• Welcome to the new and improved Building Code Forum. We appreciate you being here and hope that you are getting the information that you need concerning all codes of the building trades. This is a free forum to the public due to the generosity of the Sawhorses, Corporate Supporters and Supporters who have upgraded their accounts. If you would like to have improved access to the forum please upgrade to Sawhorse by first logging in then clicking here: Upgrades

damage avoidance

ICE

Oh Well
Joined
Jun 23, 2011
Messages
12,854
Location
California
There is a project that is required to retrofit a 13D system because an addition of an 860 sq ft. entry is pushing the total sq ft. over 5000 sq. ft. and the dwelling is located in a high fire hazard zone. The house was built in the early 1900's. Really an opulent abode. High ceilings with lath and plaster finishes.

There is an attic that has sufficient headroom to crawl without too much effort. The fire dept. captain states that they will not enter the attic under any circumstances and the ceilings have to come down to expose the sprinkler pipe for inspection. An offer to provide video and pictures was declined by the captain. The inspector will take a call tomorrow to discuss the issue further.

I have been in hundreds of attics for furnace inspections. There is always a catwalk and one would be provided for the fire inspector. I found it amazing that the fire guys would make people do this and hard to believe that they get away with it.

I'm thinking that the next time I have to inspect a furnace for a fireman....sorry about that chief but it's in an attic...I guess you'll have to remove the roof.
 
Wow, what an unfortunate attitude presented by the Fire Marshall. The cost of the retrofit may have been a tough pill to swallow, then throw at them that the ceilings must be removed.

Any opportunity of hiring a third party private inspector? Is the FM aware that a catwalk would be provided?
 
There is a project that is required to retrofit a 13D system because an addition of an 860 sq ft. entry is pushing the total sq ft. over 5000 sq. ft. and the dwelling is located in a high fire hazard zone. The house was built in the early 1900's. Really an opulent abode. High ceilings with lath and plaster finishes.

There is an attic that has sufficient headroom to crawl without too much effort. The fire dept. captain states that they will not enter the attic under any circumstances and the ceilings have to come down to expose the sprinkler pipe for inspection. An offer to provide video and pictures was declined by the captain. The inspector will take a call tomorrow to discuss the issue further.

I have been in hundreds of attics for furnace inspections. There is always a catwalk and one would be provided for the fire inspector. I found it amazing that the fire guys would make people do this and hard to believe that they get away with it.

I'm thinking that the next time I have to inspect a furnace for a fireman....sorry about that chief but it's in an attic...I guess you'll have to remove the roof.


Start climbing the ladder truck,

Talk to his boss and keep going till you find intelligent life
 
Will have to look at 13 D inspection requirements!!!

Not much to see except pipe and clamps, kind of not needed inspection in the attic

Anyway as much as I hate attics I would at least stick my head in the access and look around, than decide if I wanted to go further.


I wonder if it is just this attic or all attics, the inspector will not go in???
 
And most of us are doing some type of remote video inspection these days.....Send a monkey up there with a camera and he would be more helpful than that FM.....
 
This is a perfect example of someone's ego getting in the way of their objective. The objective of the fire department is improved fire safety. In order to achieve this objective, the captain simply needs to perform an inspection in an attic. I don't think I'm too off base on an assumption that we have all probably done this in our careers. Some of us even with a policy to the contrary.
 
Use air to verify all drops are connected. Then attach the sprinklers and pressure test. If so pass it and move on. No need to get in the attic, as stated before, flash light and stick head in and look around.
 
I don't know. At least one and there is a furnace in the attic. The general contractor will be providing more details.

What type of system is required? NFPA 13, 13R, or 13D?

I'd imagine that full NFPA 13 system is not required. A 13R or 13D is much more common for a SFD. Typically neither a 13R nor 13D have to sprinkle the attic space.

Here is a great summary of the differences in the system types.

https://www.meyerfire.com/blog/summary-of-differences-in-nfpa-13-13r-13d
 
The water has to go through the pipe to get to the sprinkly things.

Pipe is in the attic
Gee... thanks for the clarification?

What are you trying to tell me? The point of my post was to clarify that depending upon the type of system (13, 13R, or 13D), sprinklers may or may not be required in the attic itself. Obviously the piping is assumed to be run in that attic.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cda
Top