Valve Control in Service Operations: identifying the correct control valve or valves to shut for service and retrofit work can be very difficult in real world applications to determine. On one extreme you encounter knowledgeable and competent facility maintenance/owner either controlling all valves or serving as a resource to the service provider. Other times the service provider walks into a building with no educated contact on site, no informational signage, and system(s) that have been changed/retrofit over the years with illogical piping configurations that just cannot be traced without cutting into walls and ceilings. Unfortunately shutting down fire protection to the entire building is often not permitted or practical, and the service provider is left with all the risk of a deficient system if they choose to proceed.
Best Practice Steps to STOP water damage losses from pulling a live head or cutting into a live system:
- Capture Pre-Inspection Checklist (attached) – i.e. place on existing work order
- A) If 100% confident correct valve(s) are shut – proceed with work
- B) If unsure – make standard recommendation to owner (Protection of Customers Property) to shut down water supply to whole fire protection system.
- A) If customer available – Record Status of Recommendation: Customer Agree’s or Decline’s
- B) If customer not available – contact service supervisor to discuss
- If water cannot be shut down or uncertainty remains, use Sure-Off device to determine if system is still under pressure in area you are working before water damage takes place.
Video of Tester: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LikVP7mjn6c
Product Page: https://www.reliablesprinkler.com/product/sure-off-tester/
Contractor Recommendations:
Pre-Service Assessment: prior to making a repair or adjustment to an existing system, record on your Work Order if applicable signage is present or missing. This only takes a couple seconds and provides the following:
- Proof that contractor first attempted to utilize the knowledge the system SHALL be giving them.
- If System is non-compliant with code, this is a salient point if water damage ensues from your work as you are not responsible for the continual maintenance of the owner’s system. Lack of proper maintenance by the owner contributed to loss.
- Opportunity to enhance your inspection offering if you already are the inspecting contractor and are not inspecting for the various information signs as NFPA 25 requires. Empower inspection sales and increase service revenue
Apply same process to retrofit work: scopes of work for retrofitting fire protection systems often include elements of you performing pre-work inspections/assessments of existing systems, often requiring of you to identify issues or deficiencies with the systems, and work to place the liability for the performance and life-span of what’s existing on you. This serves as another example of why avoidance of water damage is always the best risk management. When working for a GC, they are incentivized to keep construction moving and certainly do not want to have to be involved with clean-up and repair that could have been completely avoided. Use the above referenced best practice steps with the same goal of creating a process to avoid water damage from operating on a system under pressure.
Wilton Marburger
(484) 927 – 4155