Hi gang,

My local fire chief in Ohio has asked for fire hydrants for a soon to be built self storage facility. We have no sewer and water and it is much too costly to bring the water down the street. The units will be steel construction. The facility will be about 34, 000 ft2. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Can't help you there. When we built our first facility we had to install 3 fire hydrants. And it was very expensive and that was about 11 years ago we installed them lol.

It sure does not help when there are articles in the national papers about fires at ss stores, it makes the world nervous. I do not know that you want to openly challenge your fire Marshall, as you may win the battle and lose the war. Do all of your competitors have fire hydrants? How many fires in your town at self-storage properties in the last 25 years? Does the fire department have tank trucks? What about more extinguishers on the propery, like every 50 feet? I assume you have proposed a sprinkler system. What about a holding tank or retention pond that could be pumped in the event of a fire? What has your architect suggested? Your GC?

There may be creative ways to approach this. How much does your feasibility study say can be spent on fire supression/protection?

Best wishes,
RK

__________________
RK Kliebenstein
Leader,
Coast-To-Coast Storage
P: 561.963.4004x81
U: www.askrk.com or www.HowToInvestInSelfStorage.com
E: rk@askrk.com

another note. The facility we had to install the hydrants at did have a fire about 2 years after we opened. Though that location is one block from the fire department.
But never the less I imagine it helped.

There is sales tax on self-storage rentals in Ohio. Perhaps you can make a deal with the city to share the cost of bringing the water down the street. Show them what the facility will produce in sales tax, income tax, and property tax on the increased value of the property.

I am working with 3 customers right now that are having similiar issues. I cant say for certain anyone has won any battle with the fire marshall. I run into this problem alot in NM and AZ where water on a site is rare. I do see a fair amount of above ground tanks put in to take care of this problem. But in a few situations the size of the tanks are soo large that it becomes a fairly large expense that in some situations can be allmost equal to the cost of running pipe and connecting hydrants. How many est on cost for this did you get? I have seen a very very large price range for the cost of doing this stuff. I had a project in Los Banos CA last year where my client got several bids on all the hydrants and pipe equipment he needed. He had a bid for one hydrant around $2,500. He got the same hydrant from another supply company for $600. Maybe you can have similiar success.

__________________
Trachte Building Systems
Jerad Pearson
314 Wilburn Road
Sun Prairie, WI 53590
www.trachte.com
800-356-5824 ext. 3111

Hi Jerad

Thanks for the info. My Trachte rep had no suggestions, however his competition offered a few.

In the meantime we have proposed a 'wet retention' basin. Thi is a 20,000 gallon pond complete with a hydrant. Basically it is on-site storm water management. Our meeting with the city is tonight.

A appreciate your comments.

Great idea. Thanks for the info.