THINK THE LAST TWO POSTS COVERED EVERYTHING ABOUT SLEEVES? THINK AGAIN, AND READ ON! (part 3 on sleeves)

In our last post we talked about sleeves and the fact that the field installations need to match the requirements in the submitted firestop assemblies. Let’s look at some examples:

Here is the verbiage from a random UL listed firestop detail.

Steel Sleeve – (Optional, Not Shown) – Nom 16 in. (406 mm) diam (or smaller) Schedule 10 (or heavier) steel sleeve cast or grouted into floor or wall assembly. Sleeve may extend a max of 2 in. (51 mm) above top of floor or beyond either surface of wall. As an alternate, nom 16 in. (406 mm) diam (or smaller) min 0.028 (0.71 mm) thick galvanized sheet steel sleeve cast or grouted into floor or wall assembly flush with floor or wall surfaces.

This detail actually allows for three options. Option One is no sleeve. Option two, you can use a Sch 10 steel sleeve. Option three, allows for a galvanized sheet metal sleeve no less than .028” which I think is 24 gauge. Remember that doesn’t mean its okay to use 26 gauge or to use non-galvanized sheet metal sleeves.

Here is another example that I pulled it from my last project submittal.

Steel Sleeve – (Optional) – Nom 14 in. (356 mm) diam (or smaller) Schedule 10 (or heavier) steel pipe or No. 26 ga (0.022 in. or 0.56 mm thick) sheet steel sleeve with square anchor flange spot welded to the sleeve at approx mid-height. Sleeve cast or grouted in place flush with floor or wall surfaces. Steel pipe sleeve may project a max of 2 in. (51 mm) beyond the floor or wall surfaces.

This detail actually allows for similar options as our first example. It even allows for a lighter gauge sleeve, but please note there are TWO CRITERIA to pay attention to…

1) 26 gauge or heavier (and yes I carry a sheet metal gauge on my field walks and I check this)

2) This detail requires that the sheet steel sleeve must have a square anchor flange spot welded to the sleeve at approx mid-height. Let’s face it, once the concrete is poured no one is going to confirm this short of trying to knock out a few of the sleeves to see if they come out easily.

This is why I should never write contracts for firestop installers, because I would link my contracts to my firestop submittals. If this detail were used I would have a line in the contract stating that contractors must use either Sch 10 sleeves or sheet steel sleeve must have a square anchor flange spot welded to the sleeve at approx mid-height or they bear the liability of being non-compliant. There are little points like this all through a firestop submittal. My contracts would be like reading a really boring encyclopedia, but excellent for insomnia or litigation.

So, let’s say you are on a project right now and the guys used thin gauge sheet metal for the sleeves, or maybe they used 26 ga sheet metal but it did not put the anchor flange on. You can still firestop it right?

NOT if you want to be code compliant! One of my old team mates used to say that the building code offers a minimum standard to which you should build. To build at any standard LESS than the code is criminal, and as a professional who should know the industry it is criminal negligence.

If the sheet metal sleeve is 26ga and you are missing the anchor flange, the only recourse you have to remain code complaint is to:

  • remove the sleeve from the opening
  • contact your firestop manufacturer to see if they have a detail that will work in this case
  • contact your firestop manufacturer requesting they write an Engineering Judgment for the situation you have created that is not going to be code compliant.

Halpert Life Safety pre-construction meetings cover a wide array of common firestop problems in hopes of bringing light to all of them early in the project so the team encounters fewer surprises late in the game. This issue surrounding sleeves is one of the many things we discuss in our pre-construction meetings.

We break into the seemingly little tiny things like this, because my former boss trained his team to think about how it would look if you had to defend your actions or words in court. If you claim to be a professional, then you are also claiming to be aware of these small things. Our job in the pre-construction meetings is to make sure that the liability position is reduced for EVERYONE on the team.

Before we go, let’s look at one more example from a different manufacturer:

Metallic Sleeve — (Optional) Nom 32 in. diam (or smaller) Schedule 40 (or heavier) steel sleeve cast or grouted into floor or wall assembly, flush with floor or wall surfaces or extending a max of 3 in. above floor or beyond both surfaces of wall.

2A. Sheet Metal Sleeve — (Optional) Max 6 in. diam, min 26 ga galv steel provided with a 26 ga galv steel square flange spot welded to the sleeve at approx mid-height, or flush with bottom of sleeve in floors, and sized to be a min of 2 in. larger than the sleeve diam. The sleeve is to be cast in place and may extend a max of 4 in. below the bottom of the deck and a max of 1 in. above the top surface of the concrete floor.

