On 8/20/2013 10:39 AM, Kurt Ullman wrote:
In article s.com,
Taylor wrote:

They have tools out there to stop the water from flowing. Check out
www.quickstoptool.com. By the time the fire department gets there,
locates your main water shut off valve and the system drains, you will
have plenty of damage inside that could be avoided if you have a shut off
tool on hand. Since most sprinklers are serviced, a malfunction is
unlikely, its vandalism (whether intentional or not) that a lot of times
causes unnecessary damage. As I say all of this, the benefits to having
sprinklers outweighs the risk of potential damage. But for peace of mind,
there are tools out there that anyone can use. And if I was living on the
bottom floor, I would buy my neighbor one who lives above me incase their
sprinkler head gets damaged.

You might check in with the local fire inspectors. It has been about
30 years since I dealt with residential sprinklers (and even then only
peripherally) but it sticks in my mind that the first responders just
used a wooden shim like you use to level windows. I could be VERY wrong,
though.


yes, quite possibly. You'd have to look at the sprinkler heads and
determine how to stop the water from flowing once the element pops
however. Some of them use a glass element that breaks, others use a
metal fuse link.

If this is a multi-story building, there ought to be a valve in one of
the stairwells feeding the entire floor, at which the water can be shut
off. However, touching that valve in an other than official capacity
can cause lots of (legal) problems. I would be very very hesitant to
touch that valve under any but an emergency circumstance (e.g. someone
knocked a head loose, you knew 100% that there was no fire, and you were
on the phone with 911 or the fire dept. and they asserted that it was OK
to shut that valve.) Additionally, it might be a looped system where
you have to shut two valves in two different stairwells to isolate a floor.

nate