County mulls sprinkler requirement

Friday, Feb. 4, 2011

Changes to the Calvert County Building Code could require automatic residential fire sprinkler systems to be installed in new one- and two-family homes.

The changes would reflect the Maryland State Department of Housing and Community Development's adoption of 2009 International Building Code and International Residential Code regulations.

"Like most jurisdictions, the county adopted the international code for several reasons," Calvert County Planning and Zoning Director Greg Bowen said during a building code work session of Tuesday's Calvert County Board of County Commissioners meeting. "It makes it easier for builders to be able to move from one jurisdiction to another and function with basically the same regulations. We're also associated with an international body that's reviewing the code regulations to ensure that they really are the best for public safety, energy efficiency, structural integrity — that these are good, sound regulations."

The current updates to the code include both international code adoptions and various recommendations made by the county building board in previous years.

The most significant change for residential developers, Bowen said, is the sprinkler system requirement for one- and two-family dwellings.

"This has been a requirement for multi-family homes for some time, where you have community water and sewer," Bowen said. "But this time it's being required for single-family homes."

The county's options for the regulation, he said, are to omit the section entirely and risk a safety hazard, adopt the section as written and risk rising costs of installing the systems or adopt the section as written with an effective date of July 1, 2013, to coincide with the next building code adoption cycle.

Commissioner Gerald W. "Jerry" Clark (R) said he would like to see a fourth option, "that would maybe mandate them in an area where there is public water and maybe not mandate them in the outskirts. Maybe we phase them in at a later date or something because there's significantly more cost when you put them out in a well than there is with a public water system."

According to an installation cost worksheet from the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office, the costs for installing a sprinkler system vary depending on the square footage of the dwelling and whether it will draw on public or well water. For an 800 square foot home, a sprinkler system would cost about $1,192 using public water and $3,042 using an individual well; for a 3,000 square foot home, those same costs are $4,470 and $6,320, respectively.

Bowen said legal counsel will research whether it is feasible to install sprinkler systems in selected areas only. St. Mary's County decided in December that new homes with private wells would not be required to install sprinkler systems. However, when the issue was up for discussion at a county commissioners' meeting, a representative from Bay District Volunteer Fire Department argued on behalf of the sprinkler systems and reported a total of 18 deaths due to fires in that district since 1974.

The neighboring county had actually passed the requirement for new single-family homes using public water to install sprinkler systems back in February 2008. At that time, former Commissioner Thomas Mattingly had pleaded with the rest of the board to also make it a requirement for homes that use well water since those homes tend to be located in rural areas where it takes a while for firefighters to respond.

In 2007, the state fire marshal praised the use of automatic sprinkler systems after such a system was deemed responsible for controlling the blaze at a Waldorf townhouse. Charles County and urban counties have chosen to install sprinkler systems in new homes built throughout the county, Bowen added.

"I mean Lord knows this is an expense, but … If it saves one person then your positive vote [in favor of the sprinkler system] is great. If it harms one person [because you voted against it] and your negative vote is there, you have to live with that," Clark said.

Commissioners' President Susan Shaw (R) said the high expenses of installing the system in an area without public water stem from the costs of burying a tank from which the system can draw.

"Our firefighters are very strongly in favor of this, and our public safety personnel, but then it does add cost at a time when people are struggling to get into homes," she said.

Other variations in system installation prices depend on issues like cathedral ceilings, concealed sprinklers, unfinished basements, the number of homes that need it and whether a booster pump is required to increase municipal water supply pressure. The last criteria could mean up to $1,000 extra, according to the cost analysis worksheet.

However, Bowen also said a number of insurance companies will provide a discount to homeowners with a sprinkler system, "because they shoot on and they just get the area where the fire is, and so the damage is less even if you do have an event."