Sprinklers in multi-family
Hello everyone! Hoping someone can point to a regulation or something to clarify when sprinklers are required. My wife and I are looking at a 4 story (garden plus 3 stories) Brownstone. In the house we looked at, it has a sprinkler system handing down about 6 inches from the ceiling through all of the…
Hello everyone!
Hoping someone can point to a regulation or something to clarify when sprinklers are required.
My wife and I are looking at a 4 story (garden plus 3 stories) Brownstone. In the house we looked at, it has a sprinkler system handing down about 6 inches from the ceiling through all of the common hallways and into the top two floors’ living areas.
The unit is/was apparently classified as an SRO. We’d be using it as a 3 family (garden plus parlor, then rentals on 2nd and 3rd floor) or potentially a 4 family with each floor a seperate unit.
I’ve never seen sprinklers, at least not that out in the open, on any of the other properties that we’ve looked at.
So, my question is, is there some requirement for these that I should know about? They are really ugly. It might be possible to build some type of covering on them to make them less so, but I’d rather just remove them if it is legal. This is the only place we have seen that is/was an SRO, so I’m wondering if that had something to do with it.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Well, we had a contractor come in and look at it. Essentially, we should be able to remove most of the piping that is in the units, leave (and hide it) in the stairwells, and just leave the head poking in at the top of each main room, which would be fine, hardly even noticable.
when we do sprinklers in office buildings they are hidden above ceilings these neednt be ugly drop cielings but can be sheetrock. the drops can be shortened to get the cieling higher but to raise the mains is more involved /expensive.
i do think you ought to consider whether you want the city that far into your business im considering converting an sro but woulndt go past three and likely only a two if i wanted a bit more income ide risk an illegal apt before dealing with the city but your sprinklers are already in it might not be that much more compliance be advised they need anual inspections
Resentful of existing owners? No. Resentful of regulations that create unlevel playing fields? Yes.
I have no problem with prices. They are what they are.
As for objications and aesthetics, attrictiveness of a property matters for getting renters and getting top dollar, and the fact is that sprinklers in a building that wasn’t designed with them in mind, more often than not, are unattractive. Sure there are some things you can do to make them look better, but each of those comes at the expense of something else (like dropped ceilings).
Wow, you don’t even own the place and you’re already resentful of existing owners. News bulletin: purchase prices of the recent period put you at a competitive disadvantage to many existing owners. Also, the Bloomberg administration and the DOB are both in the midst of massive revisions to building code, to which you’ll be subject—multifamily dwelling or no. BTW, don’t confuse your own sense of aesthetics with an owner’s obligations or a tenant’s interests. I’ve never had a tenant reject a rental or ask for a rent reduction on the basis of sprinklers, smoke alarms or CO detectors.
If they are going to require these things, they should make existing owners put them in too. It really puts you at a competitive disadvantage in finding renters when you have these ugly sprinkler lines running throughout your units.
HPD is Housing Preservation and Development.
1) Before converting a SRO to a multi family HPD must issue a certifcate of no harrasement which you can obtain at their headquarters @ 100 Gold Street in Manhattan. It is a pretty drawn out process and hinders the approval at DOB until that is obtained.
2) Currently you are NOT allowed to remove even a voluntary sprinkler system. In addition, Since the use is being changed you may need to extend it in the entire building based on local law 10/99 as it may be a change of use.
3) A very common error: you need fire escapes OR sprinklers. WRONG. Even though sometimes you can get away with a single means of egress if the exit passages are sprinklered, in a four family and up if you are changing the use or altering more than a 50 % of the builidng cost within 12 months (I won’t get in how to calculate that) than you will need to put in a sprinkler.
In addition if you are modifying a space that increases the hazard example: spliting up an open cellar into small storage areas than you need a sprinkler unless it is ventilated by certain minimums and this has nothing to do with fire escapes
Thanks for the links vinca. Definitely have a lot to learn.
denton, I really hate the idea of a dropped ceiling, but maybe just for that area immediately surrounding it would be ok.
You can run the sprinkler lines under a dropped ceiling and the heads can be concealed by approved sprinkler head covers.
ncarty97: better get familiar with HPD, Housing Maintenance Code, and a lot of other initials and regulations if you’re going to own a multi-family dwelling: http://bit.ly/bIZAZu
As Christopher said, simplest answer is you’ll need either sprinklers or fire escapes for a multifamily. (The full answer is far more complex.) Common wisdom is that if you’ve already got sprinklers, it’s foolish to remove them. That’s probably more true now than ever. Also, speak to your plumbers about these new sprinkler and standpipe regulations: http://bit.ly/dwLTnh