DIY & Home Improvement Store Project, Gauteng

Description of Project

In February 2022, Elite Fire Protection was requested by an Architect, who was already involved in the upgrade of the store, to provide budget pricing for sprinkler protection.  

It is the largest retailer of building materials and associated products, selling directly to cash-paying customers through its 319 (and growing) stores in South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Malawi and Zambia. 

Elite Fire Protection is currently responsible for the design, supply, fabrication and installation of a fire sprinkler system. 

Project Scope

Fire Protection System: 

• Installation of Fire Sprinklers 
• Water Supplies 

Process Outline

Installation of Fire Sprinklers

The sprinkler system at roof is designed to a 15mm/min design density as the client preferred to not have in-rack sprinkler protection. 

The type of sprinkler being utilised for this project at roof level are Viking 20mm brass conventional 93-degree sprinkler and was chosen according to standards. 

A new sprinkler control valve (ICV), Viking 200mm, was installed to feed the roof sprinklers.

Water Supplies

Elite Fire supplied and installed a new diesel-driven pump with a duty of 6500 l/min @650kPa. 

A new pumphouse was built to accommodate the new diesel fire pump. Along with the new diesel pump installation, we installed the new pumphouse piping which includes the auto-start test arrangement, the 200mm pump test return line, the 50mm cooling line and the sprinkler protection to pumphouse including flow switch.  

The supply and installation of two water storage tanks, each with the capacity of 305m³. 

The dimensions of each water storage tank is 6.950m in diameter x 8.05m high.

Challenges

The only minor challenge was for the tank supplier, that had the task of levelling out the ground for installation of the ring beams for the water storage tanks. 

There are currently no other challenges facing this project and seems to be running smoothly.