Fire sprinklers in your cabin

[jesse977]

 I will start to build a cabin in a year or so in California. Code says I need fire sprinklers. Has anyone installed them? Pics?

[rick91351]

If this goes unnoticed you might PM flyingvan seems he was Ca required.   

[MountainDon]

There are many places where an exterior sprinkler system would be a good idea. I have seen a very few installations where sprinklers on the roof tops have been used successfully to ward of wildfires.

[rick91351]

There are many places where an exterior sprinkler system would be a good idea. I have seen a very few installations where sprinklers on the roof tops have been used successfully to ward of wildfires.

I agree with you MD.  However somehow - someway your water supply be it a storage tank needs its own fire pump be it gas or electric with a generator.  Or the well pump need to be on its own backup power unless there is a pressured municipal water source.  Every major fire we have had in this area, our power is the first to go.  I assume we are not all that unusual,

Lots of times it is the transmission lines out in the desert many miles away.  The Elk Complex fire the power went down in the lighting storm - the same storm that started the fire that almost got us up here.  The main thing is be prepared thinking things through and talking to as many people in the fields or fire prevention as you can.

My thinking is I would so love to have an engineered pressurized exterior system around the edges of my set backs.  Unless I can make my setbacks far enough away and there is no chance of a bridge from vegetation to dwelling trapping heat and causing a fire.  The main reason our open porches are on the side that they are on.                 

[flyingvan]

  Don---fire sprinklers are required in the WIldland Urban Interface.  It has nothing to do with their ability to protect a house from wildfires though.  One of the more common points of origin for wildfires, though, is housefires, and housefires are very effectively kept isolated to part of a room by fire sprinklers.  They are to protect the forest from the houses, not the other way around.
  Honestly, the hardest part about installing the fire sprinklers was finding a suppliers willing to let me do it myself---sounds like it's a very competetive business and they didn't want to give up any 'trade secrets'.
  They handed me a list of requirements---it was something like no closer than 3' to the nearest wall, 4' to the nearest sprinkler...Had to have one under the stairs (if your stairs are buring you can't get down them to escape the burning building) You also can't have any way to shut the system off without shutting all the water to the structure off.  They sold me---

---enough 1" CPVC pipe to do the whole house
---more than enough elbows and 't's
---the riser stack (static pressure gauge, one way check valve, water flow alarm module, panle door)
---hangars
---sprinkler heads

   I went with the recessed sprinklers that have a little cover.  Pretty inconspicuous.  Some people like the industrial look of exposed pipes but it didn't fit the cottage look.
   No sprinklers in the bathroom or kitchen.
   I didn't want them to design my system for me but asked them to approve my design, which they did (as a fireman I was very interested in learning all the rules of these systems)  So after finding out what was required for the spacing I drew it up on a copy of my floorplan and they approved.
   Actual installation---you run the pipes over ceiling joists in the attic or through the mid-floor ones, putting a 'T' extending down to the correct height for the finished ceiling.  I needlessly worried about getting that distance exactly right---the heads can be adjusted up or down 3/4".  There's a protective cap that you leave over the heads until you do the finish work so you don't knock them off.
    1" CPVC LOVES to back out after you glue it.  Every time you glue it and give it the twist, you gotta hold it for 10 minutes.
    You need the system to terminate in a drain.  Make this drain as low as possible but do something to make sure it won't be mistaken for a hose bib---the handle comes off mine and is stored in the riser panel (along with spare heads and a tool to change them).  You don't want your alarm going off when someone washes a car.
    Protect your system from freezing.  Not much point in protecting a structure from fire then flooding the place when you're gone.  I slipped those neoprene pipe insulators over the pipes.  There are antifreeze products specially made for this  (Illegal in California--knee jerk law.  Someone in Truckee charged their whole system with full strength auto antifreeze, basically an alcohol, which sprayed in a fine mist over a fire and made someone who, to this day remains, dead)  THis is why you want your drain as low as possible.  You need to hook up a hose bib on the house and stick it in a bucket full of the antifreeze and get a siphon going by opening the lower drain, then flush out your domestic system really well)
    I'll look through my stuff for pictures

[MountainDon]

.....someway your water supply be it a storage tank needs its own fire pump be it gas or electric with a generator. 

Right.  I was thinking of our own situation where there is no grid to fail. Just our PV and generator to fail.


Excellent point on the possibility of a house fire causing a wildfire.

