Here is part of an article in the Duluth News Tribune that makes a valid point for fighting sprinklers in new home construction.
A home indoor sprinkler system mandate would hurt middle-class families looking for their dream home by adding thousands of dollars to their purchase price. A sprinkler system costs $2.30 per square foot with a municipal water system. For homes without municipal water, which includes many in northern Minnesota, the cost goes up to $3.72 per square foot. For a 4,500-square-foot home, we’re talking about a range of $10,000 to $16,000 or more of additional expense.
If fire safety in modern Minnesota homes was a significant problem, the Builders Association would stand with the sprinkler-manufacturing industry and the Department of Labor and Industry to support this mandate. But the measure has been studied carefully by the Department of Labor and Industry’s own code technical advisory committee, in a Minnesota state survey, and by the Minnesota Legislature. Across the board, all groups opposed the indoor home sprinkler system mandate, calling it unnecessary, expensive and burdensome.
And there is one cost no one can estimate: What happens when a home indoor sprinkler system malfunctions and soaks the house when there is no fire? It gets cold here in Minnesota. Whether or not insurance is willing to cover the damage, why should Minnesota families face that hardship when our new homes are the national model for safety?
