I recently received a text from a friend with just a couple of pictures attached. Being the friend that he is, there was no telling what these pictures could be! (We all have one of those friends, don’t we?! LOL) I opened up the pictures, and it took me a second to realize what I was looking at… The first picture I saw was a ceiling tile removed from a dropped ceiling grid, with a brass upright sprinkler head installed in the pendent position. RED FLAG! The second picture was the same ceiling tile, just on the back side of it. Y’all… the same fire sprinkler head was literally zip-tied to the ceiling tile. No pipe, no nuthin’!
I’m glad of one thing in this situation and that is that the moron who did this was not only stupid enough for doing it, but he was also stupid for installing the wrong heads! If whoever did this had installed the correct orientation of sprinkler head, how long would it have gone unnoticed? Kuddos to our Inspector who found this and properly wrote it up on their inspection report! NFPA 25 states in chapter 5 that “any sprinkler that is installed in the incorrect orientation shall be corrected by…” But here is something that it also says in chapter 5 in regard to the pipe; “Pipe and fittings installed in concealed spaces such as above suspended ceilings shall not require inspection.” So how do we as Inspectors make sure this doesn’t happen? WE DON’T! You see, inspections are done AFTER the install of the sprinkler system from the floor level. That being said, a problem like this should’ve been caught during inspections performed by the local building department or AHJ when the install was in progress. If I had to guess, there was never a permit pulled by the “installing contractor” so no jurisdictional inspections were ever completed. Begs to question, was the contractor even licensed that performed the work? Probably not!
So how do we combat this type of inexcusable behavior in our industry? Are we supposed to start looking above ceiling tiles to see if pipe was actually installed? The answer is no. We are not required to do so per NFPA 25! Unfortunately, unless we do, situations like this could continue to happen.
I feel sad for the people that sat under these sprinkler heads with a false sense of security. I think about my family when I see garbage like this, my wife, my kids, my parents, my siblings and their families and their safety. I am not okay with this, and you shouldn’t be either.
Keep doing your jobs with integrity, that’s all we can do. People that do garbage like this will get theirs one day, I promise. It will catch up to them.
Have a great day and be safe out there y’all!
-eddie-
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, there were 15 heads found that day Just. Like. This… 🤯
