A crawlspace comprising of a wood deck, 16" deep TJI's and open space below the TJI's. Between the TJI's there is batt insulation, kept in place with wire mesh attached to the bottom flanges of the TJI's. The insulation is only couple of inches (approx) thick and doesn't fill the entire TJI space. The crawlspace is 1 foot deep at the perimeter and 4 feet at the centre of the building. The depth is from bottom of the TJI's to the ground. The crawlspace is being sprinklered.
Questions: (1) Are the pockets formed by the TJI's and insulation have to be sprinklered? If there was no insulation, the sprinklers could be below the bottom of the TJI's due to obstructed construction. The pockets are less than 160 cuft in volume, but there is no non-combustible or limited combustible ceiling at the bottom. Just non-combustible insulation and wire mesh. My opinion is the insulation can be ignored. The sprinklers will be at the permitted distance below the deck, so the pockets don't have to be sprinklered and the 3000 sq.ft. design is not required. Anyone disagree? (2) The height below the bottom of the TJI's vary from 1 foot to 4 feet. Are combustible concealed space sprinklers required? (using NFPA 13, 2007) I don't think it will be a good design to have them only at the perimeter and standard heads at the centre. Section 8.15.1.7 states that the listed sprinklers are "permitted" to be used to protect composite wood joist construction less than 36" "between the top of the bottom joists and bottom of the upper jpists". (In other words the depth of the TJI's. Could this be a mistake, as the TYCO cut sheets show this distance from the bottom of the TJI's to the ceiling). In anycase, it appears that the listed heads don't have to be used for composite wood joist construction, due to the use of the word "permitted". Anyone agree/disagree? Sub-questions: (3) If the construction was combustible wood truss or joists, the listed sprinklers may have to be used, depending on the height of the space. What happens when the height varies such as in my case? (4) NFPA imposes the requirement of cc sprinklers depending on the depth of the space. However, Tyco imposes other restrictions, such as maximum 54" from deck to deck for solid wood joist consruction. What happens if Tyco requirements are not met, and the listed heads are required by NFPA? Tony _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
