American Fire Sprinkler Association
12750 Merit Dr., Suite 350 Dallas TX 75251
Ph: (214) 349-5965 Fax: (214) 276-0908
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TECHNICAL UPDATE
OCTOBER 8, 2008
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"We have been asked to install sprinklers in hotel bathrooms which do
not exceed 55 sq. ft. if the tub area is not included. Is it still
allowable to exclude the tub area in calculating bathroom sq. ft.
areas? This is allowable in the 1999 Edition, but does not seem to
have been addressed in the subsequent NFPA 13 standards?"
We have reviewed NFPA13, 2007 Edition that you indicated as the
applicable standard. Our informal interpretation is that the area
occupied by shower or tub fixtures is included in the total bathroom
area calculation.
The 1999 Edition of NFPA 13 in Section 5-13.9.1 allowed the area
occupied by a noncombustible, full height, shower/bathtub enclosure to
be excluded from the floor area calculation for a bathroom. The 2002
Edition of NFPA 13 provides no such allowance. This was intentional as
a significant amount of confusion existed as to whether to exclude
shower enclosures of varying materials and what constitutes a full
height shower. The committee removed the provision to establish a rule
that was easier to enforce. Now the bathroom area is calculated based
solely on the bounding walls.
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Technical Update is prepared by the Technical Services Dept. of the
AFSA: Vice President of Engineering and Technical Services Roland
Huggins, a PE registered in fire protection engineering; Phill Brown,
a NICET IV certified automatic sprinkler technician and NFPA Certified
Fire Protection Specialist (CFPS) and Tom Wellen, a degreed fire
protection engineering technologist. This is provided with the
understanding that the AFSA assumes no liability for this opinion or
actions taken on it and they are not to be considered the official
position of the NFPA or its technical committees.
Copyright (c) 2008, American Fire Sprinkler Association. All Rights
Reserved
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