Technical Articles

According to my research on quotations, the phrase “A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step” was first uttered by the Chinese philosopher Laozi some 500 years before the beginning of the common era. We are still taking long journeys and continuing to take steps. That has been …

Different Construction Materials Create Different Issues I may be aging myself, but do you remember the days of using the maximum spacing for hangers and the 40, 80 rule? There was no concern that the building structure would not support the sprinkler pipe, and we spaced lateral braces 40 ft …

Additional Rigid Braces are Required Using 2013 NFPA 13, Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems, as a reference, I will discuss this common tension-only sway brace misapplication. Many manufacturers of tension-only brace product incorrectly specify the installation of a rod hanger with a rod stiffener to resist upward vertical …

Significant Changes Coming in 2016 NFPA 13 If you’ve ever installed or designed a system with a fire pump or a header then you’ve probably used pipe stands in some form or fashion. But how did you know how to design the pipe stands? Sure, there have been several manufactured pipe …

“Rode hard and put away wet.” That was a cliché that I have heard many times when witnessing something that had undergone a severe test and was just about ready to fall apart. The cliché started out describing horses that were put away without proper grooming, but the imagery matches …

Electronic Review Considerations If you are an employee or supervisor of a reviewing agency and are thinking about going to electronic review (and you should be), there are some things that need to be taken into account. Following are things I have experienced that will help you avoid potential problems. …

Part 1: Advantages I was asked in an interview one time whether a plan reviewer is a consultant or an enforcement agent. I would say both or perhaps neither. Plan review is actually supposed to be a quality control process that the government provides to protect the public from improper …

The Impact of Group A Plastics One of the most critical variables necessary to define the right design basis for the protection of storage is the commodity classification. In evaluating an individual pallet load, Class III and IV commodities have pretty much always been allowed to have some Group A …

Changes in Product or Packaging – Plan Now, Save Later A friend and sprinkler industry veteran once told me that the NFPA standards are written so that they are 100 percent clear, concise and understandable; that is, until two people read the same text. Perhaps the best example of this …