Although the requirements for standpipe systems are contained in the adopted

building code and the installation requirements are contained within the referenced
edition of NFPA 14, Standard for the Installation of Standpipe and Hose Systems,
there is often disagreement between the responsible design professional, the fire
protection contractor, and the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) on the proper
design and installation of the system. This article will attempt to simplify the
requirements for these systems by addressing the following issues:

When are standpipes required and what are the installation requirements?
When is a standpipe system required?
What type of standpipe system is required?
Where are the required hose outlets located?
What is the required pressure at the hose outlet(s)?
What is the required flow rate of the system?
What are the requirements for the fire department connection (FDC)?
Which outlets are flowed in a hydraulic calculation?
How is the fire department apparatus defined and used in a hydraulic calculation?
 Required Installation and Installation Requirements
During the design of a building two questions must be answered to determine the
requirements for a standpipe system:

1. Is a standpipe system required to be installed in the building?

2. What are the installation requirements?

The requirements for a

building standpipe system are contained within the adopted building code for that
jurisdiction. In the majority of states and cities within the United States, the adopted
building code will be an edition of the International Building Code (IBC), which may
be adopted in full or adopted with modifications and then becomes the state or city
building code. In Virginia, the current referenced code is the 2012 edition of the IBC,
which Virginia amends into the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building
Code (VUSBC). The current edition of the IBC is 2015, therefore all further references
to the IBC will be to the 2015 edition.

The majority of installation requirements for a building standpipe system will be

contained in NFPA 14 as referenced by the IBC. Chapter 35 of the IBC contains the
applicable version of standards referenced within the text of the IBC. In the 2015
IBC the applicable version of NFPA 14 is the 2013 edition. All further references to
NFPA 14 in this article will be to the 2013 edition.

When is a Standpipe System Required?

The pertinent section of the IBC is 905.3, Required Installations. Most standpipe
systems are installed due to the requirement under Section 905.3.1, Height. It
requires a Class III standpipe be installed throughout buildings where the floor level
of the highest story is located more than 30 ft above the lowest level of fire
department access, or where the lowest floor level is located more than 30 ft below
the highest level of fire department vehicle access. (See Figure 1.)
 The level of fire department apparatus access is defined as the actual location of the
fire department apparatus relative to the building, not the access level for the fire
department personnel entering to the building. (See Figure 2.)

Other uses for which the IBC requires a standpipe system are:

A building that has an assembly occupancy with an occupant load exceeding 1,000
Covered and open mall buildings
Buildings that contain a stage greater than 1,000 ft2
Underground buildings
Buildings with a helistop and heliports
Marinas and boatyards
Rooftop gardens and landscaped roofs
If the building does not meet any of the eight criteria listed above, a
standpipe system is not required by the IBC.

What Type of Standpipe System is Required?

NFPA 14 identifies three classes of standpipe systems: Class I systems designed for
use by fire departments with 2 -in. hose connections, Class II systems designed for
use by trained personnel or fire departments with 11/2-in. hose connections, and
Class III systems designed for use by trained personnel or fire departments with
both 1 -in. and 2 -in. hose connections. These systems can then be designed as
a combination of a wet, dry, automatic, manual, or semiautomatic system as defined
and required by NFPA 14.

Under IBC Section 905.3.1, Height, that requires a standpipe be

installed throughout buildings as discussed previously, the required type of
standpipe is a Class III system.

In most buildings the standpipe system can be designed as a Class I system due the
provision of Exception I to Section 905.3.1 of the IBC for buildings protected
throughout by automatic sprinkler systems. NFPA 14 permits Class I standpipe
systems to be manual wet systems for buildings not classified as a high-
rise, therefore all further discussions in this article will be based on the requirements
for a Class I wet manual standpipe system.

Where are the Required Locations of Hose Outlets?

