NFPA 13 Minimum Fire Sprinkler Spacing - Baffle

[NMCivil]

Hello, newly registered to the forum. I have a question regarding the minimum spacing of fire sprinklers (6') and the use of the baffle that is described in section 8.6.3.4.2. We have a pair of sprinklers that are approximately 4.5 feet apart. It appears as though a wall was intended to be installed between these sprinklers, but was left out for one reason or another. Our FPE is asking for a piece of sheet metal to hang from the suspended ceiling between these sprinklers. These are standard pendent sprinklers.

Does anyone have pictures of a fix for this situation? Or recommendations about what we should do? I'm concerned that 1) the sheet metal hanging from the ceiling won't meet the "solid and rigid material" requirement. 2) if installed at the midpoint between the sprinklers, the baffle will need to be substantially larger than the minimum 8"x6" and we could start having clearance concerns below the baffle.

The FPE also stated that anything closer than 4" to the sprinkler will be considered an obstruction.

Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.

 

[cdafd]

Yes normally a head cannot be closer than four inches to a wall.

Where are these sprinklers located in at ceiling level or in an attic??


Why not just respace or eliminate a head/heads and for get about the baffle

Only seen baffles in attics

 

[chicopee]

Removed the two heads and place a new one between the removed heads if the spacing between sprinkler heads is not substantially jeopardized.

 

[NMCivil]

Yes, these sprinklers are at ceiling level below a drop ceiling. The 1" pipe is located approximately 5" above the bottom of the ceiling tile. Unfortunately, there has been some push-back on relocating or eliminating heads (documentation, calculations, etc.). However, I believe some progress has been made with the powers that be that this is an acceptable solution and we'll likely shift things over a few inches and avoid the baffle issue entirely. Thanks for the sanity check!

 

[cdafd]

Heads are added, deleted, moved all the time , should normally not throw off clacs

 

[NMCivil]

cdafd,

I agree, others have taken some convincing.