separation a “Fire Wall.”

Fire Barrier, Fire Partitions, Smoke Barrier? Nope.

If it's not a rated wall that extends through the entire building and allows structural collapse on either side, it's probably not a Fire Wall and is more than likely a Fire Barrier. If it’s a separation wall in I-1 or some residential occupancies, tenant space separation, corridor walls, elevator lobbies, or egress balconies it may even only be a Fire Partition.

3. Spelling the "E" word

I never won a spelling bee as a child, but I'm confident enough I don't often run spellcheck.

My run as an ever-confident fire protection engineer ended when a peer review from another firm pointed out my incorrect spelling of "escutcheon". I'd like to pretend it was a one-off instance, but the misspelling was in a standard detail I had created and had been using for a couple years. Swing and a miss.

Es-cutch-eon: a flat piece of metal for protection or covering around a hole or void. And a tough one to spell.

2. Fully-Sprinkled Building

Your preschooler's dream: a fully-sprinkled building.

This one can be a little hard to spot, but did you notice there’s an “er” missing in this term?

When it happens I just imagine raining sprinkles through a building. Sounds tasty, but have you ever tried sprinkles plain? Not good.

1. Sprinkler Head

Lastly, this is the big one.

In the origins of fire sprinkler systems, a "sprinkler head" was a designation to the device that forced water distribution at the tip of the system.

Over 100 years later the fire sprinkler is still around, but the sprinkler has since adapted to the name "sprinkler" in lieu of "sprinkler head".

A sprinkler head.

Need evidence? It takes NFPA 13, the leading authority on fire sprinkler systems, 22 chapters before even mentioning the term "sprinkler head", and even then uses the term in talking about cabinet installation for nitrate film protection. Hardly a reining endorsement or common usage of the term.

In fact, Chapter 22 is the only chapter that even uses the term "sprinkler head". All other references are to the "sprinkler" or "fire sprinkler" throughout the entire standard.

What's the beef with using the term "sprinkler head"? Well, sprinklers don't have heads. They have frames and deflectors, but no heads. Besides, a whole lot of peeping “heads” throughout a building would just be creepy.

Hollywood already does our industry enough disservice, we don't need people thinking there's heads in the sprinklers, right?

Have you come across any of these? What are your pet peeves? Comment here.

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Dave L.

4/4/2018 11:37:42 am

THANK YOU! I've been feeling all alone, being the only one for years cringing at the term "sprinkler head." Many, many years ago I read that" sprinkler head" is not correct, but I have never been able to find that source again. And I cannot bring anyone to my side. I believe I have seen an instance where the term crept into an NFPA edition, and was promptly removed by the next edition. I mean, not TIA, but removed later. I'm surprised is still exists in Chapter 22.
I am fascinated by what I think may be regional terms. I was originally taught the term shaped nipples, and later got used to the term groove-o-lets. It might be a myth, but someone once told me "back east we cal them grooved-stubbies."
Thanks for encouraging sprinkler geekery, and for validating my stance on "sprinkler heads."

Naseer Pasha link

4/4/2018 12:45:48 pm

Yeah, "Sprinkler Head" part in the article is good and interesting one. Never observed it only appears in Chapter 22 only! If Sprinkler is called a Sprinkler Head, a Nozzle also shall be called a Nozzle Head, isn't it? Very nice article for lighter side reading on fire protection. Thanks and keep writing.

Eric Neill

4/4/2018 05:22:51 pm

Unfortunately many names and terms for things go back to prior to the discovery of fire. How many Latin terms are used and that language has been dead for centuries. Plumbers came before sprinkler fitters. They stole all the sexual names so they could remember when women were not allowed in the trades. "Square and plumb" and "pitch to drain" we're taught during apprenticeship. They still have trouble with round buildings and sloping floors/roofs. Even monkeys do not know what a monkey wrench is.

Over time new products required new piping methods. As the needs for specialist training and manufacturer instructions complicated any naming criteria for the standards and codes, the old names hung around to identify the tradesmen and the new names were used by the technicians and college graduates. It was hard for them to communicate with uncommon words so pictures in the form of drawings came into use as ammonia processed light treated paper changed from yellow to blue while your eyes were closed from the sting and burned nostrils cringed with desire to escape the fumes.

By the time blueprints were common for describing what to do, even though much was never shown, big corporations controlling the economy schemed to build fast small computers connected to large paper roll printers that can pour out plans with mistakes faster than you can think up what to draw.

Robots assemble many products and they cannot read the Cad drawings any better than people. Does "upright" mean deflector on top or thread on top?

So all of this confusion with terms and spelling do not matter in England. They use conventional sprinklers to avoid the which side is up question. You can always move there if you want to stop worrying about which end is up. But you might have to worry about driving on the wrong side of the road and how to get out of a roundabout at the motorway. And learning English again.

Michele Rivarola

4/15/2018 08:00:35 am

All industries have their peculiarities and the term gooseneck is not unique to the sprinkler industry to indicate a pipe configuration with planes of adjustment simply because the neck of a goose is capable of similar movement. Of all the idiosyncrasies you refer to this is must be least offensive one and surely not even worthy of the mention. There are far worse misnomers in the fire protection industry which for some reason find no mention in your list, not least of all the permeability of water curtains

Gregory Bartels

4/17/2018 07:56:48 am

Good article. As a fitter and educator in the industry, I run into these a lot. I have heard industry vets call sprinklers "heads", or "sprinkler heads".
I have heard return bends described also as "mutuals", (maybe they had to install them on a factory mutual project?), "swing joints", etc.
I think one commenter nailed it, though. We have the field, who is educated from the school of hard knocks, but not necessarily concerned with the correct technical description, use terms in the field that make perfect sense to them, and the terms accurately describe it from their point of view. And we have the engineering community , which are concerned with using the correct term, to add credibility and ensure that there is no question that they know what the item is for, and there is no confusion on what they are talking about. I think that there is always going to be the two "languages", translations will have to be made. and both groups will continue to influence the other's, and meet somewhere in the middle.

Michael Venneri

6/27/2018 03:06:26 pm

I have edited this term for years to delete head. I have said unless it is in the definition in NFPA 13 or any pother NFPA Standard, it is not a legitimate definition for a sprinkler. I stand by that now and forever, or until it appears in the definitions..

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"Sure it's a Fire Wall" & My Top 6 Misnomers

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