Sprinkler Protection for Large Boxed Furniture?

5/1/2020

There are restoration companies like Servpro that store furniture in large boxes in warehouses (some are wood and some are metal) for restoration. I have been told that the boxes are considered temporary since the items are restored and then moved back into the facility where it came from, but they can still be in the warehouse for months packed with all types of furniture.

NFPA 13, 2016 Table A.5.6 specifically lists "Storage container- Large container storage of household goods" as an example of a commodity that is not addressed by NFPA 13. I'm not intentionally picking on servpro because there are other companies like this, but servpro happens to be a popular one in my area so this is the example being used.

See an example of wooden storage boxes in the warehouse here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiyPxTr2Tgg

1) Has anyone else protected an occupancy similar to this and can provide some insight? Do the boxes need to have sprinklers dropped in them while they are in the warehouse?

2) If this situation does fall into the "Large storage containers" not addressed by NFPA 13, does anyone know what standard I can utilize to adequately protect this space?

I appreciate any feedback.

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sean

5/1/2020 11:15:00 am

you would not put sprinkler inside the wood boxes.

I would treat it as cartoned expanded plastic unless they can provide you additional information. Go for the worse case.

Noah Koski

5/1/2020 11:52:33 am

I sent this situation NFSA's "Expert of the day" service for their opinion and their unofficial interpretation is that this does fall into Table A.5.6 for examples of commodities that are not addressed by NFPA 13. The recommended solution in this situation would be to consult a Fire Protection Engineer for guidance to come up with a protection criteria that is acceptable to the AHJ since it is not addressed by any NFPA or FM Global standards at this time. Apparently this was discussed with PODs storage and there were plans of doing large scale testing of large storage containers stacked up to four units high in 2018, but I haven't been able to find anyone about it.

Sean how do you figure this should be protected as cartoned expanded plastic?

5/1/2020 03:58:49 pm

I am looking at what I would expect to see in the wood crate. That would be some form of group A plastics (between modern furniture, and we have in our houses today). Glancing at NFPA 13 2016 table A.5.6.1.1 under group a plastics they have examples of just plastics or mixed materials. If people are storing furniture and house hold goods you would expect it to be a mix, but you never know so I would assume someone is storing a full container of cushions or all plastic parts,etc. The next column specifically calls out wooden crates. This differs from PODs they use a metal container and why testing would be warrented. So half way down you get the following:

material used to construct product:
Entirely expanded Group A
plastic
packaging material:
Corrugated cartons, wooden
crates, or wood boxes, with or
without internal plastic
packaging
pallet material:
None, metal, wood, or plastic
commodity class:
Cartoned expanded Group A
plastic

Is it perfect no but i think it takes into account enough information that an experienced designer and fire protection staff can agree to the commodity classification.

Mike

5/1/2020 12:43:07 pm

Go for the worst case. No one can fault you for that.

I've done Storage reports where the contractor used the smallest pipes and valves for the minimum and when a new occupant rented the warehouse, there was no capacity for his storage arrangements.

He used a 4" UG lateral, 3" riser in a 40' tall tilt up.

Occupant had to power his racks one level.

CYA

Franck

5/4/2020 04:53:04 am

By looking on the youtube video you provided, I don't think that your commodity falls into the "large storage containers" (just like the one you send overseas on large boats), but is indeed "stuff stored inside wooden boxes".
As indicated by Sean, I would consider the worst case commodity (and a class IV in all cases, as a minimum, if you take the chance of having not only boxes full of plastic).
All the more since you will have high probabilities to have the worst case commodity inside, based on the principle of storage.
As a tip, when choosing the right design density by using the curves with NFPA (if you go for a class I to IV...), I would look for a large area of application (not trying to have the density for 2000 sq ft, but rather for 3000 sq ft). This is because you will have larger boxes than just goods stored on pallets. The fire could also develop inside the box, being protected from the ceiling sprinkler protection and affect a larger area when it breaks out.
The good news is that because of the wooden boxes (which is thicker than small wooden boxes or cardboard boxes), the fire may be controlled by wetting the outside of the neighboring boxes before it can spread inside...
The bad news is the difficulty to have space between the boxes to enable the water to go down to the ground. Thus the larger area of application.
Don't consider to provide sprinklers inside the boxes. This is not practical and will never be done.
And what about the clearance inside your box and chances to damage the sprinkler heads while packing stuff inside. No to speak about the nightmare to connect your sprinkler inside the box to a fix sprinkler piping and the difficulty when you will pack boxes one over the others.

5/4/2020 06:03:57 am

I found a great article on the SFPE page that covers this topic really well.

https://www.sfpe.org/page/2006_Q1_2/Warehouse-Sprinkler-Design-Configurations-Not-Covered-by-NFPA-13.htm

Sprinkler Protection for Large Boxed Furniture?

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