Okay...I'll stick my head out to give an opinion...but please be aware that it's just an opinion to explain what the AHJ "may" be thinking.
We require sprinklers in houses exceeding 7500-sqft...so if the house is less than that, then sprinklers are not required...just like your AHJ has stated. Then consider the basement which is a pretty large open area. Using the older building codes, basements in commerical buildings were required to be sprinklered even if the actual building was not required to be sprinklered because the fire service has a big problem trying to fight a fire in the basement when the fire is spreading upward and they are trying to enter going downward. I'm not saying that I agree with him, but he may be worried about a fire in the basement that may be difficult to deal with...and therefore, install sprinklers in the basement OR cut it up into smaller sections. rick matsuda city of dallas -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Richard Mote Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2013 2:24 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: NFPA 13D or 13? The basement is basically on big open area with TJI's @ 16on LVL's (33 Sprinklers). The owner has a choice either install sprinklers or drywall the entire underside of the TJI's. The owner is looking at options. And after 10+ years of working in PA, my experience has been that logic does not always enter into the equation with some of the AHJ's Richard L. Mote Rowe Sprinkler Systems, Inc. 7994 Route 522, Suite 1 PO Box 407 Middleburg, PA 17842 P 570-837-7647 F 570-837-6335 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Todd Letterman Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2013 3:15 PM To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: NFPA 13D or 13? Wow! So much for life safety? Does the AHJ have a reason for this? Sent from my iPad > On Dec 5, 2013, at 12:11 PM, "Richard Mote" <[email protected]> wrote: > > I guess I will have to show my ignorance, I can count on one hand the number of 13D systems I have designed in the last 10 years. This project is a 13D single family custom home with a basement of 2746 sq. ft. the AHJ is requiring that the basement be sprinklered, but he isn't requiring the rest of the house to have sprinklers. Since this would normally be part of a 13D system do I just do a 2 head calculation and call it done? Or do I calculate a 900 sq. ft. area, per 13. (It does meet all the criteria for area reduction) My thinking is that even though the basement could be protected per 13D if the entire house was covered, since this is a special requirement by the AHJ I should calculate per 13. BTW the 2007 codes are the applicable standards at this time. The owner is going to have to install tanks and a pump so the difference in demand is a big deal. > > > Richard L. Mote CET > Rowe Sprinkler Systems, Inc. > 7994 Route 522, Suite 1 > PO Box 407 > Middleburg, PA 17842 > P 570-837-7647 > F 570-837-6335 > > _______________________________________________ > Sprinklerforum mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler .org _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler .org _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler .org _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org
