WHAT WILL THE SYSTEM LOOK LIKE AND WILL IT MESS UP MY BUILDING WITH UGLY utilitarian SPRINKLER HEADS?

The heads we use have many looks, and depending on your preference, they can run the gamut of looking industrial, clean, or even mostly hidden. When we work on houses the general look we go for is mostly hidden, and use heads that are concealed. In fact, we bid every project for concealed heads because it is the look most people want. The actual sprinkler head sits above the ceiling, hidden with a small flat plate that comes in all colors and shapes. You can even have a custom color if you want to match ceilings or accessories like lights and speakers. For every house we do we offer the customer every factory color option and shape (small round,big round, or square). Our standard for every residential job is to use a concealed head and for every commercial job to place sprinkler heads center of acoustical tiles. We also work with designers and architects closely to place the sprinkler heads in inconspicuous places, anytime our code allows. We treat every job like it’s a showcase for our work, because it is.  

DOES THE WATER DISCHARGED FROM A FIRE SPRINKLER CAUSE MORE DAMAGE THAN THE ACTUAL FIRE?

This is one of those things that many people like to say. It is simply untrue. A residential fire sprinkler system gives you 10 minutes to exit the house and reacts right away, as fire departments give you no time to exit your house safely, and they ALSO use water to put out the fire; much more water than a fire sprinkler system. They also use axes, and large hoses and guys with boots with severely diminished field of vision. A house with fire sprinklers system has about a 40% loss when there is a fire, whereas a house without one is almost always a 100% loss.  No one has ever died due to smoke inhalation or fire in a house with a fire sprinkler system … ever. They have a great track record and they deserve it because they work. You might not choose to have a system in your house, but if you have one, your chances of a needless death in your family due to fire diminishes to almost zero percent. The main reason for fire sprinkler systems not functioning is the valves are turned off. There are people who have the ingenuity to turn off their system and drain of it of its antifreeze, but if their house did catch on fire, there is almost a zero chance their insurance company will honor a claim.

do all the heads go off at the same time?

This is a myth that drive fire sprinkler companies mad.  This is often portrayed in movies and other media, but fire sprinklers do not work this way (generally speaking).  You cannot hit a switch or set one head off to set the others off. Every sprinkler head is a mechanical device onto themselves. They work using a fusible link that is set off by a specific temperature which is … a fire. When the link is compromised, the guts of the head come out and the water that’s behind it discharges. They will contain the fire where it starts, and more often than not, only one head goes off. 

will fire sprinklers increase your fire insurance bill?

This is something else that is mostly untrue, we think. We often hear that although your fire insurance will go down, your insurance will raise your rates to compensate for the potential water damage. This, as far as we know, is against the law, and kind of mean (I mean the city makes you install it). If your insurance raises your rates if you have a fire sprinkler system, make a call and find out why, and please make me your next call because I want to know if this is actually true. As far as I know, as I’m writing this, in every jurisdiction we work in, this is just not true.

what kind of material do you use?

We have made every effort to use the best and most reliable products on the market.  At Lake Tahoe, and most residential projects we use CPVC which has a long track record of having the most reliable joints. CPVC was originally designed to be used in high-rise buildings after the First Interstate fire in Los Angeles over 40 years ago. We have found that all new technologies are worth looking at and utilizing if we find them to be superior. Our continuing goal is always to get better, and make every new job better than the one before. We have taken every possible step to assure that we have no leaks. Many people think that more traditional methods of joining pipe are more affective, and have better reliability than more modern methods, but to the contrary, that is not true. Iron pipe rusts, wears and becomes in need of constant repair, whereas CPVC does not wear down, and the joints, although are joined using the commonly used term “glued,” are not glued at all, but chemically melded together to form a joint that is stronger than both the pipe and the fitting. The head adapters we use to screw in our heads have a very reliable rubber gasket that it presses up against.  CPVC must be concealed behind drywall, so where it is not code or makes no sense, we will use copper or steel. When we use copper, we use a technology called “press-fit” whereas there are no soldered joints, that are generally made of tin, which later react with the antifreeze causing numerous electrolysis leaks. It is the reason that you find so many leaks on soldered copper joints. We have actually seen jobs where the soldered joints have turned to “dust” from electrolysis. Any exposed work we do is the best work we do, sturdy and aesthetic.

WHY DO YOU USE ANTIFREEZE, AND WILL IT EXPLODE WHEN DISCHARGED? 

