Almost time to sprinkle...

The sprinkler systems are coming! We realize you may not know what we’re talking about, so we’ll clarify and try not to get to technical or boring. Fire protection sprinkler systems will be required in all new single-family homes starting January 1, 2011. The will be required in new town homes and multi-family housing as of January 1, 2010. Now, there is still a chance that this could change. There are two pieces of legislation floating around that would either remove sprinkler systems or just make builders continue to follow the 2006 building codes rather then moving to the 2009 codes.

Still following? Trust us, it isn’t as bad as it sounds! We attended a residential sprinkler forum (you don’t need to be jealous, we’re sharing the information with you!) in Harrisburg a few weeks ago to get the details so that we could keep you “in the know.” The residential systems are not the same as the systems you will find in Home Depot or Lowes (we like home improvement stores, we can’t help it). In fact, the system that could be in your home would only be designed to run about eight to ten minutes, just long enough to get out of you house during a fire. Since the systems don’t run long the chances of needing a water tank in your basement are slim.

Now to the fun part, a true and false quiz about sprinkler systems!
(The quiz comes from the United States Fire Administration)

1. When one sprinkler goes off, all the sprinklers activate.
False! Only the sprinkler over the fire will activate. The sprinkler heads react to temperatures in each room individually. Ninety percent of fires are contained by the operation of one sprinkler.
2. A sprinkler could accidentally go off, causing severe water damage to a home.
False! Records compiled for well over 50 years prove the likelihood of this occurring is very remote. Furthermore, home sprinklers are designed specifically and test rigorously to minimize such accidents.
3. Water damage from a sprinkler system will be more extensive then fire damage.
False! The sprinkler system will limit a fire’s growth severely. Therefore, damage from a home sprinkler system will be much less then the smoke and fire damage if the fire had gone on unabated, or less then the water damage caused by water from firefighting hose lines.
4. Home sprinkler systems are expensive.
False! Current estimates suggest that when a home is under construction, a home sprinkler system costs approximately 1 to 1.5 percent of the total building price.
5. Residential sprinklers are ugly.
False! The traditional, commercial-type sprinklers as well as sprinklers for home use now are being designed to fit in with most any décor.