Nothing in NFPA about Operable (swinging) glass doors!

[kayfactor]

Hi All,

I am trying to work out how to fire protect glass walls, and in my case a glass wall enclosed with glass doors, which swing. I cant seem to find anything in NFPA.
What I have got so far is to protect with sidewall sprinklers above the glass door.

NFPA 101 says to have sprinklers on both side of glass walls, what about in case of glass door do we need any ?
N.B
the glass is not fire rated, hence use of wet sprinklers.

 

[cdafd]

Which building code are you using?

I would say the door does not fall under the exception
And has to meet opening protection requirement.

 

[cdafd]

Is this an atrium or something else??

I take if there was a true wall there it would have to be rated??

 

[TravisMack]

I have run into this in the past. You need a rated wall/opening and the architect has chosen to do glass wall and glass door to aesthetic reasons.

The Tyco WS sprinklers have an 8' maximum spacing if I recall correctly. As such, you can typically locate the sprinkler just outside of the door swing, but still be able to protect the glass. The WS sprinklers are ugly and must protrude down, but if the architect wants that glass wall/door, they are going to have to accept the Tyco WS with the deflector 2" below the top of the glass.

Travis Mack
MFP Design, LLC

http://www.mfpdesign.com

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[cdafd]

The glass door appears to be allowed in the 2012 IBC, but this wording is not in 2009 or earlier?

Exception: A fire barrier is not required where a glass wall forming a smoke partition is provided. The glass wall shall comply with all of the following:


1. Automatic sprinklers are provided along both sides of the separation wall and doors, or on the room side only if there is not a walkway on the atrium side. The sprinklers shall be located between 4 inches and 12 inches (102 mm and 305 mm) away from the glass and at intervals along the glass not greater than 6 feet (1829 mm). The sprinkler system shall be designed so that the entire surface of the glass is wet upon activation of the sprinkler system without obstruction;
1.1. The glass wall shall be installed in a gasketed frame in a manner that the framing system deflects without breaking (loading) the glass before the sprinkler system operates; and

"""1.2. Where glass doors are provided in the glass wall, they shall be either self-closing or automatic-closing.""