THE IMPORTANCE OF DRY RISERS

Dry Risers are an essential part of any building design where the height of the building exceeds 18 metres from the fire brigade access level to the top floor.  They are also required where there are floors more than 10 metres below ground.  The question is why are they so essential and for that matter, why have they found their way into the jurisdiction of Building Regulations?

Put simply, the answer to both these questions are very straight forward -  Dry Risers can and do save lives and as such needs stringent regulation.

So what is are Dry Risers and how do they work?

A dry riser is a system of pipe work and valves that runs up through a building.  The system allows fire fighters to easily access water from each individual floor of the building. It consists of a vertical pipe with a water inlet on ground level located on an external wall and outlets known as landing valves, which are usually located in a dry riser cabinet on each floor.  Dry risers are usually located in the fire fighting shaft.

The fire fighters fill the dry riser pipe with pressurised water by connecting the fire engine hose to the inlet on the ground floor.  They can then connect hoses directly to the lifesaving water supply on the floor nearest to the fire using the outlet valves connected to the dry riser.

Connecting the hoses in this way is a much quicker system for the fire fighters.  The hoses they use to connect on each floor are shorter and therefore lighter and there is no requirement to run long heavier hoses up through the whole of the building.  The Dry Riser method saves time and ultimately saves lives.

To ensure its effectiveness and legal compliance, the Dry risers need to be designed and installed to meet British standards namely BS9990:2015, BS9991, BS9999 and Approved Document B (Fire Safety) of the Building Regulations (England & Wales).  Using a specialist company to design and install a dry riser system is essential.  Dry Risers Direct can help.

Dry Riser system