Sprinklers and Fire Department Jurisdiction

Fire Alarm Systems in a Home Plus

One of the biggest decisions for operators of new residential group homes including Home Pluses and Children’s Homes is to decide how many residents to license for. While it’s tempting to buy the biggest home with the most bedrooms that you can afford, the biggest additional cost to your new business is when you decide to have 9 or more residents. The Life Safety Code (Section 32.2.3.5.1) says that all existing building being converted into a new residential group homes of 1 or more residents shall be protected with a automatic sprinkler system. Reading further, there is an exception (Section 32.2.3.5.2) that for homes with 8 or less residents “that have the ability as a group to move reliably to a point of safety within three minutes” the owner may provide a statement to keep on file with the state, thereby removing the requirement to sprinkle the home. Note this is for existing homes being converted into a home plus, there are different rules for brand new homes.

The State of Kansas has its own governing body that reviews and regulates fire codes, known as the Office of the State Fire Marshall, or OSFM. Furthermore, each country and or city may have their own fire departments, that have local jurisdictional approval authorities. The local fire departments typically all adopt the Life Safety Code and other major national and international fire codes, often without making changes. All fire department jurisdictions have the right to make any changes to these codes as they like, they can make the code requirements more stringent or less, based on their preferences, beliefs, experiences, or even tailor the codes to suit the local needs or abilities of their jurisdiction.

For most of the state of Kansas, the various jurisdictional fire departments follow the so called Sprinkler Exception for residential group homes, including such large jurisdictions as Topeka or Wichita. At least one department however does not allow the sprinkler exception for Home Pluses. The Overland Park Fire Department has removed the sprinkler exception for their jurisdiction, meaning all homes in Overland Park must have an automatic sprinkler system.

Sprinklering a home is an expensive process that starts at the street rather than in the home itself. Most sprinkler systems require upgrading the water meter at the street, and even enlarging the water line supplying water to the home to handle the required water pressures for the system to work properly. Once inside the home, what is known as a fire riser is installed, this is a kind of backflow preventer system that helps regulate water pressure into the sprinkler system, and prevents water from backing up into the water supply potentially contaminating it. From there sprinkler piping is run throughout the entire home, pipes often are placed in attic spaces, but sometimes in order to keep from freezing they are ran in hallways and a new soffit or lowered ceiling is built around them to protect the pipes and hide them from view. Every room in the home must be protected by the fire sprinkler with no exceptions, including small closets.

Sprinkler systems are far to complex for a do-it yourselfer to install, and require engineered drawings to be developed by a licensed professional, and approved by the state; which means it’s beyond the reach of the abilities of most plumbers. Options are also limited, for example in the Wichita area, there are only about three companies that can provide engineered sprinkler drawings and install the systems. All of this means that a sprinkler system can be very costly. The materials themselves aren’t cheap, and costs include trenching in new lines, possibly building soffits, engineers fees, etc. This also adds time to your project and if you don’t coordinate your code plan and design efforts early on, could delay your opening your home and cost you more money. For a single level ranch home in the Wichita area, sprinkler systems start at about $25,000, and can be as expensive as $35,000-$40,000. Some home owners purchased two levels homes, with a basement that is inaccessible to residents. This means that not only did they pay for square footage that they can’t use for much more than storage, an office, or laundry and mechanical, but now they must sprinkle the basement as added costs. A full-sized basement under a home can double the cost of the sprinkler system to $50,000 or more, and at worst could add $15,000 plus to homes with partial basements.

Sprinkler systems, despite their high costs, shouldn’t be viewed as a negative; homes protected by sprinklers are by their nature a safer home, and that should be a selling point to potential residents and their families, after all, aren’t we all looking for peace of mind?