12.1 NFPA 13 Chapter 28 Working-Plan Content

12.1 NFPA 13 Chapter 28 Working-Plan Content

Quick Answer: On the July 2024 Level I exam, working plans live in NFPA 13 (2022) Chapter 28. A trainee assembles scaled floor plans that name the owner, locate the building, occupy every room, identify the design approach, document the water supply, and show sprinklers, pipe, hangers, hydraulic nodes, hose demand, and a legend. Do not hang pipe from an unapproved set when the contract requires AHJ or owner approval first.

Official task 1.6.1 Assemble submittal packages is the entire Assemble Submittal Packages domain on the April 12, 2024 NICET Water-Based Systems Layout Level I outline (exam release July 8, 2024). That domain is 1–10% of the exam. At Level I you are a trainee under frequent supervision. You do not independently stamp a design. You assemble the drawings, product data, hydraulic summary, and transmittal so a supervisor can QC them and send them out.

Open Chapter 28 in the 2022 book

The permitted exam books are the 2022 editions. In NFPA 13 (2022), Chapter 28 is Plans and Calculations. Section 28.1 is Working Plans. If you still have older tabs in muscle memory, reset them before you waste exam minutes:

• NFPA 13 2016 put Plans and Calculations in Chapter 23. Chapter 27 in that edition is System Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance.
• NFPA 13 2019 moved Plans and Calculations to Chapter 27.
• NFPA 13 2022 moved the same subject to Chapter 28. Chapter 27 in the 2022 book is Special Occupancy Requirements.

Say it once and then stop looking in Chapter 27 for the submittal list. Opening 2022 Chapter 27 during the exam is how a July 2024 candidate spends three minutes inside special-occupancy rules instead of the working-plan checklist.

This section teaches the categories a Level I trainee must put on the sheets. NFPA 13 28.1.3 is a long numbered list of items that apply to the design. This chapter did not open that full numbered list from a public copy of the 2022 standard, so it does not pretend it recited every numeral. On exam day, open 28.1 and tick every item that pertains to the system in front of you.

What you actually assemble for supervisor review

A submittal package is not "the CAD file." It is a controlled set of documents:

1. Working plans (shop drawings) — scaled floor plans of each level, plus details the 28.1 list requires for that system.
2. Product data / cut sheets — listed manufacturer sheets for the sprinklers, valves, hangers, and other devices drawn on the plans (the next section treats matching SINs).
3. Hydraulic calculation summary — even when a Level II or III person ran the calc. Level I includes it in the stack and does not rebuild the node-by-node worksheets.
4. Owner / AHJ transmittal — project name, sheet index, calc date, list of cut sheets, and the signed owner's certificate when 28.1 requires it.

NFPA 13 28.1 has long required working plans to be submitted for approval before equipment is installed or remodeled. Secondary viewers of 28.1 still summarize that duty, along with hydraulic calculations, component data sheets, and a signed owner's certificate as part of the submission. Confirm the current 28.1 charging paragraph in the exam book. The contract often adds the engineer of record and the owner to that approval list. Do not install from the estimator's bid plot when the contract requires an approved set.

Worked trainee scene: a 24,000 ft² ordinary-hazard warehouse with a light-hazard office wing. The Level III designer finished pipe sizes Friday. Your Monday job is not to make the plotter look busy. It is to confirm the cover sheet names the owner and occupant, every room has an occupancy, the water-supply note matches the flow-test memo, the sprinkler schedule lists make/model/SIN/K/temperature, hangers are shown, hydraulic nodes on the plan match the calc printout, and the transmittal lists every sheet. If any of those are missing, the package is not ready for the supervisor's stamp-out.

Working-plan content categories

NFPA 13 28.1 requires plans drawn to an indicated scale, on sheets of uniform size, with a plan of each floor, showing the items from the Chapter 28 list that pertain to the design. Electronic submission is acceptable when the AHJ allows it. Typical categories a Level I trainee hunts on every sheet:

Also expect a point of compass (north arrow) and a stated scale that matches the plotted sheet. MeyerFire's 2024 recap of the 2022 rewrite of 28.1.3 is useful context, not a substitute for the book: the 2022 list dropped the old whole-building cross-section as a checklist item and put more labels on the floor plans (ceiling heights, major structure, obstructed versus unobstructed). It also calls out ceiling fixtures, owner's-certificate information on the drawings, design criteria for each space, flexible-drop data when flex is used, and more seismic detail. Treat those as reasons to open 28.1.3, not as a claim that this study section recited the numerals.

The owner's certificate still travels with the working plans. MeyerFire cites 2022 28.1.4 for the signed certificate in the submission and 28.1.3(14) for putting certificate information — storage materials and heights, water-supply notes, whether seismic bracing is required — on the drawings, not only in a PDF in the binder. A Level I trainee includes the signed certificate and checks that the floor-plan notes do not contradict it.

