[dillywho]

Originally Posted by faithfulfrank

As to the question about "why a total loss" when response times are so good, I'd like to comment.

I'm a professional firefighter, (19 years).

I am NOT familiar with the specific construction of the Villages housing, but I can tell you that most homes built today are NOT built to sustain any degree of fire. The code states that you should have 5/8" firecode drywall between the house and the garage, and also in the ceiling of the garage. If fire breaks through that, perhaps by way of a attic pull down stairway, etc, and you get fire in an attic, it is over.

Truss construction roofs cannot sustain any heat. The gussets are made of steel plates that are just pressed in. They fail in a fire. We have a saying in the fire service...."Don't trust the truss". In an older home, we go up on the roof, cut a vent hole to allow hot gasses and heat to escape, thus allowing us to find and put out the seat of the fire quickly. With truss construction, if the fire has been going more then 20 minutes or so, forget it.

Before truss construction, you had rafters made of thicker wood. There were more mass to them. They could even be a bit charred and still work. You had less glues, etc that would burn. A modern house, (with a basement) now has trusses for floor joists, roof joists, etc. making them dangerous in a fire. Many homes today sadly are just built to be disposable. That is one reason when I built my home 10 years ago, I have 2x10x28 ft rafters....no trusses.

The current big fight in the housing industry is the requirement of residential sprinklers. The national homebuilders association has fought this for years, but it recently passed. The new, modern residential sprinklers made for homes are nice, not ugly, and do not add much to the cost of a home. They do not leak, they do not accidentally go off, and they only go off in the part of a room where there is fire. They basically put out the fire before it amounts to anything.....before any fire truck gets there.

Frankly, I am surprised the new homes in The Villages do not have this.....at least as an option. It is a new requirement, but perhaps it is not totally in effect in Florida...I do not know, but if I lived there or were building a new house there, I'd be looking into it.

I almost installed it in the home I designed and built here 10 years ago, but the pex tubing it uses back then cost over $1.00 per foot.....now it is less then 20 cents a foot. The cost of residential sprinkler systems would only add 1 or 2 % to the cost of the home, and would lower your homeowners insurance. If I were building today, I would have it.

Please understand I am NOT in any way criticizing ANY homes in The Villages......I am just explaining current normal building standards in America.

Sorry for the long post. Frank D.

What an excellent, informative post. Is adding the sprinkler system an option for existing homes or totally cost prohibitive?