Vertical Clearances

Zman

I am working as an owners agent on large commercial renovation and had interesting issue come up.
The project has a large boiler room with (3) 3 million BTU boilers. The boilers are vertical fin tubes. The room has a ceiling height of about 8'-6".

I walked into the boiler room while the technicians where beginning to install the pre fabricated near boiler piping and noted that the first flange they had installed in front of the boiler was at 6'-0" (about 5'-10 1/2" after insulation). I asked the technicians how far into the room the pipes where going to be run at that elevation. They indicated that the pipes would stay at that elevation until they where about 6' away from the front of the boilers.

I immediately contacted the supervisor and indicated that the staff conducted daily boiler logs and that it was unacceptable for them to have to duck or hit their heads in order to check the boilers. I also indicated that there was not adequate service clearance.

After a bit of conversation, it was determined that the pipes could be raised about 4" without a lot of reconfiguring and we could all live with the solution.

A few days later the shop fabrication foreman and the owner of the company heard about the change and threw a fit. They prepared a wildly inflated invoice for the labor and materials involved in the change and demanded payment.

We have taken the position that we should pay nothing extra as all we want is adequate serviceability. The contractor says there are no codes governing and that they can put the pipes wherever they want. I asked if 4' off the floor would be acceptable to them. They said yes, there is no regulation.

The boiler manufacture does not state vertical clearances and the shop drawing provided by the contractor did not indicate elevations.

My question, is there anything in any written boiler code that supports our position? I cannot seem to find it in the IMC, the manufactures instructions or Colorado regs. I know there are some pipefitting manuals of generally accepted practices. Maybe something from Ashrea or Ansi?

Thanks in advance...

SWEI

Check the OSHA confined space regs. I'm not sure where the 'permit required' inflection point lies, but you may be able to claim an undue burden placed on the owners.