2B. Sheet Metal Sleeve — (Optional) – Max 12 in. diam, min 24 ga galv steel provided with a 24 ga galv steel square flange spot welded to the sleeve at approx mid-height, or flush with bottom of sleeve in floors, and sized to be a min of 2 in. larger than the sleeve diam. The sleeve is to be cast in place and may extend a max of 4 in. below the bottom of the deck and a max of 1 in. above the top surface of the concrete floor.

From this, you can see that the size of the allowable sleeve has a direct correlation to the thickness of the metal sleeve. We might  discuss this in more detail in a later post. For now, just make sure your sub-contractors are not creating scenarios that will make it impossible for your firestop contractors to firestop in a compliant way. If you have questions about this, we are happy to join you for a pre-construction meeting and help get your team on the same page and understand how their choices for the project can impact the projects liability for everyone involved. This may mean that the firestop contractor needs to obtain different documentation or it may mean that the MEPS contractors need to make different choices. We can help make sure your team is making the right choice.

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Here is part one of this series, and part two.

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Halpert Life Safety Consulting LLC’s

“Saving Lives for the Life of your Building” TM

Our mission is to make a colossal impact on the level of life safety of your building and on the talent of your people. We provide consultation, training, quality control and third party special inspection related to firestop and passive fire protection. We consult for the building industry in the New York/New Jersey (NY/NJ) metropolitan area, as well as across the United States and internationally.

Do this and your insurance company might not have to pay if your building burns

The article below is basically about a building that was insured against fire, but because the owner did not properly maintain the buildings sprinkler system, as is required by code; the insurance company did not have to pay after a fire. In fact the owner had to repay the advance that they were given.

You can read the article below, but I wanted to start a conversation about passive fire protection.  The building codes require rated walls be maintained so when your IT crews run new lines or new tenants renovate an office space or whatever may happen to any building, with any occupancy type, that could interfere with the integrity of a rated wall.  Would the insurance company be able to identify this as a risk that would allow them to not have to pay out during a fire?   The building codes are changing and now many projects are required to have third party special inspection of firestop installations. All it will take is one major loss and insurance companies will look more closely at passive fire protection.  Also you will find that premiums will change and the way premiums are evaluated will change.

If you don’t want to run this risk, contact Halpert Life Safety and we will help you assess the risk in your building, we can help with due diligence before you purchase a building or during construction we can help ensure that your contractors are not missing anything.  Check out next weeks blog post to learn about a major problem with ductwork that is very rarely done correctly. (at least from my experience…if I am wrong I’d love to know…write to me)  It doesn’t matter if you are on a project in China, the Caribbean, Las Vegas or New York there are certain problems that are common. I can say that because Ive been there.  Stay tuned to learn more about them!  Together we all can be part of a movement- “Saving Lives for the Life of the Building.”tm

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2011/07/20/206553.htm#.T8O55FcdLD0.email

Sign up now for notification of new blog posts.

__________________________________________________

Halpert Life Safety Consulting LLC’s

“Saving Lives for the Life of your Building” TM

Our mission is to make a colossal impact on the level of life safety of your building and on the talent of your people. We provide consultation, training, quality control and third party special inspection related to firestop and passive fire protection. We consult for the building industry in the New York/New Jersey (NY/NJ) metropolitan area, as well as across the United States and internationally.

Firestopping for Rated Joints – Masons and Drywallers

Welcome to this section of our firestop blog where we will discuss firestop information related to both the masons and drywall contractors scope of work. This work is relatively easy to do, but it is also very easy to do wrong. We will go over some common firestop issues with these trades. Our focus with this blog is to educate the construction industry on firestop and improve the level of life safety on all buildings. We have worked on projects all over the US and internationally so our breadth of experience will likely be an asset to your next project, whether you hire us to help make sure it runs smoothly or if you just stay tuned to this blog in order to improve your own work. This is Halpert Life Safety, where we focus on “Saving Lives for the Life of the Building.”TM If you are a contractor who subs out the firestop scope, you still carry the liability of your subs work so you may want to know a little about it, and this blog is designed to do just that! If you self perform your firestop scope you definitely should stay tuned because this blog will help you reduce your companies liability on your projects. If you are a building inspector, third party special inspector, you will want to keep tabs on this blog as well and we would love to hear what you like or what you think we should add. If you want to be a guest blogger then by all means let us know.

Let’s get started with our first key information segment. In order to know how to look critically at firestop you have to understand some basic information about the UL listed assemblies. So please start here