Fire Sprinkler Design & Planning
Every residential fire sprinkler system starts with design. Get it right, and installation is smooth, inspections pass the first time, and you stay on schedule. Get it wrong, and you’re looking at rework, delays, and extra cost.
At Rain City Fire Protection, design is done in-house by Geoff Roach — NICET Level 2 certified and the same person who will oversee your installation. That means the system we draw is the system we actually build. No hand-offs, no miscommunication.
What You Get
A complete design package that's ready for permit submission and field installation.
How the Design Process Works
1. Send Us Your Plans
Email your architectural floor plans to geoff@raincityfireprotection.com. We review the layout, identify head locations, and determine pipe routing. If anything is unclear, we’ll ask before we start.
2. Water Supply Analysis
We pull water supply data for your specific property — flow rate and static pressure from the municipal supply. This determines pipe sizing and ensures the system can deliver adequate water to every head.
3. Design & Calculations
We produce NFPA 13D-compliant hydraulic calculations, head placement, pipe layout, and sizing. The design accounts for your home’s specific floor plan, ceiling heights, and construction type.
4. Permit-Ready Package
You get a complete drawing set ready for permit submission. We can also handle the permit process directly — see our permitting service for details.
NFPA 13D Compliance
All our residential designs comply with NFPA 13D — the national fire sprinkler code for one- and two-family dwellings. This code governs head spacing, coverage areas, water supply requirements, and pipe sizing for homes.
We also account for local amendments. Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, and other Eastside cities each have their own fire code requirements layered on top of NFPA 13D. Our designs reflect the specific jurisdiction where your home is being built.
Frequently Asked Questions
For a typical single-family home, the design and permit submittal package takes 5 to 7 business days once we have your floor plans. Larger or more complex homes may take a few days longer. We'll give you a timeline upfront when we scope the project.
We need your architectural floor plans — ideally a PDF set that includes the floor plan, roof framing plan, and plumbing riser locations. If you're working with a builder, they can usually send these directly. We also need the property address so we can pull water supply data.
When the same company designs and installs the system, there's no gap between what's on paper and what gets built. If something needs to change in the field, we adjust the design ourselves instead of waiting on a third-party engineer. One company, one point of accountability.
Most of our design work is for new construction, since that's when fire sprinklers are required in Washington state. If you're doing a major remodel that triggers the sprinkler requirement, we can design for that too — it just requires a site visit to assess the existing structure.
Related Services
Ready to start your sprinkler design?
Send us your floor plans and we'll scope the project within 48 hours.