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BlazeMaster® Fire Sprinkler Systems Bring Broward County Schools Up to Code with Comprehensive, District-Wide Retrofit

By: Mark Knurek on November 27th, 2018

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BlazeMaster® Fire Sprinkler Systems Bring Broward County Schools Up to Code with Comprehensive, District-Wide Retrofit

Case Studies  |  Commercial

A school building poses a tricky situation when it comes to installing a fire sprinkler system. Students fill hallways and classrooms constantly, whether it’s classes during the day, sports after school or on weekends, and activities throughout the summer. Finding the time to complete a major facility upgrade without disrupting the flurry of activity can be a challenge. Educational facilities rarely close long enough for this to take place. How do you solve this problem?

Leave it to BlazeMaster® Fire Sprinkler Systems to meet that challenge— and to exceed expectations in the process.

Powered by the flexibility and ease of installation offered by BlazeMaster pipe and fittings, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based Sprinklermatic Inc. has made a showcase of the Broward County School District, having outfitted the majority of the district’s buildings with new fire protection systems over the last decade—approximately 22,000 feet of pipe and 1,300 sprinkler heads have been installed districtwide. Sprinklermatic Vice President Tim O’Brien has worked with BlazeMaster systems for years and was excited to bring the product to a new project.

“The Broward County school board needed to upgrade their fire protection systems,” O’Brien said. “That’s where the opportunity presented itself on the project. It became a question of, ‘How do you sprinkler a building that is in essence open all the time?” The long-standing real estate boom in Atlanta got an added boost with the completion of Phase I of Atlantic Station. The $2 billion development off I-85 in Atlanta is credited as being the community that launched the live-work-play concept that is quickly gaining popularity in other parts of the country.

 

New Codes, New Solutions

Updates to the school district’s fire protection began in 2003, as the administration learned one of its oldest buildings, Northside Elementary, required a new fire sprinkler system in order to meet new codes and regulations. The age and structure of the building would require delicate work processes—something that would become incredibly difficult with a steel system.

Initially, the Broward County school board balked at the prospect of a CPVC system installation. That’s where the team at Lubrizol CPVC stepped in—Sprinklermatic brought in one of Lubrizol’s expert piping systems consultants to present the benefits of a chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) system to the school board.

“The school board only knew steel pipe,” O’Brien said. “So we had to teach them the benefits of CPVC. The cost benefits and the ease of installation sold them. We showed them we could install the product without tearing apart ceilings, and that it could be done quickly.”

O’Brien noted that the flexibility of BlazeMaster systems worked well with the unpredictability of installations in buildings greater than 50 years old, where architectural and structural changes may not have remained consistent over the years. With BlazeMaster pipe and fittings, contractors don’t need to worry about starting and stopping pipes at specific points during the installation—the flexibility of the product allows contractors to pick up and leave off where necessary throughout the process.

This was particularly important considering the time crunch involved on some of the Broward County installations. One building in particular needed the job completed in under two weeks, a job made possible only with CPVC— a comparative system using steel would have involved hours of setup and cleanup, not to mention prefabrication and design that would have been impossible to install in the same amount of time. The district’s Coconut Creek High School was similarly sprinklered in just 28 days in 2013.

“The flexibility of CPVC allows you to make changes on the fly, if necessary,” O’Brien said. “The product allows you to work above ceilings in an occupied building with little to no interruption of operations, and it brings fluidity to the project.”

 

Expanded Opportunity For BlazeMaster CPVC

Across the Broward County School District, Sprinklermatic received the opportunity to sprinkler several other buildings—totaling 13 campuses districtwide, each with around 10 buildings. And Lubrizol CPVC offered its full support each step of the way, from helping the school board realize the value of BlazeMaster systems, to offering its comprehensive training to the folks at Sprinklermatic. Thus far, the district has experienced no issues with its new fire protection systems, and Sprinklermatic continues to utilize BlazeMaster CPVC successfully.

O’Brien added that Sprinklermatic’s partners at Viking Supply were essential in increasing its BlazeMaster pipe and fittings inventory in South Florida, and have helped Sprinklermatic attain new business throughout the region as a result of the successful Broward County Schools project. “We recently were told of an opportunity to install fire protection in a 25-story building, where they were looking to install steel,” O’Brien said. “The builders hand-selected us to do the job— and we told them we won’t do it unless we can use CPVC.”

“We’re firm believers in CPVC,” O’Brien continued. “We believe in educating our staff and educating our clients. Coconut Creek High School was able to open for the school year on time because of BlazeMaster Fire Sprinkler Systems.”

With BlazeMaster pipe and fittings, builders and managers choose a product powered by the advanced-engineered compounds of The Lubrizol Corporation, bringing unique advantages to the table. But that’s not all. It’s the complete support of Lubrizol CPVC’s on-site training, the experience and expertise offered by its piping systems consultants, and access to the FBC™ System Compatible Program, helping to ensure chemical compatibility with ancillary products. It’s more than just a product—it’s MORE INSIDETM.

 

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