 Once it has been
determined that a standpipe system is required within a building, the next issue is
the required locations of the hose outlets. The requirement for Class I hose outlet
locations is contained in Section 905.4 of the IBC as follows:

An outlet is required at the intermediate landings in all required interior exit

stairways. If the stairway is not a required means of egress stairway, outlets are
not required.
The fire code official is permitted to allow the outlets to be located at the main
landings in lieu of the intermediate landings.
An outlet is required on each side of a wall adjacent to the exit in a horizontal exit.
An outlet is required at the entrance from an exit passageway to other areas of the
building.
An outlet is required on the roof or at the highest landing of an interior
exit stairway with access to the roof when the roof has a slope of less than 4 to 12.
As required by the fire code official when the most remote portion of a floor is
more than 150 ft (nonsprinklered) or more than 200 ft (sprinklered) from an outlet.
An outlet is required in covered malls adjacent to each exterior public entrance
and adjacent to each entrance from an exit passageway or exit corridor to the mall.
An outlet is required in open malls adjacent to each public entrance to the mall at
the perimeter line and adjacent to each entrance from an exit passageway or exit
corridor to the mall.
Examples of the second and third locations can be found in the figures from NFPA
14. (See Figure 3 and Figure 4.)
 What is the Required
Pressure at the Hose Outlet(s)
The minimum design pressure for a standpipe system is contained in Section
7.8, Minimum and Maximum Pressure Limits, of NFPA 14. A
hydraulically designed system is required to provide a minimum residual pressure
of 100 psi at the most remote 2.-in. outlet on a Class I system. The 100 psi
minimum requirement is based on the principle that most fire departments operate
their interior attack handlines with combination nozzles, which are designed
to operate at 100 psi residual pressure. Despite the nozzles being designed for 100
psi, the NFPA 14 requirement is not at the nozzle but at the inlet to the handline
(literally at the outlet of the hose connection).

What is the Required Flow Rate of the System?

The required flow rate of a standpipe system is contained in Section 7.10, Flow
Rates of NFPA 14. A Class I standpipe system is required to flow 500 gpm (gallons
per minute) at the most hydraulically remote standpipe through the two
most remote outlets. Previous editions of NFPA 14 have required that the
most hydraulically remote standpipe be provided with two outlets at the top
to provide the required 500 gpm flow. An additional 250 gpm is added for
each additional standpipe in the building.

The maximum flow rate is 1,000 gpm for buildings protected throughout with an
automatic sprinkler system and 1,250 gpm for buildings that are not. For a Class I
horizontal standpipe system with three or more connections on any floor the
minimum flow rate for the most hydraulically demanding horizontal standpipe is
750 gpm.

What are the Requirements for the Fire Department

Connection?

As with the standpipe system itself the requirements for the installation of the fire
department connection (FDC) are contained in the IBC and NFPA 14. Section 912 of
the IBC contains requirements on the location, inlet fire hose threads, access,
and signage for the FDC. The main issue to remember with these requirements
is that the final location of and access to the FDC shall be approved by the fire chief,
which may not be the same individual as the fire code official mentioned previously.

Section 7.12 of NFPA 14 contains the installation requirements for the FDC. The most
commonly misunderstood requirement during the system design and installation by
both the designers and the local fire department is the requirement under section
7.12.3 that the FDC be sized based on the standpipe system demand and that one 2-
inch inlet be provided for every 250 gallons per minute of design flow. Therefore,
a standpipe system with a design flow of 1,000 gallons per minute is required to
have an FDC with four 2- inch inlets.

The author once had a local fire chief state that the designed four 2- inch inlets
were not correct and it should be replaced by a two 2- inch inlet. When the author
explained that the four 2- inch inlet FDC was required by code, the fire chief
responded that his firefighters would not know which two inlets to attach to, as their
standard fire ground operations were to provide two supply lines to the FDC from
the pumper. After a discussion on the system design and operation, the chief
understood the requirement for the four inlets and planned to modify the
departments standard operating procedure and training for supporting buildings
with standpipe systems.