[jesse977]

  Don---fire sprinklers are required in the WIldland Urban Interface.  It has nothing to do with their ability to protect a house from wildfires though.  One of the more common points of origin for wildfires, though, is housefires, and housefires are very effectively kept isolated to part of a room by fire sprinklers.  They are to protect the forest from the houses, not the other way around.
  Honestly, the hardest part about installing the fire sprinklers was finding a suppliers willing to let me do it myself---sounds like it's a very competetive business and they didn't want to give up any 'trade secrets'.
  They handed me a list of requirements---it was something like no closer than 3' to the nearest wall, 4' to the nearest sprinkler...Had to have one under the stairs (if your stairs are buring you can't get down them to escape the burning building) You also can't have any way to shut the system off without shutting all the water to the structure off.  They sold me---

---enough 1" CPVC pipe to do the whole house
---more than enough elbows and 't's
---the riser stack (static pressure gauge, one way check valve, water flow alarm module, panle door)
---hangars
---sprinkler heads

   I went with the recessed sprinklers that have a little cover.  Pretty inconspicuous.  Some people like the industrial look of exposed pipes but it didn't fit the cottage look.
   No sprinklers in the bathroom or kitchen.
   I didn't want them to design my system for me but asked them to approve my design, which they did (as a fireman I was very interested in learning all the rules of these systems)  So after finding out what was required for the spacing I drew it up on a copy of my floorplan and they approved.
   Actual installation---you run the pipes over ceiling joists in the attic or through the mid-floor ones, putting a 'T' extending down to the correct height for the finished ceiling.  I needlessly worried about getting that distance exactly right---the heads can be adjusted up or down 3/4".  There's a protective cap that you leave over the heads until you do the finish work so you don't knock them off.
    1" CPVC LOVES to back out after you glue it.  Every time you glue it and give it the twist, you gotta hold it for 10 minutes.
    You need the system to terminate in a drain.  Make this drain as low as possible but do something to make sure it won't be mistaken for a hose bib---the handle comes off mine and is stored in the riser panel (along with spare heads and a tool to change them).  You don't want your alarm going off when someone washes a car.
    Protect your system from freezing.  Not much point in protecting a structure from fire then flooding the place when you're gone.  I slipped those neoprene pipe insulators over the pipes.  There are antifreeze products specially made for this  (Illegal in California--knee jerk law.  Someone in Truckee charged their whole system with full strength auto antifreeze, basically an alcohol, which sprayed in a fine mist over a fire and made someone who, to this day remains, dead)  THis is why you want your drain as low as possible.  You need to hook up a hose bib on the house and stick it in a bucket full of the antifreeze and get a siphon going by opening the lower drain, then flush out your domestic system really well)
    I'll look through my stuff for pictures

Please post some pictures!! My build will be the basic 20x30 1 1/2 story cabin.  I don't know how you can install interior fire sprinklers on a rustic looking cabin.

[flyingvan]

Only thing that shows are shiny white circles, about 4" in diameter, on the ceiling.  Everything else is hidden behind the T & G roofing.  I'll be home again this weekend so I'll get some finished pics and a pic of the layout.  So far no luck finding construction pics of the system but I know I took some

[flyingvan]

Here's a close up of one of the sprinkler head covers, under the stairs.  The cover pops off at some temperature, and the sprinkler fuses at a higher temp.


You can see one of the protective covers you thread on until you're done painting, then you pull that off and put the protective cover on.





   These aren't my pictures but it's exactly like my install.  I couldn't find any pictures---I probably didn't take any because I was covered in CPVC cement






   Here's the riser stack that goes behind an exterior panel door

[MountainDon]

Most people (visitors) wouldn't even notice them, IMO.  Looks good.

[flyingvan]

   No, they don't.  Part of the illusion to make a small house feel big is blank ceiling space, which I joped to maintain in the livingroom---but there are four speakers, a variety of recessed lighting, and the sprinkler caps.  Even with all that people don't really notice and I'm used to it.
    Up our neighborhood a ways there's a multi-million dollar log home with the same T&G ceiling finish (clear varnish) They went with the flat black exposed sprinkler heads and claim they like the look.  Not for me, but the white caps would have stood out against the varnished wood too.  But look at these!

         

[jesse977]

 Thank you so much Flyingvan for posting those pictures. You can hardly notice the sprinklers. If you don't mind me asking but how much was the install?

[flyingvan]

   Around $1200, 2 1/2 years ago.  Half the cost of having them do the entire job.  I got the materials, approval for my layout, and some instruction--plus they came and looked at it all before it all got hidden behind the T&G.
    It was a source of stress before the build.  Just like the eave soffits, it was a requirement I had no experience with.  But when it came right down to it, neither project was hard to comply with.  Just fear of the unknown.

[Dave Sparks]

Please post some pictures!! My build will be the basic 20x30 1 1/2 story cabin.  I don't know how you can install interior fire sprinklers on a rustic looking cabin.

What county are you in?  Some counties have exemptions for size, offgrid, and a few others. One of the homes I worked on had requirements for stagnation of water. All kinds of silly requirements for the quantity on water as if every sprinkler in the house was on.  At that point it can be how long can you pump water on a home that will shortly be charcoal.

[jesse977]

What county are you in?  Some counties have exemptions for size, offgrid, and a few others. One of the homes I worked on had requirements for stagnation of water. All kinds of silly requirements for the quantity on water as if every sprinkler in the house was on.  At that point it can be how long can you pump water on a home that will shortly be charcoal.

San Bernardino county, near Los Angeles

[Dave Sparks]

If you are doing the home yourself, if it is rural, I would find a good electrical/plumbing supply (where the pro's go)  store in the area and ask for a plumber who has done these systems. Get his advice!

  The building department will probably farm this aspect of your build out to Cal Fire for inspection. See if Cal fire can tell you how they will test the system.  Just play nice with them and it will all be over soon... Good Luck!