Should the government mandate residential sprinkler systems in every new home starting in 2011? What is your opinion on this controversial matter?
I have heard both pros and cons on the subject from my clients. Some feel at any cost, safety comes first. I do understand this, but where does this stop? Will the government dictate what furniture we have in our homes, clothes we wear, in order to protect us from hazards that may happen.
We are in the worst housing recession since World War II, why burden the consumer with additional expenses at this time?
The Pennsylvania Builders Association is trying to press a lawsuit that seeks to restore codes in effect since 2006, so as to eliminate the mandate for residential sprinkler systems, therefore saving the consumer an average of $11,000.00 per new home. The PBA knows if this lawsuit doesn’t succeed, the steep increase in home prices will negatively affect our local economy tremendously.
Check out www.pabuilders.org. if you would like to get involved.
The figures you are posting are simply not true. There have been a myriad of studies over the last 20 years and the truth of the matter is that, on average, the increased cost of adding fire sprinklers to a new home is around 1.49 per square foot. On a 2000 square foot home that is right around 3,000 dollars… less than the average carpet upgrade. Now lets put this in perspective, over the past 12 years there has not been a single fatality due to fire in a home with a properly operating sprinkler system. Did you hear that? Not one. Smoke detectors can’t make that boast and quite frankly, though I am NOT an advocate of government intervention, seatbelt laws, drunk driving laws and smoke detector laws were all borne from the same types of public safety concerns. So If you disagree, fine. But get the facts straight okay? The real determining factors are: 1) How big is the water meter at the house? 2) What is the water pressure at the main? (or from the well in cases where city water is not available) 3) What is the necessary pressure of the furthest sprinkler head from the water inlet? Using the Hazen Williams method of calculating the system is quite easy at this point and when you do the math, you’ll find that 70% of all sprinkler systems can be installed with 3/4 CPVC piping, which costs roughly 60 cents per foot, most homes will use less than 150 feet. Each fitting will run you around 1.50 and the heads are about 7.00 each. if you added 50 fittings and 10 heads to the cost of the piping 90+75+70 you’re looking at about 235.00 in rough goods cost. To install a riser, valve and lockout may run you another 150.00 or so. Where is the “average” $11,000 bill coming from?
Walter, I believe you are in error. We are working with an manufactured home company (modular homes) to build a house in western PA and they tell us that the cost will be from $15,000 dollars on up. I appreciate the government trying to mandate safety but as others have noted, this will preclude many of us from building a home. I personally will have to nullify our contract if we go into year 2011 and have to add a sprinkler system because I will not be able to afford the additional amount on my mortgate.
I have done the research as well, and David is correct. The cost to have this put into a home is large, and will only add to the current burden on the housing market. It will with out a doubt, crush alot of American dreams of building their own home. It may actually keep me from doing exactly the same. The government needs to wake up and look a little further past their own noses into the future of America, and not its demise.
If your charged 15k for a sprinkler in a prefab your being price gouged horribly. On a home that has not had drywall installed you could do this in a couple days with plastic pipe. All these negative people are doing is over inflating prices and putting fear into people that really should be glad to be getting a home with a sprinkler. Reminds me of people selling plywood for a hundred bucks a sheet before th hurrican strikes.
Fine Line Homes builds quality “Stick Built” homes. David was referencing modular homes in Western PA. In the original blog article, information and pricing on sprinklers was obtained from the Pennsylvania Builders Assoc.
David and Steve,
We are currently working with a number of builders and contractors across the state both in modular as well as stick built construction and I am telling you that you are being lied to! I can raise my prices by 300% and I STILL couldn’t come close to the numbers you are talking about. Check out this website and then lets talk:
http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/PDF/Research/FireSprinklerCostAssessment.pdf
I think you’ll find that there is a ton of misinformation out there being passed around as gospel. Lets look at the facts and revisit this. I will work out a factual quote with a worst case and best case scenario for anyone who is interested in looking at the real numbers. We recently finished a small project in the city of Lancaster where we supplied the sprinkler products for 4 homes varying in size from 1540 sq feet to 2100 sq feet. The average installed cost of these homes was $2601. If we would have had to add a pump and tank you could figure another $1800, but we were lucky enough to have sufficient pressure at the street. It’s about time that people were told the truth.
I owned a nice piece of property and wanted to build this year. With this sprinkler requirement that just isn’t going to happen. There is no way I want sprinklers in my new home. No one else will either so, essentially, I am stuck with a nice piece of land that I can stick up my @**. No one else will buy it either. So essentially the State of PA defrauded me out of the value of my land.
This needs to be repealed or it will be just another reason to leave this state. If you are a builder you’ll need to find another line of work.
Jake… get real.
I am the Director of Residential Services at Adelphia Fire Protection, Inc.
We are a full service Fire Protection contractor serving Eastern and Central Pennsylvania. My company’s business is commercial and large scale residential (hotels, assisted living facilities). Due to the new sprinkler mandate that was put into place on Jan 1, 2011, we will also be offering our services to install sprinkler systems in single and two-family dwelling homes. I have done a substantial amount of pricing for residential home sprinkler systems. Our average price for a “stick built” 2,500 sq. foot home (including a full unfinished basement that is not counted in the 2,500 sq. foot price) is approx. $5,000 for a home built having a sufficient municipal water supply. The additional cost to include the material cost and material/labor of installation and testing of a fire pump and water storage tank for a home without municipal water (or with inadequate municipal water) is approx. $2,300. We are able to give quantity discounts to manufactured home manufacturers/builders and builders with developments or townhomes where homes will be done in succession.
