Fire Sprinklers Required in all New Home Constructions in Michigan
One of the new requirements in the Michigan Construction Code is to mandate Fire Sprinklers in all new home and townhouse construction.
I was notified of this yesterday by the Michigan Association of Realtors weekly newsletter. MAR is fighting this costly legislation.
MAR is working with Habit for Humanity and the Home Builders Association to fight this expensive addition to the code.
According to MAR:
“There are already mandates in place for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in new builds. A 2008 study from the National Fire Prevention Association shows that chances of surviving a reported home fire when working smoke alarms are present is 99.45%. Clearly, every fire death is a tragedy. However, the solution to reducing these deaths isn’t mandating expensive sprinkler systems; it is to make sure every home has working smoke alarms.”
In these tough economic times in Michigan, especially for builders do we really want to add expensive legislation to the home building code. 99.45% is a huge number to be saved during a fire with smoke detectors.
Make sure you change yours once a year. Pick a date and do it, your birthday, anniversary, a holiday.
Keep your smoke detectors updated.
Residential Fire Suppression is long over-due and the MAR should step aside and help push this legislation! Many many many lives will be saved over the years with automatic sprinklers in residential construction. I’ve looked into doing it for existing homes.
PittCaleb
Wow Missy, I would say it will add about $5000 or so to a house easy. I hear talk in New Jersey but they usually follow national codes.
This is a very informative post! Keep up the good work.
Well, I just think that this idea is bravo!