Confirm which rooms the design treats as IT equipment areas, then trace their construction, raised floor and ceiling voids, detection, suppression, HVAC, and power disconnects through every discipline. AI can flag document conflicts; the design team confirms compliance.
What does NFPA 75 cover?
NFPA 75 is the Standard for the Fire Protection of Information Technology Equipment. NFPA describes it as covering the protection of information technology equipment and equipment areas from damage by fire or its associated effects: smoke, corrosion, heat, and water.
NFPA’s official NFPA 75 page identifies the 2024 edition as current when checked on October 1, 2026. Confirm the edition, local amendments, and project scope that actually govern the work. The publisher’s newest edition does not establish local adoption.
Record which rooms the owner and design team classify as IT equipment areas and why. The owner’s risk tolerance, the insurer, and the adopted codes all influence the protection chosen. For data halls with clean agent systems, pair this review with the NFPA 2001 clean agent guide.
Gather the room and its supporting systems
Collect the architectural plans and sections for each IT room, rated wall and door information, raised floor and ceiling plans, detection and fire alarm documents, sprinkler or suppression layouts, mechanical cooling plans with shutdown points, the electrical one-line with disconnects, and the specifications.
Confirm that every discipline uses the same room names and boundaries. A room renamed from storage to a server room partway through design may not have reached the fire protection or electrical packages.
Check each IT room across the disciplines
| Review question | Sources to compare | Decision to record |
|---|---|---|
| Room designation | Room names, code summary, owner program | Resolve rooms treated as IT areas in some documents and not in others. |
| Construction and openings | Rated wall plans, door schedule, penetrations | Match the room boundary to the separation the design describes. |
| Raised floor and ceiling voids | Raised floor plan, RCP, sections | Identify voids that detection or suppression documents do not address. |
| Detection and suppression | Fire alarm plans, sprinkler or suppression layout | Confirm protection appears for each room and void the design covers. |
| Cooling and shutdown | Mechanical plans, controls, sequences | Trace which cooling units and dampers respond to an alarm in the room. |
| Power disconnects | Electrical one-line, plans, controls | Locate the disconnects the design calls for and the controls that operate them. |
For whole facilities, use the data center review page. The access flooring specification guide compares the raised floor section with the drawings.
Example: a server room appears only on the electrical plans
Hypothetical example. The electrical plans show new racks and a dedicated panel in a room the architectural plans still label as storage. The fire alarm and sprinkler documents treat it as ordinary storage, and the mechanical plans show no dedicated cooling or shutdown.
The electrical plans show IT equipment in a room the architectural, fire alarm, and sprinkler documents treat as storage. Please confirm the room’s use and coordinate its construction, protection, cooling, and power disconnects.
The design team confirms the use with the owner and revises the affected disciplines. The mismatch is a question about room use and documentation, not a determination of required protection.
Review IT equipment rooms with Groundbook
Upload the current project PDFs and relevant specifications to Groundbook. Identify the governing issues and add the applicable NFPA 75 reference from a copy you are licensed to use, where the license permits uploading it. State the edition, amendments, review area, and known exclusions in your instructions.
Compare the IT equipment rooms across the architectural, raised floor, fire alarm, sprinkler or suppression, mechanical, and electrical documents. Flag rooms with conflicting use, unprotected voids, and missing shutdowns or disconnects. Use the supplied NFPA 75 reference where applicable and cite both sources.
Groundbook links each potential finding to the sheets behind it. Confirm the room name and revision before sending a question, and route each one to the discipline that owns the decision.
Document review does not select a protection strategy, calculate cooling or suppression, or approve the design. Those remain with the design team, the owner, and the authority having jurisdiction.