Thread: cost of fire sprinkler system

Anyone have a ballpark (or better) cost of including a fire sprinkler system in new construction?

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Answering my own question, I found $1.00 - 1.50 per square foot. Anyone think that's realistic, or not?

Originally Posted by John Arnold

Answering my own question, I found $1.00 - 1.50 per square foot. Anyone think that's realistic, or not?

John:

The NAHB, the biggest whiners since the ICC's decision to require the sprinklers, says in their propaganda that the median cost is $5573 on the median size home of 2271 s.f. So that's about $2.45 per s.f. Of course, that is the cost to the builders. The final cost passed on to the home buyer is $6677 or $2.94 per s.f.

Except in some circumstances - homes far from fire departments, or homes built with 5' of separation from each other, IMO sprinkler systems in single family detached homes as unnecessary. Oh well, what are you going to do? Home builders will just pass the costs onto the consumer.

Some might think that the building code is written with only the interest of the public at heart. This is not entirely true. Just like politics, there are representatives from various industries who put forth recommendations to add or subtract items from the codes that help their industry. In this case the people who sell fire protection systems won. Does it protect the public? Perhaps, but I've seen far more water damaged homes than fire damaged ones.

That's because the water-damaged homes are still standing.

Thomas (a sprinklerman)