Life Safety Essentials: Sprinkler Piping Supporting Other Items

Learning Objective: To understand the risks of sprinkler piping supporting items.

     

By Robert Trotter, CBO, CFM, MCP - Manager, Sr. Life Safety Specialist 

  

Automatic sprinkler piping and hangers are regularly found to be used supporting items such as, but not limited to, other piping systems, electrical conduit (as pictured), electrical power and lighting, communication wires, and a variety of other system components above ceilings. While contractors utilize the route of sprinkler piping through a building to support these items, failure of a single sprinkler pipe or hanger could result in a catastrophic failure of the piping system and cause extensive water damage. Unless you are prepared to quickly control water flow from any point in the building, an automatic sprinkler system will produce many gallons of water per minute flowing from an open ended pipe. A fire pump will contribute to increased water flow and pressure.

            The extinguishment requirements of the occupancy chapters in NFPA 101^®, Life Safety Code^®, 2000 Edition, refer to Section 9.7 for automatic sprinkler systems. All automatic sprinkler and standpipe systems must comply with NFPA 25, Standard for Inspection, Testing and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems. Section 2-2.2 states “Sprinkler piping shall not be subjected to external loads by materials either resting on the pipe or hung from the pipe.”          

            When using The Joint Commission’s 2011 Hospital Accreditation Standards to address this type of deficiency apply LS.02.01.35 Element of Performance 4 “Piping for approved automatic sprinkler systems is not used to support any other item. (For full text and any exceptions refer to NFPA 25-1998: 2-2.2).