When you are required to have a commercial fire protection system installed in your building is not always obvious. The fact is most commercial buildings require them. It often involves square footage, the height of the building, and sometimes there are additional factors driven by life safety codes and municipal requirements. NFPA 13 lays out standards for commercial fire protection system requirements. However, the real question is, why should you intall a fire protection system – if your building is one of the few not requiring them?

Keep Your Employees and Building Safe

This is the whole purpose of a commercial fire protection system. Installing a system means you care about your business and the people in it. If a fire breaks out sprinklers are your first line of defense. They can help limit the damage before the fire department arrives and make for more efficient evacuation. A fire that spreads quickly will also result in more injuries and possible death. Therefore, you want a sprinkler system to contain the spread. Having the system in place and at the ready will give you peace of mind.

Save Money on Insurance

An automatic commercial fire protection system lowers your risk of property damage and injury, which sounds good to insurance companies. Some insurance companies will offer a discount to businesses that have an automatic sprinkler system installed. Of course, that decision lies with your insurance carrier. However, it is definitely worth looking into if you are shopping for insurance for your business.

What are the Standards for Requiring a System?

As we mentioned earlier there are times when you are required to have a commercial fire protection system at your facility. While a lot of safety codes are local, basic requirements for a building that must have fire sprinklers have to do with square feet and how many feet high the building is. For example, if you are building a new construction greater than 5,000 square feet or if you have an existing building greater than 12,000 square feet that does not have one already, you are required to install a sprinkler system. Buildings larger than 55 ft tall also require fire sprinklers.

If you ask us if you should install a commercial fire protection system, our answer is yes. When you care about the safety of your employees, customers, and your business in general, a fire protection system is a given for protecting them from potentially devastating fires. If you are not required by NFPA guidelines or local codes to have an automatic sprinkler system, it should still be strongly considered. Call Valley Fire Protection & Plumbing today to start a quote for an installation.

Related Topics: Commercial Fire Protection System

By: Tom Hartel

I acquired my expertise by directing day-to-day operations of the business for over 20 years. Continuous hard work helped me become a nationally recognized speaker and expert on fire protection, fire sprinklers, special hazards, and plumbing systems. In this blog, I share my knowledge that will hopefully help you make better decisions for your projects.