Occupancy hatching is a defect, not a CAD preference

"Occupancy of each area" is working-plan content. A hatch, color, or bold room label that tells the reviewer this room is light-hazard office, that room is ordinary-hazard storage, and the corridor is light hazard is how the sheet communicates. A missing occupancy hatch (or equivalent occupancy label) on a room is a working-plan defect. It is not a CAD standard the architect prefers you skip. Density, spacing, temperature rating, and extra-stock all follow occupancy. If Room 112 is unlabeled, the AHJ cannot tell whether the 15 ft spacing you drew is even in the right table.

Worked defect: the office wing is hatched light hazard. The adjacent break room with residential-style cooking and a storage closet is left white because it is small. That white room is a comment waiting to happen. Hatch it or label it. If you do not know the occupancy, that is a question for the supervisor and the owner's certificate, not a blank polygon.

The same logic applies to rooms with no sprinklers. Concealed spaces, small enclosures, and bathrooms where heads are omitted still need to be identified, with the omission path the designer is using. A white void that might be a closet, an elevator machine room, or a 2-hour stair is not a complete plan.

Symbols the reviewer must be able to read

The legend is part of the working plan, not a title-block decoration. Distinguish at least:

• Sprinkler orientations — pendent, upright, sidewall, concealed. A circle that means everything is how a dry pendent in a freezer gets installed as a recessed office pendent.
• Valves — control valves, check valves, backflow, floor-control assemblies. The reviewer is looking for a shutoff and a means to test.
• Fire department connection (FDC) — location relative to the building and fire-department access.
• Inspector's test — the connection that proves waterflow alarms, not a random 1-inch drip.
• Drains — main drain, auxiliary drains at trapped sections, especially on dry systems.

NFPA 170 publishes fire-safety symbols used across the industry; many shops also keep an in-house CAD library. Either way, this set of drawings must include its own legend. Do not assume the AHJ memorized your office's block. If two head types share a symbol that differs only by a layer color that disappears in black-and-white plots, the reviewer will bounce the set.

Hydraulic nodes, hangers, hose, and existing supplies

Hydraulic reference points are the letters or numbers on the plan that match the calculation worksheet. If the summary says node R-1 is the base of the riser and node 14 is the most remote sprinkler, those tags must appear on the drawing at those fittings. A pretty isometric with no nodes is not a hydraulic plan. The most remote area should be outlined so a reviewer can see that the calc and the geometry are the same place.

Hanger locations belong on the working plans because hanging is part of the installation the AHJ is approving. A note that says "hang per NFPA 13" without showing where hangers fall on a 21-foot branch line is incomplete for a shop that has to buy rod and inserts.

Hose demand is not optional decoration. The design approach (density/area, room design, storage) sets a hose allowance that is added to sprinkler flow. Chapter 28 expects that hose demand to show up with the hydraulic information on the plans. If the office is light hazard and the warehouse is ordinary hazard, confirm which hose figure the calc used and that the plan nameplate repeats it.

Capacity of existing supplies matters on tenant-improvement and addition jobs. If a tank and an old pump already serve the core, the working plans must show what that equipment can actually deliver, not a new city-main curve copied from a different site. Enough of the existing system must appear so the reviewer can see the effect on the old remote area.

A trainee QC pass before you hand the set to the supervisor

Walk the 24,000 ft² warehouse set once with Chapter 28 open in the exam book and once with a red pen:

1. Cover: owner, occupant, street address, point of compass, scale.
2. Every room: occupancy hatch or label, including toilets, electric rooms, and the unoccupied mezzanine.
3. Design approach note: ordinary-hazard density/area in the warehouse, light-hazard density/area in the office, not "sprinklers throughout."
4. Water supply: static, residual, flow, test date, test location, elevation versus the base of the riser.
5. Sprinkler schedule: make, model, SIN, K, temperature, finish, count.
6. Pipe sizes and type on every run you would fabricate.
7. Hanger symbols on mains and branch lines.
8. Hydraulic nodes matching the calc sheet, including the most remote area outline.
9. Hose demand on the hydraulic placard.
10. Legend that uniquely identifies orientations, valves, FDC, inspector's test, and drains.

If step 2 or step 8 fails, stop. That is not a plotter problem. That is an incomplete working plan.

When the contract requires AHJ or owner approval, the field does not hang pipe, cut underground, or get a head start on fabrication from this set until the approved stamp comes back. Unapproved fabrication is how extra stock, extra holes, and extra hearings happen. The next section covers cut sheets, the hydraulic summary a Level I technician reads, and the approval loop that produces that stamp.