Sprinkler Age A Publication of the American Fire Sprinkler Association
Seriously, it’s time!
For a few years now, I’ve been banging the drum, trying to convince others that we need to recognize an occupation for inspection and testing, separating it from installation as a matter of training and practice. What do I mean by that? It’s long been the practice of fire sprinkler contractors, whether signatory or open shop, to assign fitters to perform inspection and testing activities. I believe this is wrong and opens contractors up to serious liabilities.
Let’s compare this to automobile manufacturing and maintenance work. If I work on the assembly line at Ford or General Motors, building cars and trucks, does this qualify me as a service mechanic for those vehicles? Obviously no, because there is much more to ensure the safe functionality of the car than just knowing my part of the assembly process. The same is true for fire sprinkler systems.
Let’s consider experience and regional knowledge. Fitters in southern California, southern Florida, and other warm-weather states install many wet pipe systems. Still, aside from coolers or freezers, they do not install many dry-pipe, pre-action, or deluge systems. I didn’t say they don’t see any of them, but surely not as many or as often as sprinkler fitters in Minnesota or Iowa. How about fire pumps? When I was a fire sprinkler contractor in San Diego, we installed systems in six-story buildings downtown without needing a fire pump. The water pressure in parts of San Diego County needs pressure-reducing valves because the pressure is very high. Fitters in this region have installed very few fire pumps, unlike their counterparts in many other parts of the nation. Of course, the same can be said of inspection and testing opportunities, but in the course of a year’s worth of work, a dedicated inspector will see many more sites and conditions than would a fitter on construction sites.
Inspection and testing of fire sprinkler systems should be a separate, stand-alone job because they require a distinct knowledge base and utilize a different set of rules. Specifically, NFPA 13 provides rules for designing and installing fire sprinkler systems. In contrast, NFPA 25 provides the requirements for inspection, testing, and maintenance of those and other water-based systems. NFPA 25 explicitly states that it is not the standard’s intent to have the inspector verify the adequacy of the installed system. The standard is based on a wear and tear approach to inspection and testing. It does not intend for the technician to have the knowledge base to determine if a system is installed correctly, designed for the current building use, or adequate for the current storage use or products. Nothing in the sprinkler fitter apprenticeship program prepares or trains fitters to perform inspection and testing activities. However, the knowledge of the equipment and system components can provide a great foundation.
Even if the training was modified to train sprinkler fitters to perform required inspections, few fitters spend enough time away from contract work to be knowledgeable or practiced enough to be effective and limit their employers’ liability. Moreover, let’s talk about the lack of manpower in our trade, as it has been in all construction trades.
We all know our industry needs to attract more people at every level. This is especially true for qualified layout technicians, fitters, and inspectors. Many contractors tell us they could book more work if they could find more skilled people. Identifying inspectors in their own role will aid our industry and relieve some pressure on the need for more fitters. Inspection and testing do not require a four-year apprenticeship program to create qualified or certified workers. For starters, more wet pipe systems are installed than any other system type, and it doesn’t take more than six months to a year to train on these requirements. The NICET (the National Institute for the Certification of Engineering Technologies) water-based ITM level 2 certification requires a candidate to have only two years of practical experience to sit for that test. The level 3 certification requires five years of experience, which allows newly minted inspectors to work toward performing necessary inspections and testing on more complex systems, including dry-pipe, deluge, pre-action, fire pumps, and special hazard systems.
This role will attract more females, who currently only represent 3.1% of sprinkler fitters¹, and others to the workforce, who may not be interested in pulling wrenches thirty feet in the air on a hot summer or cold winter day. Since most inspection and testing roles involve a lot of customer service interaction and are performed in existing, occupied buildings, the role will appeal to people who may be aging out of traditional installation roles, along with people from other service trades.
Unless you have been wearing blinders these past few years, many of the industry’s largest contractors have been focused on recurring revenue streams. Building their business book on inspection and testing while steering away from new construction projects. The consolidation, mergers, and acquisitions activities pervasive over the past few years have offered much greater multipliers on recurring revenue streams than on the limited value of non-recurring revenue realized by a limited backlog of new construction work. It makes sense to the investment market, and our industry should read the tea leaves and respond to the trends by providing the workforce needed to meet the demand.
So, seriously… Our industry must create a new occupation category with well-trained, certified inspection and testing technicians. AFSA has been working toward getting the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to recognize this as its own occupation and create a DOL-approved apprenticeship program. Surprisingly, our application was rejected the first time we submitted it. The process took over a year, and we are resubmitting the application with more support for the concept from the contracting community. If you agree with the need to recognize inspectors in our industry as a specific occupation, here is how you can help us. Write a letter in support addressed to:
U.S. Department of Labor
c/o AFSA
1410 E Renner Rd., Suite 150
Richardson, Texas 75082
Letters in .pdf form can also be emailed to valentine@firesprinkler.org
¹ “Sprinkler Fitter Demographics and Statistics in the US”, Zippia The Career Experts, www.zippia.com/sprinkler-fitter-jobs/demographics/ , January 8, 2025
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Bob Caputo, CFPS, is president of AFSA. He has been an important part of the fire sprinkler industry for over 41 years and is a long-time member of AFSA and promoter of merit shop contracting. He has chaired and served on many NFPA committees. Caputo has written and presented seminars throughout the world on fire protection and life-safety systems and is a regular speaker at AFSA and NFPA conventions. He has developed AFSA education and training materials, and chaired two chapters of AFSA—Arizona and Southern California. Caputo is the recipient of numerous awards, including Fire Protection Contractor magazine’s “Industry person of the Year,” San Diego County Fire Chief’s Association’s “Fire Prevention Officer of the Year,” and AFSA’s highest honor, the Henry S. Parmelee Award.