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Los Angeles Drainage codes

DTLALLOFTDWELLER

attention grabbing title!!   First posty on the forum  lets see how this goes         

I live in HOA commercial/residential loft building built in 20s rerpurposed  in 2012. I had a small fire (2ft x 2ft on matress) Sprinkler head was right above and came on. water came out till LAFD showed and turned them off 23 minutes later.

Fire damage $1000

HOA wanted to remediate after calling Mold inspectors/. I look at the mold report and ell them Im not moving out, There is no mold, and cleaning estimate for loft wwas $80,000 

Basement had some water, I live on fiirst floor of 6 floors

I couldnt stop the remediation in basement, and they racket up over $60,000 of BS

So my question is, why didn't the water drain out of the basement? Isn't there supposed to be a drain?  Wouldn't drains need to be present to be up to code?

The building is mixed use with 3 commercial and 100 live work lofts. Floors walls ceilings are concrete and rebar.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you in advance

**MODS  IF I AM IN THE WRONG CATEGORY PLEASE MOVE THE THREAD

 
Sep 2, 23 11:27 am
Janosh

There is no such code requirement.

Sep 2, 23 11:45 am  · 
3  · 
Non Sequitur

Nope. Should have bought insurance.

Sep 2, 23 12:24 pm  · 
2  · 
natematt

Hate when I light my bed on fire. Happy when the sprinkler goes off and prevents it from burning my whole apartment down and roasting me like a marshmallow though.

Sprinklers are to prevent death, and generally reduce damage. Buildings don’t sprinkler down… they burn down. There is generally no code provision for drains in basements because you’re not actually supposed to have water in your basement or anywhere other than a shower in most buildings. Buildings are water resistant from the outside, not so much from the inside, that would be largely impractical from a construction cost and operations standpoint. 

Sep 3, 23 4:19 am  · 
2  · 
natematt

It isn’t uncommon in some areas to have sump drains in your basement, but that’s primarily about actual flooding, not sprinklers….   In LA you mostly see them in elevator shafts, because there are sometimes provisions requiring them there. 

Sep 3, 23 4:28 am  · 
 · 
DTLALLOFTDWELLER

The fire was limited to a 2ft x 2ft area where a hair dryer was left on. Bed sits on a plynth allowing for storage underneath if necessary  Sprinkler head was five feet above the fire. I was putting it out with a leather jacket when the sprinklers came on and extinguished the fire.. The sprinklers continued another 23 minutes. A $1200 mattress was the only victim was my thought as I went down the stairs. It was smokey, but not too bad. HOA wanted to remediate my loft but I declined It took about a week to get everything wiped down. Ducts were cleaned as well.     Even without the remediation costs of cleaning my loft, Basement is at $80,000 and counting. What irritates me is all mold reports were negative, they are doing it anyways.  Hard to believe there isn't a mandate for building drainage.

I predict $120,000 bill at the end. It should have been $1000   

Keep in mind walls, floors, and ceiling are non flammable concrete.

-venting-

Sep 3, 23 3:38 pm  · 
 · 
Non Sequitur

Again, read the discussion. Building codes are here to anticipate people doing stupid things like putting a hair-dryer on flammable surface, hence why the sprinklers went off.  They did their job and protected your neighbours.  The water does not need a specific path/drain, that's not how emergency things work.  Looks like you have a few cheques to write.

Sep 3, 23 4:51 pm  · 
1  · 
natematt

You should probably be talking to a lawyer first, they can talk to an architect for you who might be able to help argue about that cost. However, they won’t argue that you shouldn’t have had sprinklers go off, or that there should have been drains related to fire sprinklers.

While we are here, another point that is hard for a layperson to understand: Non-flammable materials do not make a fire resistant building.

Honestly, best of luck.

Sep 4, 23 3:16 am  · 
2  · 
citizen

You'll be glad to know the sprinklers don't work, guys.  Have a great day!

Man On Fire GIFs | Tenor

Sep 4, 23 2:15 pm  · 
3  · 
b3tadine[sutures]

Wait, the walls are concrete? Are you sure bout that?

Sep 4, 23 3:34 pm  · 
1  · 
JLC-1

Maybe it was a prison before

Sep 4, 23 4:26 pm  · 
 · 
citizen

Maybe they're concrete as in "real and actual" as opposed to "a mix of water, cement, and union boss corpses."

Sep 5, 23 12:28 am  · 
1  · 

most well known drainage code in LA:
312.1 Shit goes downhill and Friday is payday

Sep 4, 23 4:05 pm  · 
1  · 

Ok,
Fire starts from plugged in forgotten activated position hair dryer,
smoke is picked up by a nearby detector and goes to alarm mode,
nearby sprinklers above are activated,
circuit of the hair dryer is automatically shut off,
sprinklers go on as long as necessary,
the responsible person for the hair dryer pays the deductible of $200 for the localized damage clean-up and repair.

Isn't this automation available already? I think $80,000 is ridiculous to stick somebody with. This and forgetting the iron and forgetting the stove on are common mishaps. I would assume that we need a better fire tech to deal with them.

Sep 4, 23 7:44 pm  · 
1  · 

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