Of course your builder is going to mark up a contractor’s price for any service (regardless if it is for sprinklers, granite counter top, carpet etc.). They are in business to make money. However, for whoever was told that it would be $15,000 for a sprinkler system, I would seriously question that source as your builder/dealer is either price gouging or has a very expensive contractor!
I have also checked pricing for a 1200sq ft new construction. The price was aprox $3500. Unfortunately, the lot will be supplied by a well, so an additional $3500 for the large 300 gal tank, which will obviously require additional support and area, brings the total to $7000.00. I just hate when someone tells me how to run my life. There are so many codes for fire prevention already. How many new homes, that are built to current code, actually go up in smoke. Unless the home owner is a total idiot and leaves a smoldering cigarette around or does something stupid to start a fire. Let me run my own life and I’ll take my chances. Now if I am living in a town home or condo, where my neighbor may cause a fire and it would affect my life, then I can see the need for more fire protection. But in an area where homes are separated, then I can’t see the need for sprinkler systems.
I understand the concerns for price on sprinkler systems, seems everything increases due to inflation and people getting a new “one” torn on construction. As Walter stated, the price is about 1.49 per sq foot. Some towns who have it mandated where it is law have it down to 80 cents per sq foot. I would gladly pay 45,000 dollars knowing that I had a sprinkler system to protect my children. The price for sprinkler systems can even be reduced due to the trade-offs that accompany them. If you have a sprinkler system you dont have to have the current high dollar fire rated materials used to build a new home today, they are much more relaxed on that due to the increase in fire protection you have. I wish it were mandatory here. People complain about smoke detectors but the sad thing is, 80% of house fires we go to don’t even have working detectors. Fire sprinklers would have saved 2 children that died in my town. They were both less than 3 years old, one 7 dollar sprinkler head would have saved their lives. As the economy keeps tanking, fire departments are having to cut back because of the lack of funding, laws like these help fire departments with minimum manning to have a fighting chance at saving lives and properties. The average house fire with a sprinkler system does about 2,166 dollars in damage versus a house fire without sprinkler systems with about 45,019 dollars in damage and everyone associates water damage with fires as well. In Scottsdale, the average house fire with sprinklers used only 340 gallons to extinuish a fire, versus 2900 gallons of water with homes without sprinklers. I know people say that could never happen to me, I am very smart about fire safety, how about your kids, visiting friends, or those contractors that build your house? I bet my paycheck they don’t do it by the book, perhaps drilling holes for wiring that are larger than codes mandate. Little things like that associated with wiring flaws are a concern for new construction, no place and nobody is fireproof. Why take a chance? This law is not for people wanting to make money, this is for people who lost children,parents, friends, and firefighters that are tired of going in and dragging bodies out that could have been saved by a cheap sprinkler head.
Well said Chris,
I’m just sorry that the majority of folks in our community are now going to find out the hard way. The mandate has been repealed for now and we just incurred 12 deaths due to fire over the last month including 5 in an apartment fire that had working smoke detectors. People say that they don’t want to be legislated to, well if your house catches on fire you are now taxing the rest of the community to come rescue you and your family… with multimillion dollar equipment, government paid personell and hundreds of hours of investigative work trying to figure out why your house burned… hopefully not with you in it. And this equipment and the people who man it, the buildings that house it and the administration to run it are all paid for by tax payers. And the volunteer firefighters who make up a large portion of the rural firefighting community are being asked to walk into homes with deficient floors and ceilings at their own peril to to attempt to save your life just in case you are still in the home when it catches on fire. The whole argument against being legislated to is lost in rhetoric… I haven’t been in a car accident in 25 years and yet every month, I give my money to the insurance company because Uncle Sam says I have to. Why not fight that battle instead? The builders have used their sway to influence lawmakers for their own benefit, not to keep you free from bad ol’ Uncle Sam. Don’t be a fool to believe it. The saddest part is that as Chris eluded to, the economic slump that we are experiencing is taxing our communities to their breaking point and instead of shouldering the burden at a fraction of the cost, we have given in to the Builders Association who see this as a 7 billion dollar per year business. We are nothing but numbers to them and they are now spending millions sending out congratulatory invitations to their cronies and the legislators that they have in their pockets as a way to thank them for their “continued support”. I recieved an invitation to one such event, won’t they be surprised when I show up! 🙂
God Bless you all… regardless of which side you stand.
There is no doubt that the Builders Association lobbied hard to repeal the sprinkler mandate but before criticizing them to sharply, one should look at how sprinklers became part of the IRC in the first place. It was largely thru the efforts of special interest groups that sprinklers were made part of the 2009 IRC code.
No one likes to hear of a fire that claims lives or damages property but in reality it is not typically new homes that burn. The sprinkler mandate in new homes does nothing to address the safety of people who live in older homes. Every time the price of a new home increases, it becomes less affordable for a larger segment of the population to own a new or newer home and forces more and more people into housing that was not built for today’s lifestyles and rising cost of energy.
Scott Newman
Vice President
Fine Line Homes
No one has ever addressed the insurance side where the sprinklers installed in second, third and more homes that are not monitored are getting a hike in insurance for water damage. Also the people who dont live in an area with central water have to have back-up power (generator + transfer switch) to run the fire pump!
Fireman Matt