Which
Outlets are Flowed in a Hydraulic Calculation
The requirements for completing a hydraulic calculation for a standpipe system are
contained in Section 7.10.1.2 of NFPA 14. The procedure is similar to the calculation
method for a sprinkler system. To perform the system hydraulic calculation the
required flow and pressure at the most hydraulically remote hose outlet is
determined and the demand is calculated back to the city supply accounting for
flows at additional standpipes, elevation changes, and friction loss through the
system pipes and fittings, and fixed or mobile pumps.

As stated above, a Class I standpipe system is required to flow 500 gpm at the most
hydraulically remote standpipe through the two most remote outlets. An additional
250 gpm is added at the most hydraulically remote outlet for each additional
standpipe in the building, to a maximum of 1,000 gpm for a sprinklered building. If
 the standpipe calculated system demand is less than the supply, the design is
acceptable.

An example of which outlets are required to be flowed to conduct the system

hydraulic calculation can be found in the following figure. To meet the 500 gpm
requirement at the most hydraulically remote standpipe 250 gpm would be flowed
from outlets A and B. To meet the 250 gpm additional flow from each additional
standpipe 250 gpm would be flowed from outlets C and D.

How is the Fire Department Apparatus Defined and

Used in a Hydraulic Calculation?
In a manual standpipe system the local fire department apparatus is used to provide
the water supply to attain the required 100 psi at the remote standpipe outlet. Even
in a system with an automatic supply, hydraulic calculations are required for the
FDC as if it were a manual standpipe. To determine the rated capacity of the pump
on the apparatus the designer must contact the local fire department. Standard front
line apparatus pumps are rated from 1,000 to 2,250 gpm, therefore if information on
the local apparatus is not available a conservative design could use a pump rated at
1,000 gpm. The pump on the fire department apparatus is required to perform at a
level of design as required by NFPA 1901, Standard for Automotive Fire
Apparatus. NFPA 1901 requires that a pump on a fire department apparatus be
able to achieve three characteristic points on the pump flow curve:

100 percent of rated capacity at 150 psi net pump pressure,

70 percent of rated capacity at 200 psi net pump pressure, and
50 percent of rated capacity at 250 psi net pump pressure.
Therefore an apparatus pump rated at 1,000 gpm will be able to deliver not less than
1,000 gpm at 150 psi net pressure, 700 gpm at 200 psi net pressure, and 500 gpm at
250 psi net pressure to the standpipe system. This typical curve is different from
the typical curve for a stationary fire pump under NFPA 20.

The pump on the fire department apparatus is added to the hydraulic calculation
after the fire department connection when calculating the system demand as stated
above. At the fire department connection the flow is calculated back to the
apparatus through the connecting hoses to the apparatus pump. The local fire
department must be contacted at this point to determine their standard operating
procedure for supporting a building standpipe system. Typical operations are to
supply the fire department connection with 2- inch lines or 3-inch lines with 2-
couplings, although some departments are known to use large diameter hose with
Stortz connections. One method of determining the friction loss in fire hose for 2-
inch rubber lined hose is calculated as FL = 2Q2L where:
FL = Friction Loss

Q = Flow rate in hundreds of gpm

L = Length of hose in hundreds of feet

And the friction loss in 3-inch rubber lined hose with 2- couplings is calculated as
FL = 0.8Q2L
Assuming the local fire department standard operating procedure was to connect to
the FDC with 100 feet of 2- inch line to each inlet, the friction loss in each line
would be 2(2.5)2(1) or 12.5 psi.
These losses can be included in the hydraulic calculation as fixed losses between the
fire department connection and the apparatus pump. Other methods of calculating
friction loss in hoses are available and the designer should verify which method is
acceptable with the Authority Having Jurisdiction.

Conclusion
In determining the requirements for and designing a standpipe system for a building
the responsible engineer needs to know the requirements of both the local building
code and referenced NFPA standard. In addition to these documents the responsible
engineer needs to consult and work with the fire protection contractor and AHJs to
ensure that all parties understand the design and installation requirements and that
the design supports the responding fire department operational tactics.