STAIRWELL AND ELEVATOR SHAFT PRESSURE TESTING.
Future Controls was recently involved in Testing and Balancing a newly constructed twenty-two story hotel that was built on top of an existing five story structure in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. As part of the Test and Balance of the facility the elevator shafts and the stairwells were required to meet the county code pressure requirements during a fire alarm.
The stairwells and elevator shafts must maintain a positive pressure during a fire alarm to keep smoke from entering the stairwell in order to provide a safe smoke free passage to exit the building in case of a fire.
Achieving the required pressures proved to be an extremely difficult challenge. The two elevator shafts had separate pressurization fans serving the same lobbies as well as being connected to a stairwell with two pressurization fans. There were also two other stairwells in the building and two of the three stairwells were connected to the existing building.
The extremely difficult task was accomplished with the leadership of one of our most experienced Test and Balance Technician in conjunction with the combined efforts between the mechanical contractor, the general contractor, and the mechanical engineer.
OCT
2018