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Warm Storage for snow plows

R

retire09

Silver Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2010
Messages
365
Location
Alaska
We need a 20,000sf heated building to store snow removal equipment in the winter.

I would consider this to be an S-2 commercial parking garage and would require sprinklers when over 5,000sf.

Sprinklers in this area are a very costly item and I am trying to find a way to justify construction without fire suppression.

The bottom line is; we need to keep this equipment warm and ready thru the winter and sprinklers are a deal breaker.

How can we make this work without throwing the code book out the door?
 
Has the cost of the sprinkler system been weight against the replacement cost of the equipment stored inside and the ecomnic loss to the community broght on by the loss of cleared streets.

if you want to elimantate sprinkers then build 4 seperat buildings with sufficant space in between them, or install block heater and ice scrapers and park the trucks outside at least 20 feet form each other.
 
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Sounds like 4 bays with separation wall between them

Or call it a "U"?????
 
Putting all of the equipment in one unsprinklered building is a big risk of losing the fleet, divide into 5000 sq ft fire areas with 2 hour fire separation walls or sprinkler.

If you lost the fleet to a fire in the winter, what would the replacement time be? What would those costs be?

Calling it a U would not make the sprinkler requiremetn go away as you have to treat it as to what is most closely resembles.
 
retire09 said:
The bottom line is; we need to keep this equipment warm and ready thru the winter and sprinklers are a deal breaker.
Click to expand...
Crankcase heaters and ear muffs
 
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I would ask what is the fire department doing? Do they have a fire sprinkler system where they park their fire trucks?
 
We just completed a 36,000 sq ft building for the same use last fall. It is fully sprinklered. When you look at risk management and replacement of equipment it's better to wait until the budget can accommodate the additional cost. Our insurance carrier also likes it and they will adjust the rate accordingly. We also installed a fire detection system. Again part of a good risk management plan.
 
How can we make this work without throwing the code book out the door?
Click to expand...
If sprinklers are out then the only close alternative to consider could be 2-3 hr. fire rated separation and monitored detection as a reasonable solution.

We have had (3) various county plow equipment storage facilities 20K+ burn down here in Michigan over the last 3 years.
 
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