The retrofit week: living in the house while the sprinklers go in

By the time a retrofit is scheduled the hard questions are answered. The quote landed somewhere in the published $2 to $7 per sprinklered square foot, the county approved the drawings, and the permit is taped to a window. Then every owner asks the same next question: do we have to move out? No. This is what the week actually looks like in an occupied Fairfax, Arlington, or Loudoun house, day by day, including the one afternoon the water is off and the two visits from the county inspector that decide when the ceilings can close.

The week before

The flow test on the water service is already done, because the hydraulic calculation in the permit set depends on it. What is left is making room. Furniture comes away from the walls under the marked head locations, closets the pipe passes through get emptied, and whatever is stored along the pipe runs in the attic gets moved to one side. In the basement, anything hanging below the joists along the runs comes down. We mark the route with tape before that week so nothing gets moved twice. Pets get a closed room for the day. The truck needs the driveway. And one decision is made in writing: concealed heads with a flat cover plate, or exposed white pendents. Concealed is what nearly every finished ceiling in Northern Virginia gets, and it is the one choice that is awkward to change after the pipe is cut.

Day one: the riser

Day one is the only day the house loses water. The main is shut, the service is cut in near the meter or where it enters the basement, and the tee, control valve, backflow assembly, gauge, flow switch, and test drain go in. On a standalone system in Fairfax County the backflow assembly is part of the approved drawings, which is why it goes in on day one rather than at the end.The shutoff usually runs a few hours and is scheduled so the house has water back by dinner. The riser needs a floor drain or a drain line nearby, which is why it almost always ends up next to the water heater or the main shutoff. The riser article names each part you will be looking at that evening. A multipurpose system that shares the domestic plumbing is tied in differently; the multipurpose article covers that choice.

Days two through four: running pipe

The order is attic first, basement second, and the hard floor last. In a colonial with a walk up attic, the second floor heads are fed from above: the crew works in the attic, drops a pipe through a small opening at each head location, and the bedrooms get a few hours of drilling noise and almost no mess. In July the attic work starts early because the space is unworkable by noon. The basement comes next, feeding the first floor heads from below the same way. If the basement ceiling is unfinished, those runs are simply hung and strapped in the open.

The hard floor is any level with finished ceilings above and below it, which in a two story house with a finished basement means the main level. Here the crew cuts a hand sized opening at each head and a few more where pipe has to cross a joist bay or turn a corner, feeds the CPVC through, and caps it. Plaster ceilings in older Arlington and Alexandria houses dust more than drywall and cut slower, which is most of why they sit toward the top of the range. Floors get covered, doors get plastic, and a vacuum runs at the cut. The forced air system is turned off while cutting on that floor so dust does not travel. Each night the pipe is capped and the house plumbing works as normal; the sprinkler pipe itself holds no water until the test. The number of openings follows the head count, which the head count article explains.

The rough in inspection and the pressure test

Nothing closes until the county has seen the pipe. The system is filled and held at test pressure, every joint is checked, and the inspector looks at hangers, pipe routing, and head locations against the approved drawings. NFPA 13D sets the test, and the inspector confirms it held.If a joint weeps, it is cut out and redone that day, and the test runs again. This is the visit that decides whether patching can start, and it is why we never let a drywall crew get ahead of the inspector. The Fairfax inspection article lays out that county’s sequence from rough in to final, and the other counties follow the same shape.

Heads, trim, and the final

Heads go in last so they do not get bumped, painted, or filled with dust while the ceilings are being patched. On a concealed system that means the cover plates snap on after the painter is done, which is also when the room stops looking like a job site. The final inspection is short: the inspector opens the test drain and confirms the flow switch trips and the outside bell rings, reads the gauge, counts and locates the heads against the drawing, and checks the signage at the riser. Then the system is live and the permit closes. From that afternoon on, the house is protected.

Patching and paint

The quote includes patching every opening to a paint ready surface, and that patching starts the day after the rough in inspection passes. Painting is not in the per square foot price. Nearly every owner has their own painter do a whole ceiling rather than a circle around each head, and a circle of fresh paint on a ten year old ceiling is exactly what people notice. If you want it handled, say so at the quote and it goes on as its own line.

How long it really takes

For a typical colonial with an attic above and a basement below, plan on about one working week of crew time plus the county’s inspection waits between phases. A plaster house or a slab house with finished ceilings everywhere runs longer because every head is a cut and patch job. The inspection waits depend on the county and the season more than on the house; the permit timeline article has what each jurisdiction has been running. We tell you the night before which rooms are off limits the next day, and the bedrooms are never all out of service on the same day.

After the crew leaves

Three things to do that week. Walk the riser once with the lead tech so you know which valve is the main, what the gauge reads with the system normal, and where the test drain goes. Put the approved drawings, the permit card, and the backflow test form in a folder, because a buyer’s inspector will ask for them someday, which the selling article explains. And read the everyday care article before the next painter shows up, since a painted head is the most common thing we are called back to replace in the first year. The system does not need anything from you after that except a glance at the gauge now and then and the annual backflow test.