Comments on: California Adopting 2009 IRC With The Residential Fire Sprinkler Requirement

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:00:59 +0000

The only thing this will accomplish is added expense to a build and another system that will eventually fail and cause damage. Mold, mildew, and water damage are now much more likely in new homes. Fire alarms (already mandatory) will allow people to exit if there is a fire and fire insurance is already there (and still necessary despite this) to cover the damage to a structure. This is an incredibly ridiculous requirement that will only further drive up the cost of buying and maintaining a house with minimal (if any) safety gain to the occupants. There are undeniable cost consequences to the homeowner when it breaks or goes off unnecessarily at some point. I’m sure ServPro and ServiceMaster are cheering this requirement all the way to the bank.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:28:16 +0000

I understand where you come from but think of it this way, that 7 grand will almost always ensure that your house will not completely burn down. fire fighters don’t just show up and wave a wand to put out the fire. It doesnt just save your life it saves your house. Fighting the fire takes time and once a truss is exposed to flame they last about 5 minutes.

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:33:02 +0000

This new requirement is total BS. Has no one in government taken Econ 101 and learned the law of diminishing returns? It will cost me $7000 to build one of these into my new 3500 sq. ft. house, which already is required to have smoke detectors, etc. For that money, my chance of surviving a fire in my house will improve from 99.4% to 99.6% – if my house were going to burn 500 times, that one extra time it helped me live would not be worth $7,000. If the cost were $1500 or below, the benefit might equate to the cost, but to anyone other than an insurance company or fireman, neither of whom is footing this bill, it’s nuts.

By: Kraus

Kraus — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 07:40:37 +0000

In response to “structural engineer’s” question.

In my experience, on custom single-family home projects in northern California (approx. 2000 sf to 2500 sf in size), the cost of a fire sprinkler system runs about $6K to $7K plus the costs of hooking up to the municipal water system (which varies from one jurisdiction to the next).

By: Residential Fire Sprinklers .com

Residential Fire Sprinklers .com — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 05:25:43 +0000

The cost of a sprinkler system depends on several factors such as new construction or remodel, available water supply and floor plan of the house. There is a study that has been published on the cost of residential systems that may be helpful:

http://www.residentialfiresprinklers.com/blog/residential-fire-sprinklers-cost-and-insurance-discount-study-released/

By: structural engineer

structural engineer — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:28:58 +0000

Well, to be fair when considering cost and benefit- how much does it cost, on average, to install one of these systems in a home?

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 03:41:10 +0000

Even though you live half a mile from the fire station, your house could be totally involved by the time they arrive. with the amount of plastics and other types of synthetic materials being used in todays homes flashover is being achieved with greater speeds. This means that even though you live half a mile from the station your house surely could be destroyed by the time the FD takes about 4-5 minutes to arrive. The 13D system would prevent this from happening thus you could escape, and continue to write comments in this blog about how these 13D systems suck….CHEERIO!

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 03:30:34 +0000

80% of all fire deaths occur in residences. These 13D systems allow occupants to escape by preventing flashover and maintaining survivable conditions for around 10 minutes. As stated in previous post’s if the system is installed correctly the chance of a false alarm is minimal. Wouldn’t you rather have ten minutes to escape rather than die? put that in your pipe and smoke it…

By: Travis

Travis — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:38:36 +0000

I’ am a fire code official and Ms. Tescar has a right to her opinion we should educate rather than insult, Ms. Tescar I understand your concern $30K is alot of money although the last research is that not one life has been lost with an NFPA 13D system properly installed and maintained and the loss of a life cannot have a price put on it.

By: Ralph

Ralph — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 19:23:56 +0000

Tim,
Your answer to Ms. Laura is pretty good. She sounds like she works for the American Home Burners Association.
If she had $30,000 worth of damage from a sprinkler, it must have been on an upper floor with no indication that the sprinkler had activated and noone was at the fire house when the alarm came in.
If a sprinkler system is properly installed, with horn-strobes that activate with water flow or even with smoke detectors, and the neighbors know what the horn-strobe is for, there is no reason for the “stupid system” to cause that much damage.
People did not like “stupid seatbelts”, “stupid GFCIs”, “stupid safety glass” or “stupid smoke detectors” when they first became requirements. People often don’t know enough about the reasons for and results of having all of these “stupid systems” required. In general, people will not do the right thing unless they are forced to by requlation.
Keep up the good fight for residential sprinklers.