To all;
This is not a question in reference to NFPA; however a cry for help to the industry. Does anyone else run into this? We prepare shop drawings with calculations for every project, and for some projects seismic design shop drawings with calculations. Here in TN (although this scenario has happened on projects outside of TN as well) we have the standard of care, which means there are to be fire protection intent drawings created by a registered design professional as part of the original construction documents and when we complete our shop drawings/calculations that registered design professional shall review them for acceptance and stamp them. What we run into at random is what we believe is a misinterpretation of the code (IBC for instance) and it gets put into the specifications for the project; It is interpreted as our shop drawings have to be stamped AND SEALED by an engineer and this is getting applied to the seismic design specifications now as well. The fire protection contractors that do not catch this or overlook it, as we did years ago, end up having to hire (at their expense) a registered engineer so they can provide sealed drawings/calculations, even though there is one already on record for the project. Then you run into the problem of the need for the engineer to create the drawings and calculations themselves due to the fact they cannot seal anything they did not create. Now more time, coordination and costs are incurred by the fire protection contractor. We have added an exclusion in our base bid letter for the cost of providing an engineers seal on our shop drawings and calculations for a couple of years now and just revised it to exclude that same cost on seismic design and calculations, as we are seeing this requirement in specifications more frequently. It is our interpretation that each project shall have a registered design professional to set the standard for the project and that professional shall review our shop drawings and calculations for acceptance with a stamp; not a true need for a SEALED set. Every time we ask the question to the design professionals for the project they can't tell us where it came from other than this is what is required per code and will not listen to our argument/explanation. Somehow, if our interpretation is correct, we need to get this amended to be clear to all. Thank you, Bobby Gillett Sr. Project Manager Key Fire Protection, Inc. (731) 424-0130 office (731) 424-9285 fax (731) 267-4853 cell <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/private/sprinklerforum/attachments/20110824/710401d4/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://fireball.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum
