If the standpipe is in the stair... Many people for whom the since updated Americans with Disabilities Act was written for, are not capable of using stairs. As such, they don't 'circulate through the stairs nor use the stair risers as a means of egress'. These 'challenged' individuals may seek the stairs out as an area of refuge... if the elevators are not in Phase I and thus they are not using the elevators for evacuation. Elevators should not go into Phase I if someone on the design team had their thumb on the pulse of the National Building Code of Canada (a recognized document in older versions of the sister code Section 2.27 ASME A17.1). Help a brother and sister out, keep those elevators running until the smoke / heat detector in the elevator lobby or elevater machine room activates.
Options: 1. Do nothing and cite national standard-of-practice and up-until-now, accepted design precedence. 2. Roll the hose connections off the riser with a couple of 90's or a 90 and a 45 elbow, this will help reduce hose kink anyway. Recalc standpipe with additional fittings. 3. Or ... get a custom-made ball-bearing, water-tight 2.5-inch swivel joint that can rotate into action. And pay dearly for it. Note: If the building is sprinklered throughout, then the entire floor is considered an area-of-refuge anyway, and there is no need to prescriptively provide an accessible area of refuge in the stair. Therefore there may be no reason to provide 'accessibility' in the stair. If this standpipe is in an open corridor, or exit access, that is another story. Scot Deal Excelsior Risk & Fire Engineering gms: + 420 606 981 266 GMT+1
_______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/listinfo.cgi/sprinklerforum-firesprinkler.org
