This edition of NFPA 13, Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems, was prepared by the
Technical Committee on Hanging and Bracing of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems, Pri-
vate Water Supply Piping Systems, Residential Sprinkler Systems, Sprinkler System Discharge
Criteria, and Sprinkler System Installation Criteria and released by the Technical Correlating
Committee on Automatic Sprinkler Systems, and acted on by NFPA at its June Association
Technical Meeting held June 8-11, 2009, in Chicago, IL. It was issued by the Standards Coun-
cil on August 6, 2009, with an effective date of August 26, 2009, and supersedes all previous
editions.
This edition of NFPA 13 was approved as an American National Standard on August 26, 2009.
Origin and Development of NFPA 13
NFPA13 represents the first standard published under the auspices of the NFPACommittee on
Automatic Sprinklers. Originally titled Rules and Regulations of the National Board of Fire Underwriters
for Sprinkler Equipments,Automatic and Open Systems, the standard has been continuously updated to
keep in step with change.
Full information about the NFPA actions on various changes will be found in the NFPA Pro-
ceedings. The dates of successive editions are as follows: 1896, 1899, 1902, 1905, 1907, 1908, 1912,
1913, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929. In 1930,
a separate standard was published on Class B systems. This was integrated into the 1931 edition.
Further revisions were adopted in 1934, 1935, and 1936. A two-step revision was presented in the
form of a progress report in 1939 and finally adopted in 1940. Further amendments were made in
1947, 1950, 1953, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, and 1989.
The 1991 edition incorporated an entire rewrite of the standard to make the overall
format user friendly. Substantive changes were made to numerous terms, definitions, and
descriptions, with additional refinements made in 1994.
The centennial (1996) edition included a significant rework of the requirements pertain-
ing to the application, placement, location, spacing, and use of various types of sprinklers.
Other changes provided information on extended coverage sprinklers and recognized the
benefits of fast-response sprinkler technology.
The 1999 edition encompassed a major reorganization of NFPA’s Sprinkler Project that
included the establishment of a Technical Correlating Committee on Automatic Sprinkler
Systems and four new sprinkler systems technical committees, the consolidation of NFPA’s
sprinkler system design and installation requirements, and the implementation of numerous
technical changes.
The scope of NFPA 13 was expanded to address all sprinkler system applications. The 1999
edition contained information on the installation of underground pipe from NFPA 24 and
sprinkler system discharge criteria for on-floor and rack storage of Class I, II, III, IV, and
plastic commodities, rubber tires, baled cotton, and roll paper that were previously located in
NFPA 231, 231C, 231D, 231E, and 231F. Additionally, sprinkler system information for special-
ized hazards from over 40 NFPA documents was either copied into NFPA 13 using NFPA’s
extract policy or specifically referenced. A new chapter was also added to address the struc-
tural aspects of exposed and buried system piping. A table of cross-references to previous
editions and material that was located in other NFPA documents was included at the end of
the 1999 edition.
More specific changes included a new sprinkler identification marking system and the
designation of sprinkler sizes by nominal K-factors. New criteria for the use of steel pipe in
underground applications was added, as well as a new provision to guard against microbio-
13–1
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logically influenced corrosion. Obstruction rules for specific sprinkler types and rules for locating sprinklers in con-
cealed spaces were revised. New limitations were placed on the sprinkler sizes in storage applications, and criteria for
the K-25 sprinkler was added. Additionally, the requirements for protecting sprinklers against seismic events also
underwent significant revision.
The 2002 edition of NFPA 13 underwent style formatting and technical revisions. The style formatting was com-
pleted to comply with the Manual of Style for NFPA Technical Committee Documents and to reorganize many of the require-
ments in NFPA 13 into unique chapters. Editorially, NFPA 13 eliminated all of the exceptions and reworded them as
requirements where applicable, moved the mandatory references to Chapter 2, and relocated all of the definitions to
Chapter 3. In reorganizing NFPA 13, several new chapters were created to consolidate requirements including the
following: Chapter 10 contained all of the applicable requirements for underground piping including materials,
installation, and acceptance testing; Chapter 11 contained design approaches including pipe schedule, density/area
method, room design method, special design areas, residential sprinklers, exposure protection, and water curtains;
Chapter 12 contained the design approaches for the protection of storage, including idle pallets, miscellaneous
storage, storage less than 12 ft, palletized, solid pile, bin box, and shelf storage, rack storage less than 25 ft, rack storage
greater than 25 ft, rubber tire, baled cotton, rolled paper, and special storage designs; Chapter 13 contained all of the
design and installation requirements from all of the various documents that have been extracted into NFPA 13.
The 2002 edition made specific technical changes to address several key issues. Three major areas of irregular ceiling
were addressed, including skylights, stepped ceilings, and ceiling pockets. The design requirements for ESFR sprinklers
were expanded to allow the user to choose the storage height and then the building height for any allowable arrangement.
Design requirements for the protection of storage on solid shelves were added. Requirements for the installation of residen-
tial sprinklers were added that parallel the requirements for other types of sprinklers.
For the 2007 edition, definitions were reorganized to locate all of the storage definitions in one area, and several
new definitions addressing private water supply terms were added. The definitions and requirements of Ordinary
Hazard Group 1 and 2 Occupancies were clarified where storage is present. The requirements for trapeze hangers
were clarified and made consistent for all components, and the seismic bracing criteria were updated to ensure that
NFPA 13 contains all of the appropriate requirements for installation and design of seismic bracing of fire sprinkler
systems. The requirements for storage were further reorganized and divided into separate chapters addressing general
requirements for storage; miscellaneous storage; protection of Class I to Class IV commodities that are stored pallet-
ized, solid piled, bin boxes, or self storage; protection of plastic and rubber commodities that are stored palletized,
solid piled, bin boxes, or shelf storage; protection of Class I through Class IV commodities that are stored on racks;
protection of plastic and rubber commodities that are stored on racks; protection of rubber tire storage; protection of
roll paper; and special designs of storage protection.
Prior editions of this document have been translated into languages other than English, including French and Spanish.
For the 2010 edition many of the major changes relate to the requirements for storage protection. First is the
combining of large drop sprinkler and the specific application control mode sprinkler requirements and revising the
terminology to now identify them as Control Mode Specific Application sprinklers (CMSA). Next, new criteria for use
of smoke vents have been added to Chapter 12. The density/area curves in the storage chapters have been reduced to
a maximum 3000 ft2 operating area; this is a significant reduction of some curves that had extended up to 6000 ft2
.
Changes to rack storage in this edition include a new method to calculate the rack shelf area. Finally, the provisions for
back to back shelf storage have been added to the storage chapters.
Criteria for the protection of three new special storage arrangements have been added to Chapter 20. These
include protection of carton records storage with catwalk access; compact shelving of commodities consisting of paper
files, magazines, books, and similar documents in folders and miscellaneous supplies with no more than 5 percent
plastics up to 8 ft high; and protection of high bay record storage.
In Chapter 9, a number of changes occurred regarding sway bracing of sprinkler systems including the introduction
of new zone of influence tables for Schedule 5 steel pipe, CPVC, and Type M copper tube. Also the means for
calculating the loads in the zone of influence have been modified to correlate with SEI/ASCE-7 and a new Annex E
describes this calculation.
Other areas of change include requirements for listed expansion chambers; clarification of ceiling pocket rules;
and clarification of the formulas used in calculating large antifreeze systems.
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