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In 1999, was it permissible to install a check valve above a ceiling with no access?
For context, our condominiums were built in 1999. The main sprinkler system has an FDC connection in front of the buildings. There is a check valve installed above the ceiling in the first condos in each building, with no access. Was that ever permitted? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe
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Do gas-burning boilers require gas detection above them?
Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe I have two sets of fire pumps (electric - diesel), one with a discharge of 1000 gpm and a pressure of 160 psi (11 bar), and the other with a discharge of 750 gpm and a pressure of 115 psi (8 bar).
How are these supposed to be arranged if they're to be connected in parallel? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe Greetings. My house was built in 2014 and has a fire sprinkler system with heads rated at 175, orange CPVC pipe throughout the attic, and a riser in the garage.
When I bought the home, pressures on the gauge were typically in the 155 psi range. Recently, they have been spiking to 185 and above. My fire line and domestic line separate early, right after the city meter at the street. I installed a pressure relief valve, 175 psi, on the drain off the riser, and it has been dripping pretty constantly, about 1 drip every 10-20 seconds or so, depending on fluctuations in air temp. When the pressure spikes, it brings it down to 175 pretty quickly. My question is, would you recommend I have a fire professional come out and install a pressure-reducing valve? Is that something that would be installed prior to the riser? Thank you. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe Hi all, I am looking for the right method to deal with a decorative wood slatted (open baffle) ceiling similar to the attached images. The slats are relatively deep and closely spaced, installed below the structural ceiling. I’m trying to determine the correct sprinkler approach in accordance with NFPA 13. What's the best approach (or approaches) to locate sprinklers with baffles like this? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe  NFPA 13D calls for a minimum of 2 sprinklers to be hydraulic calculated.
It does not appear that NFPA 13D requires extra sprinklers to be calculated for a dry pipe system. Is this correct? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe Can ESFR sprinklers be used in a manufacturing building that is 63'-0" high to protect an Ordinary Group 2 occupancy?
NFPA 13 2022 14.2.7 allows the use of ESFR to cover OH2 and lower occupancies, but I believe that those occupancies are located in storage areas or are incidental to the storage being protected. FMDS 3-26 and 8-9 allow their use up to 100 ft, but they do not classify ESFR sprinklers the same as NFPA. Any thoughts? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe I have a campus housing situation with a few thousand reliable 3.9k heads that are no longer made, on 16x16 spacing, requiring 17 gpm and 19 psi per the cut sheet.
We are looking to replace these with 4.2k sprinklers, same 16x16 spacing, is 16 gpm and 14.5 psi per the cut sheet. Question is, I know the 4.2K falls just over the allowed 5% deviation, but these 4.2k sprinklers are more "efficient", so would they require running new hydraulic calcs to verify, or would it be safe to swap out as is? Thank you in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe Has anyone encountered unusually high and consistent static pressures in sprinkler systems where there is no visible fire pump?
I recently came across two examples that raised questions: - A riser in our major metro showing about 165 psi static pressure. - A five-story hotel with roughly 125 psi static pressure on every level, consistently throughout the building. In both cases, I searched extensively for a fire pump and could not find one. The buildings were on normal city water supplies, not private systems or campuses, and there was nothing obviously unusual about the sites. It made me wonder whether there are situations where some type of booster pump is being used for sprinkler systems without being readily identified as a traditional NFPA 20 fire pump? Or perhaps there is another explanation entirely. Has anyone else seen this? If so: - What was the situation? - Was there hidden pressure-boosting equipment involved? - Are there municipalities or systems where this is more common? - Or is there another explanation for maintaining these pressures throughout a building without a fire pump? Interested to hear what others have encountered. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe We've been called back for service work to a recent voice fire alarm system installation, where we found that the elementary school is using the voice fire alarm system as their public address system (announcements, etc).
Is there anything codewise that prohibits this? On one hand, it should allow the system to possibly become more reliable since they'll report outages right away; I'm mostly just concerned with less trained staff using fire alarm equipment and having messages come from speakers labeled as "FIRE ALARM." What are your thoughts on this? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe With POTS lines going away very soon, I'm seeing many companies switch to a "POTS in a Box."
