new Maine state wide building codes

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by chaosX5

According to my DH, who is in the business, residential sprinkler systems will required in the future for all new construction. It's just a matter of time. The figures he gave me are around $3000.00 to $5000.00 thousand for a system done at the time of building. Retro fits may vary. It's not likely that existing home will be required to have systems unless they do a major renovation. But maybe there will be insurance perks?........

I have mixed feeling about this, I know that water can cause a lot of damage while putting out a fire! My DH reminds me that fire protection's primary purpose is to save lives not property. I wonder how home insurance companies view this?

I understand that this may not concern towns with 2,000 or less in population, but if enough people decide to move to small communities to avoid this new code, then those communities may end up with more than 2,000 in short order!


Here's a link to a home that has a system installed (retro fit, I believe)
Installing Residential Fire Sprinklers - Travis Mack - Case Study | Residential Fire Sprinklers .com

There is also some other info on residential fire protection.


just my $0.02

RE: Building codes and fire-sprinklers.

I think that fire-sprinklers are among the smartest thing a person can have.



In one of our properties we own in another state, we were required once [1991] to install walls around our furnace making it into a furnace room. It had to have sprinklers added, and a fire-rated door, and a make-up air vent designed to self-close if the temps ever got too hot. Which all made sense to me at the time. We installed all these things at great expense.

In the mid-90s we went through a series of inspections where the building inspector required that the fire-room door must remain closed, but the make-up air vent had to be open. and on the same day, the housing inspector required that the fire-room door must remain open. On that round of inspections it was the fire inspector who became the mediator between the housing inspector and the building inspector. What they finally worked out was for each of the inspectors [there was a total of four inspectors] to each make their inspections of different days. So they could each operate within their own spheres without their contradictory codes overlapping on the same day.

In 2001 the codes changed which required that the furnace exhaust could no longer be self-venting via a stove-pipe, but instead had to have a power vent. So we installed a massive power vent on top of the stove-pipe, along with a control panel to turn it on/off whenever the furnace kicked on. It was loud and drew complaints from neighbors.

After another series of inspections [initiated by neighborhood noise complaints about the power-vent] it was deemed that we were up to code. But we had a sign on the fire-room door which stated where it had to be kept open or closed [along with excerpts of the various codes for each requirement and the initials of the appropriate inspectors]

With the passage of time and ever changing codes in 2008, the city inspectors had a fit because the property still had a fire-room. I was required to remove the fire-room and disable the fire-sprinkler system, though keep the power-vent in place.



There are times when I do not understand the how and why behind the ever changing codes and the politics of city's choosing which parts they are going to enforce.

If I were a property owner who simply had to make one change, then perhaps I would view this differently.

However since I paid to have all this installed, only to later be required to have it removed, I feel that it is all very Willy-Nilly, or inconsistent. As property owner I am the guy that is required to be paying for goofy changes, back and forth.



How does this relate to Maine?

I have had to work within the system, in a city that had groups of inspectors. Each in their own buildings, each with their own departments, each with their own infrastructures. Each with codes that contradicted the codes of the other departments. Each with their own set of fees and fines.

You pay one city department a fee to do their inspections and you make a bunch of changes to comply with them. To finally buy a letter of compliance from that department.

Then you contact the next department, you pay their fees and you go through a series of inspections and you make a bunch of changes to comply with their codes, you pay their fines, and you buy their letter of compliance.

Then you go to the next city department and you pay more fees and more fines.

You may be making changes back and forth and paying all sorts of fees, to finally get certificates from each of them.

I truly dis-like this system.



In Maine, I have not had to experience this.

In Maine, from what I have heard from others, a town may have an inspector, and one town's inspections may differ from another town's inspections, but they do not over-lap.

I prefer Maine's method of operation.

[BrokenTap]

In reality a lot of these laws are just fluff. I am not one to scoff at authority, but currently Maine is in severe financial trouble and they have no power to enforce anything, much less state wide building codes.

With appeals boards in place, it is often cheaper to just build, tell them to "try and stop me", and see what happens. 9 times out of 10 the state or town lacks the funds to chase after what could be a losing cause.

The simple fact is, we let big gov get to be big by letting them, and just as school kids...we get bullied around because we let bully's bully us...all we have to do is stand up for ourselves and say enough is enough!

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by BrokenTap

In reality a lot of these laws are just fluff. I am not one to scoff at authority, but currently Maine is in severe financial trouble and they have no power to enforce anything, much less state wide building codes.

With appeals boards in place, it is often cheaper to just build, tell them to "try and stop me", and see what happens. 9 times out of 10 the state or town lacks the funds to chase after what could be a losing cause.

The simple fact is, we let big gov get to be big by letting them, and just as school kids...we get bullied around because we let bully's bully us...all we have to do is stand up for ourselves and say enough is enough!

I agree. I think that most of this foolishness is a complete waste of time - just get a "variance." It's just more hoops to jump through. That said, the issue for people who have to hire other people to do site prep work is that they have to deal with these things. If the contractor isn't one to thumb his or her nose to regs, those trying to build are in fact, stuck.

It'll be interesting to see how my brother's case pans out, because he's not one to simply slink into the corner, shrug his shoulders and keep his mouth shut.

[BrokenTap]

Good for him.

I am waiting to see what becomes of this Tea Party thing. That is another whole matter, but the King of England dismissed it pretty easily too back in 1773 and two wars later, our nation was the only one that gained their independence by force...twice to be exact so no luck involved there!

More to the point, I would like to see the word incombant become a dirty word this election!

[arctichomesteader]

Fire sprinklers...assuming a water system, wouldn't do much good I think if one of my dozens of oil lamps fell over and caught fire...

Building codes are stupid. The average life of a home has been dropping like a rock in the past century as more codes are implemented...