Rich, thanks for pointing out the caveat. The last warehouse I got to do was in Bedrock, near Fred and Wilma's place. I see auto vents are allowed under certain conditions-- I guess we use the same curves as no vents though. Is that what caveat means-- I have been meaning to look that one up? Brad Ps- it will take some time to read the report- DUH! Who knew you had to download a pdf 1st?- I'm glad I had hard copy before I would have felt ungreen to have it.
-----Original Message----- From: Richardson, R [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, November 05, 2010 12:36 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: smoke vents for retrofit Seattle has many warehouse buildings legally built that have no vents and in many cases no sprinklers. We are allowing such buildings to continue w/o vents when they have a "good" sprinkler system, particularly if a previously unsprinklered building was being sprinklered. This is based on the FM test showing a negative affect on sprinklers in storage occupancies with vents opening. I have not had time to read the NIST report you reference in detail, but on the surface that report does not seem to dispute the FM analysis at all. That reports seemed to have a different purpose than the FM test, I suspect the purpose of this report was to sell the "value" of vents to code committees, whereas FM simply wants to have effective sprinkler systems. I assume you have seen the caveat in the NFPA 13 storage section where it says that these criteria are based on no vents in the building. Rich Richardson Seattle Fire Department -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris Cahill Sent: Friday, November 05, 2010 09:36 To: [email protected] Subject: RE: smoke vents for retrofit I'd say it depends. If it was in full compliance with the Code before you add sprinklers I'd say no the sprinklers are above and beyond the MINIMUM of the Code. If it was not in compliance then maybe. I'd say it needs to be brought up to Code in all respects. Some scenarios require both sprinklers and smoke control, others just sprinklers. Look in Chapter 1 for applicability that I believe is what is the guiding Code section. If it is existing HPS and doesn't have smoke control I'd be first guessing it was not in compliance when built (or changed to HPS). Chris Cahill -----Original Message----- From: Matt Grise [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 2:53 PM To: '[email protected]' Subject: smoke vents for retrofit If an existing building is retrofit with an area/density system to protect high piled storage, does it need to have smoke vents and draft curtains added as described in the IFC, or is that just new construction? I looked around in the IFC/IBC/IEBC books, but I could not find anything that would exempt the vents and curtains. Does anyone recall any way to avoid them (other than ESFR)? Matt Grisé PE*, LEED AP Sales Engineer Alliance Fire Protection *Licensed in KS & MO 913.888.0647 ph 913.888.0618 f 913.927.0222 cell www. AFPsprink.com _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.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) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.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) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.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)