Do these meet the NFPA 72 code requirements? I can't find much information about these devices. One thing I am finding is that they do not appear to be UL-listed. At what point does NFPA 72 stop regulating the communication method? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe Hi, have you encountered cases where the fire pump is more than 100 ft (30 m) away from the water storage tank (underground)?
I know this isn't ideal. What type of pump or setup do you suggest or recommend in this situation? Thank you. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe Is there a minimum height requirement of pipes in an underground parking garage?
Is that different than an ordinary occupiable space? My vehicle is 75.8 inches tall, for instance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe I have a DoW project with specifications that require the diesel fire pump flow meter to discharge both into the pump suction and through the test header. I don't have experience with this setup; in all my previous projects, the diesel fire pump discharged back to the water tank as well as to the test header. I understand that NFPA 20 allows this arrangement (see attached figure from the 2025 edition), but I'm curious how it works in practice for two main reasons: 1. If we close the tank valve during testing, the pump's suction pipe will receive considerable pressure. Will this repeated pressure adjustment after each test impact the longevity of the soft packing, particularly regarding increased water leakage? 2. How does a diesel fire pump cool its motor if the heat exchanger water isn't returned to the tank with fresh cool water coming in? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe  Do you have to protect the whole attic that has smoke partitions with fire sprinklers if only one area has gas-fueled equipment in it? Can you just protect the one area that has the fuel-fired equipment in it? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe  Clean agent system inspections for Department of Defense (DoD) buildings require UFC 3-601-02.
Should NFPA 2001 inspection requirements also be included? Looks as if the UFC 3-601-02 guidelines are more stringent than NFPA 2001, correct? Trying to sort this out, thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe We have a coffered ceiling with a 3" drop as per design, and we'd like to have the fire sprinkler drop down 3" automatically when activated.
Is there a product or technique that can be used for this? It's a high-end commercial space. Thanks in advance. Moderator's Note: Updated "Chauffeured" to "Coffered." Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe I am working on a new building in a rural area that will require sprinkler protection. There is no access to a public water supply, only a 30-100 gpm well on site.
Options for fire suppression water include pumping from a large farm pond 150 feet away or installing a 15,000-gallon water storage tank with a pump. Any thoughts on which option is more feasible and cost-effective, or any alternatives we're not considering? This is in a freezing climate. Thank you in advance! Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe Huge appreciation to the folks leading the charge this past month. Thank you to our top April 2026 Contributors!
I've got a high-rise project in a seismic zone higher than category C. We are required by IBC to have a secondary water supply other than the city supply (IBC 403.3.3). The structural team is pushing to not put the tank on the roof, and our site is extremely limited, so there is discussion about trying to bury the tank.
What pump/tank configurations are available for this situation? I am aware of either a concrete or fiberglass tank with a vertical turbine pump, but can you tie in the city supply to a vertical turbine submerged in a tank? Is there a way to appease this rule other than a secondary fire tank that I'm not thinking of? Thank you in advance for any help. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe I have an existing higher education laboratory suite (as defined by IFC) on the 8th floor that is used only for research (no instruction). The owner wants to store, and use in a closed system, liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen.
The MAQ for liquid oxygen is what I'm concerned about. Cryogenic oxidizing MAQ: 45 gallons (2021 IFC Table 5003.1.1(1)) > can be doubled because sprinklered building > must be reduced by 50% because it is a laboratory suite on a floor between (7-10 2021 IFC Table 3804.1.1). So we're at an MAQ of 45 gallons. The issue is that IFC 3803.2.1 states that the maximum container size for all hazardous materials must be 5.3 gallons. The most common dewars/cylinders for this application start at 42-43 gallons minimum, and that is what the owner has requested. It doesn't seem like there is a way around this requirement, though. The 2021 IFC is the adopted code by the jurisdiction. Do you see a path for compliance in this situation? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe There is a great debate in my office whether or not we are required to protect to the back of lower/upper cabinets.
NFPA 13 9.2.9.3 (2022) states that we need to cover the area below the cabinets to the back wall. Seems pretty straightforward to me, but someone in my office states that we only sprinkler floor space, without providing any code reference. Do we protect to the wall, or the face of the cabinet where only floor area is exposed? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe |
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