This is a very serious issue since the very explosion that killed two people happened here in our area and caused a widespread and rapid change in the way we install fire sprinkler systems in houses and multi-family dwellings. The reason we must use antifreeze is because generally houses in Lake Tahoe are second homes, and there are problems with power outages for long periods of time. It is essential that your system doesn’t freeze when those outages last a long time. Dry systems are generally done commercially, and use a system of drains and pitches that are impossible to get in modern homes. The glycerin (which was the common antifreeze used in houses) wasn’t always mixed correctly thus the highly concentrated mixture would actually explode when exposed to high temperatures, such as fires. AAA Fire Sprinklers has always used a factory mix of antifreeze and has never mixed their own.  Furthermore, we had recommended for years that the mixture be remixed every couple years, but the industry recently went to a premixed solution that has many of the same properties of glycerin (antifreeze, high surface tension), but cannot ignite. 

does your company recommend changing the glycerin out in your system to the new ul listed antifreeze?

This has been a very controversial subject in the industry because the price of the new product, being proprietary, comes at a high cost. We sat on this subject for years because the codes were unclear on what to do about existing homes. We currently have the policy to always recommending the change out of any system to the newer product, but we are not the police. We can only recommend upgrades to an existing system. The way we understand the codes is that you are not required to do anything to your system that wasn’t code when your system was installed. This being said, however, from time to time you have to change out the antifreeze anyway. In even the best cases, the antifreeze becomes deluded to a point where we can’t fix it, and new antifreeze is now our standard and only remedy for this. We will not, in any way or fashion, interject glycerin into a fire sprinkler system for any reason, unless it is to replace existing antifreeze in a system we are repairing. Insurance companies often require things above and beyond code requirements, however, and it is our understanding of their regulations that they will require you maintain the system and repair obvious defects. It is our opinion that a system which uses glycerin antifreeze is an “obvious” defect. We now always recommend changing your antifreeze out from glycerin to the new UL listed antifreeze. It is important when this is done to make sure the company labels the system as having been changed out, to what, and how many approximate gallons are in the system. If this is not done, there is no way for another company to know the antifreeze has been changed out, and we will note that unknown on our inspection reports.

how much experience do your guys have?

We train almost every guy who works at our company, and we don’t let anyone run jobs who have not be trained to our expectations. That being said, most of the guys running our work have 10 plus years experience, and we have many checks on the work we do as well. There is no job we install that is not looked at by more than one person here, including the owner. We know we are only as good as our last job and we take that very seriously. Often our internal inspections are more rigorous and invasive than city inspections. Our internal inspections take things like aesthetics and future repairs that may have to happen into account.  

how often do you recommend servicing or maintaining a fire sprinkler system?

We recommend doing it annually or at least as often as your insurance company or the city requires you to. There are several places that make houses be serviced annually, but everywhere in the United States, as far as I know, requires you to have your commercial fire sprinkler system maintained and tested. Most places require a very invasive and long test be done every five years. The fact is, the number one reason that anyone’s system does not work is because the valves are shut. At the very least, there should be an annual certification that your system is operational. Backflow testers are notorious for not turning back on a system after testing. It is an honest mistake, but one that can be remedy very easily with an annual inspection.

why are backlow devices tested annually and are they dumb?

This is a question that I will answer anecdotally, even though I know the actual answer to this and will tell you upon request. I had a client who was very sensitive to chemicals and additives in water. So much so that even bottled water, with plastic remnants, gave him a very hard time. He actually reacted to bad water. Because of this everywhere he went he took this very elaborate chemical testing kit to test the water where he was, because for him it could only mean discomfort, but it could've meant him getting very sick. This guy traveled extensively, and he told me that the water in Incline Village is the best water that he has ever tested; so much so that he decided to live in Incline Village when he retired. Coincidentally, Incline Village has probably the most rigorous backflow program in all of Northern Nevada and the gentleman who runs Incline Village water, happens to be the “go to” guy for any question that you have relating to backflows and also teaches all the classes for all testers. The backflow device prevents the water from backflowing into the city water. It's a pretty simple device, it needs to be maintained, and in all honesty, being involved in backflow prevention for as long as I have been, I've decided that it's a small price to pay for water you can trust. They work. The good part about using us to test your devices is that we can test all of them on site, and you don’t have to make several appointments for different devices.