Factory Mutual Review and Accetpance

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Author Message Marc C Chavez New member Username: Mchavez Post Number: 9 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Friday, October 11, 2002 - 02:00 pm:    The City of Tacoma is looking at this and have asked the "team" about cost impacts. I have heard from a fellow spec writer that this is a BIG hit requiring more than saying “FM-I-90” in the roof spec. The letter states that the “Building construction and finishing systems, roofing system” all the fire equipment, pumps et cetra “ should conform to FM Global recommended good practices” This sounds like a major pain in the ass. Am I wrong in this assumption? Tomas Mejia New member Username: Tommy Post Number: 3 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Monday, October 14, 2002 - 11:47 am:    I don't know about cost impact but I have a few problems with the stated sentence. The "Building construction and finishing systems" is basically the entire project. You cannot require materials in the project to comply with standards that don't apply or don't exist. The word "et cetera" is undefinable and is not to be used per CSI MOP FF170.4. The word "should" means the Contractor can, but doesn't have too. Does FM Global define what "good" practices" are? If so, do they also define "bad" practices? Marc C Chavez New member Username: Mchavez Post Number: 10 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Monday, October 14, 2002 - 12:08 pm:    You have misunderstood a portion of my post. I agree the sentence about “building systems” it scares the shit out of me because it is vague. That’s why it’s in quotes. And why I’m looking for some experience with FM Please note that the et cetera is not in quotes. There are other portions of the letter that I received that do make sense, so instead of quoting them I used an “et cetera.” Get it? Got it. Good! John Bunzick, CCS, CCCA New member Username: Bunzick Post Number: 34 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Tuesday, October 15, 2002 - 09:44 am:    Factory Mutual Research establishes standards for specific building systems: notably fire protection, roofing and fire separation. They publish directories of accepted products, as well as technical guides. Their roofing technical guides are excellent, I might add, and anyone doing significant roofing should be familiar with them. An important thing to know is that FM Research is a subsidiary of Factory Mutual, which is an insurance company. FMR's primary mission is to service their clients who are insured by a Factory Mutual insurance company by reducing the risk of losses. (The origninal building codes, by the way, were set up by the insurance industry after several devestating industrial fires cost them a bundle.) So, the FM standards are useful, but you need to focus on the need and intent of using the standards. If your owner is insured by FM, then Factory Mutual engineers are available to help make sure that the project meets the FM standards. If the owner is not an FM-insured entity, then you may be able to selectively review the standards and select ones appropriate to the project (with strong owner input, of course.) I believe that many of the FM standards are either already used by some industries, or closely parallel them.