Bristol, PA Building Safety: Fire Sprinkler Requirements (2026)

Part 3 of Chapter 5 is a list-based sprinkler mandate, not a blanket rule for every home. For residential occupancies, three provisions matter. Section 5-303 requires approved automatic sprinkler equipment throughout buildings hereinafter erected, converted or substantially altered, or used as apartment houses or apartment hotels in excess of three stories, hotels and motels in excess of three stories, and two-story hotels and motels with 20 or more rooms. Section 5-302 reaches existing buildings as well as new ones and names residential custodial care facilities, as defined in the Life Safety Code, along with nursing and convalescent homes. Section 5-304 adds sprinklers in specific spaces of apartment houses or apartment hotels three stories or higher that are hereafter erected or substantially altered: cellars, sub-cellars, basements, sub-basements, trash rooms, storage rooms, locker rooms, kitchens in excess of 2,500 square feet, stairwells and chutes.

The lists printed in §§ 5-302 to 5-304 name no one- or two-family houses. Remodeling does not automatically trigger the rule: the definition of "substantially altered" in § 5-301 excludes roof and wall repairs, painting, relocating or constructing partitions, heating system repairs or replacement, and modernization of kitchens or bathrooms. A "converted" building is one whose use changes from a use not requiring an approved sprinkler system to a use requiring one.

Before any installation, revision, addition or alteration of sprinkler or other fire protection equipment, detailed plans must be submitted to and approved in writing by the representative appointed by resolution of Borough Council for plan review and inspections (§ 5-306). Section 5-305 prohibits sprinkler installation in rooms handling materials such as aluminum powder, calcium carbide or metallic sodium, and anywhere the fire official determines installation would increase the occupational hazard.