Sprinkler heads

[aaclevy]

Normally work with mechanical, refrigeration and computer systems engineering...

Need to know what I should be looking for with a 1910 building with a sprinkler system installed. It had a roof leak in one spot for a while that damaged plaster and floor / subfloor but seems to have left all other systems uncompromised.


This is a five story building with elevator access to four. Not sure of the age of the system, only have had preliminary walk throughs.

It used to be a department store in North Carolina. Looking to convert to Residential over office space / retail / data center / night club.

What are some things I should be checking on the sprinkler system? Should I arrange pressure tests / sprinkler head tests?

 

[aaclevy]

Also - there is an open starwell that goes to all floors - no firewalls near the stairwell. Will we need to add a firestop wall / fire door to the residential floor / other floors? There is a door to the next door neighbor's roof already to provide an escape location, but no way to stop fumes / heat from coming straight up to the residential floor. (single unit per floor, ~3000 ft per floor.)

 

[cdafd]

1. Hire a fire protection to help with the fire sprinkler system review and construction details.

2. Find out what year the fire sprinkler was installed.

3. The sprinkler heads in the residential area will be required to be changed out to residential heads.

4. The fire sprinkler system will be required to be hydraulically calculated

5. You will have a big mixed occupancy,need to figure out if it can happen

What building code and edition is the project under ??[pre][/pre]

 

[LCREP]

As CDA said hire a sprinkler contractor, get 3 bids and see what they say. The NFPA standard to follow is 25 for care and maintenance and 13 for installation or any upgrades. You can buy the codes at

http://www.NFPA.org.

Reach out to your local code official and start a relationship, sounds like you will be seeing a lot of each other.

Is the sprinkler system in service, if not air test for leakes. The age of the sprinklers should be on the sprinkler, the entire date or the last 2 digest so 1910 you may see just 10. Any sprinklers mfg before 1920 have the replaced. If they were installed after 1920 they will need to be tested, follow below as per NFPA 25.

An internal investigation of the pipe needs to be done again as per 25. The end pipe on each branch line will most likely be 3/4", they maybe clogged with junk. You may need to replace the pipes with 1". They stopped using 3/4" pipe in 1942 to give you an idea how things have changed!

5.3.1.2* A representative sample of sprinklers for testing per 5.3.1.1.1 shall consist of a minimum of not less than four sprinklers or 1 percent of the number of sprinklers per individual sprinkler sample, whichever is greater.
5.3.1.3 Where one sprinkler within a representative sample fails to meet the test requirement, all sprinklers within the area represented by that sample shall be replaced.