HARRISBURG — A state legislator from Williamsport has made a move to repeal the mandate that requires sprinkler systems in new homes in Pennsylvania.
Republican Rep. Garth Everett, of the 84th Legislative District, on Monday introduced House Bill 377 that seeks to remove the directive from the Uniform Construction Code that requires a sprinkler system in all new single- and dual-family home construction from 2011 on.
Known as the “sprinkler mandate,” state lawmakers debated the issue last fall and considered delaying the action for a year, but the state House failed to pass it. The new law went into effect Jan. 1.
Advocates said the sprinklers will save people’s homes from fire and prevent death or injury among firefighters and residents. Everett disagreed with that assertion, claiming it would particularly burden rural residents who aren’t on a municipal water system.
The new rule has raised the hackles of builders and other home construction-related businesses. Several factors go into the cost of a residential sprinkler system — a home’s size, location and water system among them — and it can add anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 or more to a new home’s construction costs, according to the Pennsylvania Builders Association.
Home builders have said that potential customers find themselves cutting back somewhere else in the house plans to accommodate the extra cost or dropping the idea of building altogether.
The Safe at Home Coalition, a group of state building associations, spoke out for Everett’s bill and against the sprinkler mandate during a Tuesday press conference.
“Our overall message is we are not against firefighters, fire safety or sprinklers,” said Melissa Etshied, director of public relations and public affairs for the Pennsylvania Builders Association, one of the coalition’s members. “We are against the mandate that takes away a consumer’s right to decide” what to do with their house.
Other coalition members are the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors, Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Manufactured Housing Association and Modular Building Systems Association.
The coalition said it wants “common-sense building requirements that protect homeowners while also ensuring that homes will be available to more Pennsylvanians,” some of which already have been priced out of some markets.
Beside upsetting the sprinkler mandate, H.B. 377 looks to:
— Provide fire floor protection, currently not mandated by law, which enhances safety for firefighters.
— Require homeowners be given information about sprinkler systems before buying a new home.
— Provides “reasonable alternatives” for saving energy.
Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Donna Oberlander, of the Clarion and Armstrong counties region, announced Monday she too will introduce legislation seeking repeal of the sprinkler mandate.
“Both new home building, which represents no less than 14 percent of our state’s gross domestic product, and ultimately the dream of home ownership are in severe jeopardy,” Oberlander said in a statement. “This is not a question of reforming this overkill regulation but bringing about complete and total repeal.”
Pennsylvania became the first state in the nation to implement the measure as part of the triennial adoption of the International Codes Council family of technical building codes.
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Move under way to repeal sprinkler system law
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