In light of the improved safety features of new construction, the high costs of sprinkler installation and maintenance, numerous questions about the systems themselves that still need to be addressed, and the demonstrated effectiveness of smoke alarms for saving lives, advocates for mandated sprinklers were unable to get the votes necessary to overturn an earlier ICC decision to keep sprinklers out of the main body of the residential code. This is a significant win for housing affordability and consumer choice in home safety decisions.

Had our efforts been unsuccessful at the Rochester code hearings, fire sprinklers would have been required in all new one- and two-family homes and townhouses wherever the IRC was adopted — something that would raise the cost of building a typical single-family home by as much as $6 per square foot or more and raise the threshold for homeownership significantly. With this decision, fire sprinklers will remain in the appendix of the IRC, where local jurisdictions can still adopt them if they so choose, and certainly home buyers will always have the option of choosing to have fire sprinklers installed in their new homes, as is appropriate.

While the battle to maintain fire sprinklers as optional rather than mandated equipment in new homes can be expected to continue in subsequent code development cycles, that does not diminish the great accomplishment that our NVPs, State Reps, EOs HBAs, members and staff achieved in explaining our concerns about mandates to building code officials so that they could understand the many questions and potential problems surrounding this issue. Ultimately, their input convinced voting code officials to make the most appropriate and balanced decision on fire sprinklers.

For more information, please e-mail Jeff Inks in NAHB's Construction Codes and Standards Department, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8547. [ return to top ]