There is (used to be) no place like home

[iceman]

Residential fire code requires a sprinkler system?? Is that for all types of houses, or only above a certain square footage threshold, or some other criteria?

CA, MD and DC require sprinklers in new 1 & 2 Family Homes.

It's interesting how many states prohibit local jurisdictions from requiring sprinklers. I wonder who has been lobbying for that? Clearly somebody has, to get so many states in line with a law that wouldn't seem to make sense. Certainly not sprinkler manufacturers!

https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Educatio...r-requirements

[Flyoverland Captive]

^^^ A friend worked for a lobby firm representing the Minnesota construction industry back in the early 90’s. His main project was stopping residential sprinkler laws. The arguments were mainly focused on costs, but they also argued that municipal H2O systems couldn’t handle the sudden demand for pressure. Sounded like BS to me, but I’m no engineer.

[iceman]

Sounds like BS to me too.

[Mazderati]

The garden hose quip was just a nod to blurred's home fire defense. Although I did read about one homeowner that did actually use a garden hose to save their home.

[mcski]

Love that arts and crafty look. Hard to believe Altadena is less desirable now. That won't last long

[jono]

^^^ A friend worked for a lobby firm representing the Minnesota construction industry back in the early 90’s. His main project was stopping residential sprinkler laws. The arguments were mainly focused on costs, but they also argued that municipal H2O systems couldn’t handle the sudden demand for pressure. Sounded like BS to me, but I’m no engineer.

Seems like BS in most cases, since the only sprinklers running should be inside burning houses. Only concern I can see in a chain reaction scenario is wasting the water on already lost houses, in which case they just need to turn off the water remotely. Maybe that seemed more daunting in the early 90's?

[Diamond Joe]

CA, MD and DC require sprinklers in new 1 & 2 Family Homes.

It's interesting how many states prohibit local jurisdictions from requiring sprinklers. I wonder who has been lobbying for that? Clearly somebody has, to get so many states in line with a law that wouldn't seem to make sense. Certainly not sprinkler manufacturers!

https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Educatio...r-requirements

Huh. Very interesting, thanks.

I think its just a matter of time before more states pass codes requiring sprinklers. It does require some pretty significant up front costs but I would imagine you'd recoup it in insurance savings over a couple years

[Flyoverland Captive]

I got the impression they were just pulling shit out of their asses to pad their billable hours.

[jono]

I got the impression they were just pulling shit out of their asses to pad their billable hours.

Well, yeah. I guess I shouldn't assume the people being lobbied are going to need even a flimsy logical crutch after the contributions, but I'm optimistic like that.

[char_]

Are you in the area where they are finding chemicals in the potable water system? Aren't they going to end up replacing a bunch of pipe somewhere down there because of chemicals getting pulled into the system as negative pressures developed?

[hutash]

The garden hose quip was just a nod to blurred's home fire defense. Although I did read about one homeowner that did actually use a garden hose to save their home.

Where's Blurred when you need him?

Some people did stay and fight the fire with garden hoses. Seems like a pretty stupid idea given how intense the winds were and how crazy everything was. Mostly out on the ranches where they had water tanks and real equipment, but a few local neighborhood types did as well. Some won and some lost. A house is not worth it, and my wife would have killed me if I stayed and died fighting the fire. As it was we left when our backyard went up in flames (well water lush vegetation, that's how fucking hot and intense this was.)

Love that arts and crafty look. Hard to believe Altadena is less desirable now. That won't last long

I should say parts of Altadena and North Pasadena are run down, other parts are ridiculously spendy.

Are you in the area where they are finding chemicals in the potable water system? Aren't they going to end up replacing a bunch of pipe somewhere down there because of chemicals getting pulled into the system as negative pressures developed?

No nasty chemicals in our water. Other then being just slightly softer then limestone, our water is good.

I don't know all the code issues just yet, and what is required where, we are just learn g all this, and no doubt few surprises are on the way. We are waiting for our soil engineering report. They drilled a few cores and we are hoping they didn't dig up some Chumash Indian bones.

This is going to be a long, expensive process.

[GoldMember]

Wow. It's been a bad year at TGR for houses burning down.

The only two come-backs that I could come up with.

[plugboots]

OK great on the house...what cars do you have now?


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[BCMtnHound]

Interesting read on the sprinkler laws. Friend was in Vancouver visiting his daughter, and was helping put up some shelves I think. Hit a sprinkler line and caused a bit of water damage to the apartment. As there was a drop in pressure of the system, the fire station is automatically sent out. Firefighters said they attend several such calls a day in the city, and the total of the insurance claims each day in Van is some enormous amount. All because of someone drilling into a wall for a picture hanger, or something or other hits and busts a sprinkler. For a larger building with many apartments I can see the safety of many overruling the cost, but perhaps the cost of such response and insurance claims over single family residential units is what the legislated pushback is from? Just a WAG though.

[hutash]

It only took a year, 364 days to be exact, but we finally started the rebuild. The city turned out to be a PITA, but that's another story.

For those who didn't see where we started, this was December 6, 2017


Currently we are in the army phase, dig a hole, then fill it up. Dig another hole and fill it. Repeat.

edit fucken TGR and their file uploads

[PNWbrit]

It only took a year, 364 days to be exact, but we finally started the rebuild. The city turned out to be a PITA, but that's another story.

For those who didn't see where we started, this was December 6, 2017


Currently we are in the army phase, dig a hole, then fill it up. Dig another hole and fill it. Repeat.

Congrats mate!

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Congrats!

[fatnslow]

it must be expensive to build a gravity defying home. Congrats on breaking ground !

[::: :::]

congrats!

looking forward to seeing the updates...

[Supermoon]

Congrats! I didn’t realize Pio was running your project

[nutmegchoi]

Head turning event!
Literally!!

Congrats!!!

[hutash]

Hey, we are starting from scratch, so no limits, including gravity.

[summit]

congrats!!!

[iceman]

Currently we are in the army phase, dig a hole, then fill it up. Dig another hole and fill it. Repeat.

I think I see why your holes won't stay filled.

[iceman]

But honestly 364 days to go from ashes to breaking ground is cranking. Especially since there must be thousands of permits in process.