What Are Partially Sprinklered Building Designs?

Automatic Head Fire Sprinkler

When you do not see the need to fully sprinkler your building, you can resort to partially sprinklered building designs. Our engineers specialize in all types of sprinklered building designs.

is an expert company in fire protection and sprinkler engineering services. We specialize with a wide range of sprinklers from the deluge, pre-action, dry, clean agent, to wet pipe systems, among others. Our services are well-known and revered in the industry with all sprinklers designed and installed per relevant building codes.

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Are Partially Sprinklered Building Designs Any Good?

It depends on a typical building where the partial sprinkler system is considered. Business owners, for instance, are reluctant to installing full sprinkler systems in most of their offices due to the fear of inadvertent discharge that could significantly damage their computers. Well, this makes sense since water and electricity do not go hand in hand. However, there are better options.

is home to a plethora of fire suppressants such as clean agent and halon sprinkler systems designed for water-sensitive environments. You do not have to compromise your offices on account of water sprinklers posing threat to your assets. Besides, authorities have reported the less likelihood of inadvertent discharges of water-based sprinklers if they are properly designed. We also guarantee you that our sprinklers are perfectly designed and are thus less likely to discharge inadvertently. We synchronize the system properly with alarms to ensure that there are no false alarm triggers.

Modern sprinkler systems are more sophisticated and very effective. Even if you consider alternative non-water sprinklers, water sprinklers are recommended to be used as a backup. Either way, when discharged, sprinklers do not impose massive damage compared to large hoses that would be used to extinguish the fire in your unsprinklered offices should fire break out.

Partially sprinklered designs are not bad either, to a certain extent. They can effectively protect the area that stores hazardous assets while other units remain unsprinklered. If unsprinklered areas caught fire, the occupants can evacuate to a sprinklered area until help has arrived.

Partially sprinklered building designs are self-explanatory. That is, there are not fully sprinklered. The other part is unsprinklered mainly due to the absence of hazardous materials stored while the storage for hazardous materials is sprinklered. We can offer you the best partially sprinklered building designs in Chicago.

Dangers Of Partially Sprinklered Designs

While a partial sprinkler system is good in other cases, it can pose relative dangers in some buildings. If the unsprinklered areas caught fire, the fire can grow to a level that is too large to be suppressed by sprinklers. Such instances have occurred already in famous buildings where fires have raged to consume tall buildings that were partially sprinklered.

Our engineers will guide you if partial sprinkler systems are any good for your case or not. We know the limitations of installing full sprinkler and partial sprinkler systems.

The main danger is that if a fire breaks out in unsprinklered areas, it might overcome the effect of partial sprinkler systems in their attempt to extinguish it. Such situations call for firefighters who may arrive after the fire has damaged property already or has caused human life loss.

On this note of dangers, you need to consider partially sprinkler building designs carefully. We are a responsible designer and installer of partial sprinkler systems and therefore wish to guide our clients before considering the system.

Are Partially Sprinklered Systems Code Compliant?

The famous NFPA 13 code enforces the installation of automatic sprinkler systems in all modern residential and commercial buildings. This is done to curb fire emergencies that could compromise human life and substantial damages to property. There are various sprinkler systems such as wet pipe, pre-action and dry pipe which we offer for such buildings and are code compliant.

What the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) requires is a building that is fully sprinklered especially if it has combustible materials. However, such a building should meet minimum requirements such as a closed area. Partial sprinkler systems are often installed in open areas such as basements and garages, which are the places the code excludes them in the enforcement of full sprinkler system installation.

So, in short, partially sprinklered building designs are not necessarily code compliant because building codes emphasize full automatic sprinklers in modern buildings. They are, however, recommended in exceptional cases for their selective protection.

Whichever place you decide to have partially sprinklered building designs, we can offer. NY Engineers can design partially sprinklered buildings as well as the partial sprinklers. Our architects have the relevant expertise and experience in these buildings.

Advantages Of Partially Sprinklered Building Designs

These designs come with some advantages :

  • Reduced costs of installing partial sprinkler systems
  • An assembly area for occupants in the event of a fire
  • Protect selective hazardous areas
  • Cost effective to maintain and repair

Compared to full sprinkler systems, partial sprinkler systems are cheaper to install. Such designs are also cost-effective to have because we don’t have to incorporate sprinklers in every unit of your building structure. Construction of these designs becomes quick and cost-effective as well. With NY Engineers you can save even more when you get the partially sprinklered building designs from our professional engineers.

In the event of a fire emergency, a sprinklered area may be regarded as the assembly for building occupants until they get help from firefighters. However, as we highlighted above, a partial sprinkler system is not a strong remedy for fires that broke out in unsprinklered areas.

Cost wise, partially sprinklered buildings are designs are cheaper to maintain and repair. Inadvertent discharges will not cause major damages in the entire building but only in selected areas where sprinklers are located.

Installation Of Partial Sprinklers In Existing Buildings

Most old buildings were designed and constructed without automatic sprinkler systems. Unfortunately, there are most at risk of being consumed by any possible fire breakout compared to the sprinklered buildings. If your building has the storage of combustibles, you may consider retrofitting automatic sprinklers to increase its defense mechanism against possible fires.

Hazardous materials can catch fire unexpectedly and the entire building may be not healthy and safe to be occupied. The addition of sprinklers can add a huge difference. However, bear in mind the addition of sprinklers from scratch could be more costly. To ease the cost burden, you may consider a partial sprinkler system. Our engineers can seamlessly integrate partial sprinklers in your selected storages of combustibles.

Adding partial sprinklers in your building improves fire protection. That can be done cost effectively without breaking your bank. Our fire protection and sprinkler engineers can sit down and devise a plan on how to design a network of pipes around your selected areas. Although it is costly, nonetheless, it is a decision worth taking.

Why Choose Partially Sprinklered Buildings Designs?

If your building is not going to host occupants then you may be off the hook of NFPA standards which means you are not obliged to install automatic sprinkler systems. If the building has occupants, partial sprinkler systems could be risky in areas that are unsprinklered.

If the building has selected areas of combustibles, then partially sprinklered building designs are ideal. But consider the disadvantages we have highlighted above that fires emerging from unsprinklered areas could overcome the partial sprinkler systems and then lead to catastrophic damages of your property and even more likely loss of life.

If your building has open areas such as garages and basements, you may consider partially sprinkler systems for them. Automatic full sprinkler systems have minimum requirements of the areas in which they can be installed.

Are Partial Sprinkler Systems Installations Different From Full Systems?

To install full sprinkler systems, our engineers have to assess your buildings first to check how they can install the pipes, sprinkler riser, connect municipal water supply and also space the sprinkler heads. It takes a heap of work to complete such installations and thus needs professional engineers with experience. NY Engineers has been in the industry of sprinkler engineering for quite a long time.

Installing partial sprinklers typically follows the same process. Before we design, we assess your place. For instance, we have to ensure that there is sufficient water supply. The system receives the same installation as in full systems. We have to calculate the spacing of sprinklers although there are not strict stipulations that are applicable as in full sprinklers.

We will design a network of pipes for your sprinklers. We can design a standalone or multipurpose partial sprinkler system. The standalone is basically detached from the plumbing system whereas the multipurpose is attached.

We still have to take into account the valves to maintain them periodically in order to ensure that the system is not compromised when the need arises. All other activation methods are still the same too.

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