Commercial Highrise Smoke Control Testing...

[Cray Paper]

Been on several projects since the IBC required it, it's a PITA. Got home at 1:00am this morning after a marathon testing session on a 13 story building. Was onsite until 10:00pm the night before for pre-testing.
I don't think the general public has any idea of the sophistication / engineering in todays buildings regarding fire life safety. Not to mention FARS....

 

[riverroyal]

I just did 150 stories in 5 years.
The paperwork alone will make you insane.

 

[DirtyWhiteDog]

The fire inspectors love th OT

 

[gqchris]

I lived in a highrise for years. The latest was 36 floors. Its fucking sucked when the testing was going on. Especially with a newborn. Every 3 minutes. Full sirens. I finally pulled the speaker off the wall. Then it took them another 2 days teying to figure out why there was a short on the speakers on my floor but then magically fixed itself. Asshole, i know!

Honestly they had an incompetent management company and the fire alarm company was a bunch of thugs walking around. Was pretty funny!

 

[Cray Paper]

The fire inspectors love th OT

Fire inspectors in my experience have zero skin in the game other than having a consultant bless the results after the fact versus the EOR (engineer of record with a liability stamp) and JHA approved drawings. It is black magic, same as fire alarm panel programming. Think IT geek, nothing they say is comprehendible to a laymen, and I think it's intentional to cover their own tracks.

 

[Cray Paper]

I lived in a highrise for years. The latest was 36 floors. Its fucking sucked when the testing was going on. Especially with a newborn. Every 3 minutes. Full sirens. I finally pulled the speaker off the wall. Then it took them another 2 days teying to figure out why there was a short on the speakers on my floor but then magically fixed itself. Asshole, i know!

Honestly they had an incompetent management company and the fire alarm company was a bunch of thugs walking around. Was pretty funny!

There are very phew mechanical contractors that are design build that are capable of designing and building to the design perimeters with consideration of a 3rd party (owner provided) smoke control criteria (bases of design), let alone understand how to manipulate the VFD's to comply / achieve what the owners 3rd party engineer designed. If your in a scab built apartment Highrise, good luck. Why didn't they override the horns, strobes in the fire alarm control panel while performing the tests? That's basic shit in my world as a dumb carpenter that is a superintendent.

Every building has to have an annual fire alarm test (yearly) and recertification, maybe this is what your speaking too? You will know if its a smoke control test, all outside air will be pushed throughout the space, the stairwells and elevator shafts will be over pressurized and the doors will will be whistling with the pressure differentials. Your building will have louvers on each floor that have a damper that opens during this testing.

 

[riverroyal]

We have a test and balance guys that's a magician. I've seen him balance a stairwell that nobody else could.
It's a unique skill and trade

 

[Cray Paper]

We have a test and balance guys that's a magician. I've seen him balance a stairwell that nobody else could.
It's a unique skill and trade

TAB technicians can be a genius or idiot.. it is black magic when talking about BMS settings or FACP programming and the techs don't say shit about what the issue was or how they fixed it. The non transparency to me as a not so dumb carpenter is where my cynicism comes from. I grew up on Chilton's manuals while working on vehicles, I know the stuff we build now is really sophisticated but in my experience the issues usually come from the programming side of the equation, not the engineering side. I have learned to ask the right questions of the "programmers" to understand WTF went wrong. It took along time for me to learn how to interact with these people and get to the bottom of what is really going on.