King Mayor wants home sprinklers offered in new developments
Mayor wants sprinklers offered in new homes

YorkRegion.com
March 14, 2017
Simon Martin

New homes are sprouting up in King Township like dandelions in the spring. The latest census revealed that King was one of the fastest growing municipalities in Canada. But one thing Mayor Steve Pellegrini is not happy about is that few if any of the new houses have a home sprinkler system.

He wants home builders to offer sprinklers as upgrade people can choose when they buy their home. “It’s funny. We protect elderly people, people that rent, goods and services. Why don’t we make it a choice for people?,” he said.

With the price people are paying for homes in King, Pellegrini said residents should at least get to have choice if they want to add a sprinkler system upgrade. “What’s $10,000 for protection of asset and family and everything else,” he said. 

“You go into the sales pavilion where you get all the upgrades. I’ll get this back splash, the ceramic flooring and the home sprinkler system,” Pellegrini said.

According to the Toronto Fire Service, property losses are 85 per cent less in residences with fire sprinklers compared to those without.  

The situation is a little more complicated than just offering sprinklers as an option, CEO of the Ontario Home Builders Association Joe Vaccaro said.

“Let’s establish the reality they are not part of the Ontario Building Code,” he said. The challenge for builders is they need to know from a servicing standpoint very early in the process if home sprinklers are going in. “It’s a lot more complicated than offering the granite countertop,” he said. While the vast majority of builders don’t offer sprinklers as an option, Vaccaro said there are a few that do. He gave Townwood Homes in Brampton as an example. “Very few people took advantage of it. Typically people will choose the upgrade to the kitchen,” he said

Another issue Vaccarro has noticed is that residents balk at the long-term maintenance responsibility they have for the home sprinklers.

“They are responsible for testing the system and maintaining the system,” he said.

Home sprinkler technology has been available for a long time. “We require it elsewhere, but not in our houses, which I think is wrong,” Pellegrini said.