I'm did the research yesterday in FM 2-0 and in the AFSA informal interps, but I wanted to make sure I'm not missing something here...
Can I get a confirmation that you are still required to meet obstruction criteria for ESFR (storage) sprinkler heads even when they're being used to protect a non-storage occupancy? I see nothing in 2-0 about the use of storage sprinkler in non-storage occupancies, but I know that NFPA 13 covers this. I think that the listing criteria of the ESFR heads is what drives the obstruction rules, so these must be complied with to use the heads for say, a manufacturing occupancy. Backstory: we have a customer that is converting rack storage to manufacturing, and they're putting in a lot of cable trays for the machinery. Wide cable trays, double stacked cable trays, offset trays, etc. Nothing over 10 feet wide, but very full cable trays that almost always are over 2 feet wide. The building is about 24' high, and the trays will be down at 12' so plenty of clear space. The customer is FM insured, so we're giving them the option to either install barriers under the trays and space the roof-level sprinklers every 8 ft or to leave the barriers out and put the roof-level heads under the trays every 4 ft (and also following the maximum square footage allowances in FM 2-0 of course). Before I deliver this great news, I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss something in my reading of 2-0. I'm guessing, as well, that I can simply ignore the obstruction rules relating to the placement of obstructions over flue spaces and other storage-specific items. Thanks in advance for any assistance with this! Benjamin Young _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org
