Debate around home sprinklers pits fire safety against cost

Tom Vrban has been in the fire sprinkler business for nearly 40 years, and, luckily, he hasn't depended on requests to install home sprinklers to pay the bills.

The phone rarely rings for home sprinkler systems, said Vrban (pronounced vurban), owner of Vrban Fire Protection in Coralville.

Fire officials and sprinkler companies believe strongly that home sprinklers save lives, but homebuilders - and, they say, home buyers - believe the cost makes the systems impractical.

This standoff is coming to the fore as cities in Iowa are confronted with a new state residential building code, which requires homebuilders to install sprinkler systems in new single-family homes and duplexes, starting in 2013. The state requirement actually amends the 2009 International Residential Code, which calls for the sprinkler mandate to start in 2011.

Cities, too, can amend the International Residential Code, and Iowa City and Marion already have - to exclude the sprinkler requirement in new single-family homes and duplexes.

In Cedar Rapids, Matt Widner, head of the city's Code Enforcement Division, is preparing a new building code for City Council approval in March. The proposed Cedar Rapids code also excludes the sprinkler mandate.

Widner said he wants to set aside for now what would be a certain brouhaha over sprinklers and get other parts of the building code adopted. The sprinklers - which are required in Cedar Rapids residential buildings with more than four units - can be fought over later, he said.

Sprinkler company owner Vrban said home sprinkler systems cost less than homebuilders claim. Vrban said a sprinkler system in a new home should cost from $2.50 to $3.50 per square foot. For a 1,400-square-foot house, that's $3,500 to $4,900.

“I have sprinklers in my home for peace of mind,” Vrban said, “and I just find it hard to put a value on that.”

That cost is enough, said Drew Retz, vice president of Jerry's Homes in Cedar Rapids and former president of the Iowa Homebuilders Association in Cedar Rapids, to make a new home unaffordable.

He said the upfront and ongoing costs of sprinkler systems increase the price of a house enough to exclude thousands of people.

As a result, those people remain in older homes, which, he said, were built to less rigorous standards and so are more likely to catch fire and burn.

Cities, Retz said, would be better off hiring an employee to make sure homeowners replace their smoke-detector batteries than to insist on sprinkler systems.

A poll at a recent Parade of Homes event, Retz said, found that 85 percent to 90 percent of people wouldn't want sprinklers in their homes, even if the system were free. People are afraid that the sprinklers will malfunction, and the water, not a fire, will ruin their homes, he said.

Tim Hennes, Iowa City's senior building inspector, said the latest push for home sprinklers has come, in part, because of a new lightweight material in roof trusses and floor joists.

This month, Iowa City passed its new residential code, which does not require sprinklers in new homes, but Hennes said it does require a builder using the lightweight material to cover it with drywall or to add sprinklers in those areas.

Cedar Rapids' Widner suggests a middle ground in the sprinkler debate - requiring home sprinklers only in the largest of new homes.

Marion and West Des Moines do just that - in Marion, for homes of 10,000 square feet and larger; West Des Moines, for 8,000 square feet or larger.