# Mixed use commercial/residential and fire sprinklers



## Coder (Jan 14, 2021)

I would like to bounce a code situation off of you all to see what your take is. I have two buildings on main street that are being renovated. Both buildings are going to be commercial on the first floor with residential on the second. Both have to be sprinklered. The question that is being asked is can the first floor be an NFPA 13 system then once it gets to the second floor residential turn into a NFPA 13D or NFPA 13R? Or does the entire building need to be NFPA13? I haven’t dealt with this situation before and with the Fire Marshal being out of the office, I am reaching out to others. If you don’t know but know someone who would, your help is appreciated. Thanks again for your efforts,


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## cda (Jan 14, 2021)

Coder said:


> I would like to bounce a code situation off of you all to see what your take is. I have two buildings on main street that are being renovated. Both buildings are going to be commercial on the first floor with residential on the second. Both have to be sprinklered. The question that is being asked is can the first floor be an NFPA 13 system then once it gets to the second floor residential turn into a NFPA 13D or NFPA 13R? Or does the entire building need to be NFPA13? I haven’t dealt with this situation before and with the Fire Marshal being out of the office, I am reaching out to others. If you don’t know but know someone who would, your help is appreciated. Thanks again for your efforts,




Yes the bottom can be 13 and residential can be 13 R


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## khsmith55 (Jan 14, 2021)

I may respectfully disagree with CDA, but would confirm with your FPE. Don’t know what Editions of 13 and 13R your under but I’m looking at an old 2013 Edition of 13R. Looking at Sections 7.2 and 7.3 I would infer that the building would have to be a Podium Building (3 hour separation) and treated as separate Buildings to use split systems. Just my opinion, as I said before check with your FPE.

Ken


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## Coder (Jan 14, 2021)

I talked with the Fire Marshal and he agreed that as long as the sprinkler system is engineered to accommodate the requirements of both occupancies, it is ok to use NFPA13 for the commercial level and as the baseline for the entire building regarding stand alone water supply, backflow, testing, etc. then the NFPA 13R for the residential above can be used mainly just for where sprinkler head locations are required. According to the sprinkler installer who I also spoke with "they do it all the time". This in conjunction with a 1 hour fire rated floor/ceiling assembly between the two occupancies, I feel comfortable with it.


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## mtlogcabin (Jan 14, 2021)

It is done all the time in hotels


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## steveray (Jan 14, 2021)

You have to comply with the "why" the system is required....


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## RLGA (Jan 15, 2021)

khsmith55 said:


> I may respectfully disagree with CDA, but would confirm with your FPE. Don’t know what Editions of 13 and 13R your under but I’m looking at an old 2013 Edition of 13R. Looking at Sections 7.2 and 7.3 I would infer that the building would have to be a Podium Building (3 hour separation) and treated as separate Buildings to use split systems. Just my opinion, as I said before check with your FPE.
> 
> Ken


That was my interpretation, too. 

However, not knowing the relationship between the first and second stories in this example, if the commercial portion is related to the residential portion, then an NFPA 13R system can be used throughout the building (I confirmed this with NFPA). For example, if the commercial spaces in the first story are amenity spaces for the residential, leasing office for the residential, etc., then an NFPA 13R system is permitted to be used for those spaces as well as the residential units.


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