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Standpipe or Not?
- Not typical for stairway standpipes
We were recently going through a large senior residential occupancy. This occupancy has 7 wings and several different stairwells.
Not all of the stairwells have standpipes in them. Most were typical connections with a valve and 2 1/2 inch connection. As you can see in this picture, this one was not a typical seen in a stairwell.
At the left of riser you can see the standpipe connection. They basically put the sprinkler room in the stairwell.
If you weren’t familiar with this, a person might just start turning valves or just think that there is not a standpipe connection at all.
The point here is that not all standpipe connections are created the same. Nor are all sprinkler rooms in a closet.
Get to know your buildings and the systems that operate in them. You never know when you will need to use them.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jason Hoevelmann on
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It's on the main level. Weird, huh?
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Permalink Reply by John on
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A very strange setup indeed, Goes to show that you need pre plans and a walk thru of the building.
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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I've actually seen a few of these in several locations not only in Houston, but in a couple of different areas of the country.
It pays to know and or learn water supply systems.
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Permalink Reply by Firefighter Chris on
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Never seen this before....goes to show the importance of pre planning!
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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That looks as if someone added a 2-1/2 discharge to a dry sprinkler system.
Using the standpipe will make the dry system go wet, which may or may not help extinguish the fire.
The problem is that the standpipe water will rob from the sprinkler water supply and vice-versa.
FDCs and standpipes should be seperate and have seperate intakes in order to maintain adequate water supply to both.
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Permalink Reply by Ron Ayotte on
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Never mind pre-planning... who did the plan review, and why was this allowed to happen?
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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Ben...not an issue if you remember the basics and have an engine dedicated to hooking into the system and maintaining pressure for the system.....water supply to engine....engine to outside connector....
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It is an issue if you have one connection to supply two different systems, especially if you have more than a couple of heads fused.
In order to work as designed, the sprinklers and standpipe need to be different systems, with different fire department connections. They should be supplied by two different engine companies to ensure that both have adequate water supply, especially if the structure is a big box or a high rise. "An engine" is usually not enough. Two engines probably will be.
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Permalink Reply by John on
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Ben you are correct about the standpipes need to be on different systems. This here is a bad design. I don't even see a shut off valve for the the main system but there is what looks like a butterfly vavle on the standpipe riser.
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I agree...we don't have high rise around here so it really is out of my line.....we do have stand pipes but at most a couple of stories high...one engine is adequate
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