Yes, you'll need sprinklers

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Q. We’ve been told that we’ll need sprinklers all over our house because we’re doing a major renovation, including lifting half our split level so everything will be on the same floor — no split anymore. Why is that? None of our neighbors needed to. It will destroy our house if we have to put all that piping around. Are we being singled out?

A. Residential sprinklers have been a hot topic for years now, since the early ’80s, but were only adopted into the codes we follow in 2009, starting with new construction. As homes fell into that category by being over 50 percent renovation — having a third story, or being lifted so that the first floor is over 6 feet off the ground, making the first floor a second floor and the second floor a third floor — sprinklers were required. Why? Safety, first of all, and property savings.

Why property savings, you may ask? Well, imagine a small fire starting in your kitchen, just a flare-up on the stove. It catches some paper towel and before you can put it out, you have a fire spreading. So you call 911. They call your fire department to send out the alarm and volunteers spring into action, jumping into their cars and racing to the fire station. Within five minutes your house is engulfed, and within 12 minutes the fire trucks have arrived. They connect hoses and get to work, blowing out the front window, cutting holes in your roof to relieve heat so they can get closer to the fire to contain and put it out. Most of your home is heavily damaged or destroyed. You won’t be moving back in for months, after investigations by fire officials, insurance company and town inspectors, after plans and permits have been obtained, bids awarded and reconstruction completed.

Now, imagine that a sprinkler head closest to the fire was triggered before you got to the phone, and even though your kitchen was soaking wet, your house was saved from total destruction. If you could avoid the rest of a whole year’s worth of aggravation and losing most of your prized possessions, wouldn’t it be worth having sprinklers?

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