What is a Standpipe System?

MeyerFire University | FX001.05

By Joe Meyer, PE

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TRANSCRIPT

What is a standpipe system? 

Technically what we're talking about today is a “fire” standpipe system since standpipes could mean other things if you’re in mechanical or plumbing design.  

However to me it always feels awkward saying “fire standpipes” it's much more natural just to call them standpipe systems.  

Plus fire protection people are cooler anyways, so there’s that. 

With that disclaimer out of the way - what is a standpipe system? 

A standpipe system is a fixed network of pipes that allows water to travel through a structure and provide ready access for manual firefighting. 

Standpipes connect a source to hose connections in a building, where a firefighter can connect their attack hose and suppress a fire. 

The pipes within the standpipe system are usually 4-inch or 6-inch in diameter and are completely interconnected throughout a building. 

 A standpipe may or may not be connected to a water supply, may or may not be connected to the sprinkler system, and can have pressure and flow available to firefighters from the building or only through a pumper truck. 

Standpipes start from a water source.  

That source could be a firetruck connected to a hydrant. 

In this scenario, the pumper truck provides flow and pressure through hoses into the fire department connection and into the standpipe system.  

Or that source could be connected to a city water grid and a building fire pump where the flow and pressure are provided automatically without any firetruck intervention.  

In the first case, we would consider this standpipe a manual standpipe system.  

In the later case, where pressure and flow are automatically available to firefighters without their intervention, we would consider that an automatic standpipe. 

We'll discuss this in much more detail in future videos, but the other major descriptor is whether a standpipe system is wet or dry. 

A wet standpipe system features a pipe network where the inside of the pipe is normally water-filled.  

A dry standpipe system of course is then when the inside of the pipe is normally dry. 

These two main types are independent from one another.  

We could have a manual wet standpipe, automatic wet standpipe, a manual dry standpipe, an automatic dry standpipe or even a semi-automatic dry standpipe.  

We’ll get into this in a whole lot more detail but for now that's an overview of what a standpipe system is. 

I'm Joe Meyer, this is MeyerFire University.