Commercial Fire Protection Insights

If your building relies on a fire pump to meet its sprinkler or standpipe system’s water demand, NFPA 20 sets out how often it needs…

NFPA 13 sizes a sprinkler system around the hazard classification of the space it protects, which is why the same square footage can require very…

If your building’s fire sprinkler system has a backflow preventer, which most do, it needs to be tested annually in most jurisdictions. Here’s what that…

A commercial fire sprinkler system failing inspection is more common than most property owners expect, and it’s rarely because the system was installed wrong. Here…

Before a fire protection engineer can design a single sprinkler head, the building has to be assigned an occupancy classification. This one designation, set by…

Not all standpipe systems serve the same purpose, which is why NFPA 14 divides them into three classes. If you manage a multi-story commercial building,…

There are two ways to size the pipes on a commercial fire sprinkler system under NFPA 13: hydraulic calculation and pipe schedule. Almost every modern…

A fire watch is one of the least glamorous parts of fire protection, and one of the most misunderstood. It’s not a system at all…

A fire alarm system that detects a fire but never tells anyone about it isn’t much use. Notification appliances, the horns, strobes, and speakers that…