The copper is at least 20 years old. I can see 3 places in the riser room ,
where there are leak patterns on the ceiling. The system control valve is
open. The pressure gauge is holding at 60 PSI, and the leak patterns are
dry. The leak seems to have stopped by itself, but I expect it to open
again later.
That will give me time to figure what is needed and how to accomplish the
goal of having a sprinkler system that will protect the occupants of the
house.
The owners of the property have approximately 85 or 90 group homes, most of
which have sprinkler systems. They have had problems with the copper piping
and tried to fix only the leaks. Their experience has been it is less
expensive to replace the copper with CPVC. As to their awareness of
problems with antifreeze, that is a question I have not addressed with them.
Nor have I talked to the city FM or the State FM about this building.
I like to have some solutions before I go to the AHJ.
We service about 16 of these group homes, 8 have problems with the sprinkler
systems. Finally, we may be allowed to do repairs, and upgrades.
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2014 6:49 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: copper pipe vs. CPVC
After watching this thread for a week and thinking about all the collateral
issues with plastic, my next step would be to go back to the owner and
question their motivation for the copper to plastic recommendation. It may
on the surface appear cheaper to just change copper to plastic, but properly
addressing all the issues associated with plastic may swing the deal back in
favor of repairing the leaks in the copper system. How old is the system?
Where is it leaking? How many leaks? Is there an obvious cause for the
leaks? Questions are cheap.
Mark at Aero
[email protected]
http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org
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