Travis,
Someone needs to determine if the "fire walls" are IBC free standing
fire walls, if the fire walls are free standing building separation
walls then the building is to be considered as separated buildings and
not "overall building" a term that can influence someone to considered
the building as a single building with fire separation walls. The IBC
regards a fire wall to be as defined in Section 706- Fire Walls.
"Paragraph 706.1 General. Each portion of a building separated by one or
more fire walls that comply with the provisions of this section shall be
considered a separate building. The extent and location of such fire
walls shall provide a complete separation. Where a fire wall separates
occupancies that are required to be separated by a fire barrier wall,
the most restrictive requirements of each separation shall apply.
706.2 Structural stability. Fire walls shall be designed and constructed
to allow collapse of the structure on either side without collapse of
the wall under fire conditions. Fire walls designed and constructed in
accordance with NFPA 221 shall be deemed to comply with this section.
Table 706.4 defines the required fire wall rating the majority of
occupancy use groups require a three hour rated construction, the design
professional will need to define the classification of the wall. Is the
wall a fire wall? FIRE WALL. A fire-resistance-rated wall having
protected
openings, which restricts the spread of fire and extends continuously
from the foundation to or through the roof, with sufficient structural
stability under fire conditions to allow collapse of construction on
either side without collapse of the wall."
Section 707 defines Fire Barrier Wall requirements as occupancy
separation walls, sub-dividing fire areas and are not used as building
separation walls.
Section 708 defines Fire Partitions.
The registered design professional will need to define the wall types
not the sprinkler contractor.
Have a fire safe day!
Regards
Jim
DAVIDSON ASSOCIATES
Fire Protection Engineering P. O. Box 4002
Code Consultants Greenville, DE 19807
(302) 994-9500
Fax (302) 994-3414
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-----Original Message-----
From: Sprinklerforum
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Travis Mack, SET
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2015 11:46 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: building broken into smaller areas
We have a project where the overall building is broken into separate
buildings with the use of fire walls to create the area separations.
As these are "separate buildings," am I correct to assume that you can
have one of these protected via NFPA 13 and the others per NFPA 13R? We
have a project with "five" buildings under one roof. They have the fire
walls going all the way through to create the area separations. It
seems in Building 1, the architect is using the sprinkler allowance to
get the floor area (24k sq ft with Type V-A construction). Bldgs 2-5
are all under the 12k sq ft for Type V-A construction.
The other issue to question is fire area and required fire flows. If
Bldg 1 is protected with a 13 system, I can apply the sprinklered
building reduction and get our fire flows into what is required. This
particular AHJ will only all a 50% reduction in fire flows, and only for
a 13 system. 13R gets no reduction. The other buildings have a site
fire flow requirement that is consistent with our flow test, without any
reductions.
Basically, I am looking for opinions to see if this reasoning makes
sense. Yes, there should be an FPE involved, but unfortunately, one is
not involved at this point.
--
Travis Mack, SET
MFP Design, LLC
2508 E Lodgepole Drive
Gilbert, AZ 85298
480-505-9271
fax: 866-430-6107
email:[email protected]
http://www.mfpdesign.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/MFP-Design-LLC/92218417692
Send large files to us via: https://www.hightail.com/u/MFPDesign
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