I am going to go out on a limb and say "No" this should not require sprinklers within. Unfortunately, there is nothing absolute to back me up, at least in NFPA 13.
I would argue that the ceiling jet from a fire is not going to 'notice' such a narrow gap. Also, whatever amount of heat manages to 'escape' into this void space will quickly fill it, due to its miniscule volume. So I guess I would try to use reason and note that the ceiling pocket rules of NFPA 13 allow a volume of up to 1,000 cu. ft. this volume is less than 10% of that. But I think the small width of the gap is the bigger reason it won't affect the activation of the ceiling sprinklers. Those in the know may now feel free to rip apart my argument. Mark A. Sornsin, PE Fire Protection Engineer Ulteig Engineers, Inc. Fargo, ND -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ed Kramer Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 1:29 PM To: [email protected] Subject: small ceiling pockets Forum members, your opinions please! I've run into this twice this week: a small ceiling pocket that (per 13) requires sprinklers, but due to its size, it seems crazy to sprinkler it. The most recent is a curtain pocket along an exterior wall. In plan view, it's 25' long (entire length of wall) and the width varies from 4.5" to 13" (plan view area = 22 sf). The depth is 44". The volume = 81 cf. Since it's deeper than 36", there are no options to not sprinkler it. For a pocket this small, does it seem reasonable to require sprinklers? Did the fire modeling that was done prior to the 2002 edition of 13 consider small but deep pockets? Ed Kramer Littleton, CO _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
