Roof Sprinklers: Could They Save Your Home?

If you own a home in California or any wildfire-prone area, you may wonder if installing a wildfire roof sprinkler system is worth it. They can be pricey, yet if they can save your home, the cost is small both in dollars, protecting what can’t be replaced, and in lowering your anxiety.

Here is solid information that can help you make a decision that is right for your home and your budget.

Why homeowners install sprinklers on the roof

A home protection system against wildfires that includes several sprinklers on roof elements creates an environment that is too wet to burn. Properly designed and installed, it cools and saturates your roof, eaves, house walls, and up to 30 feet around your structure.

It isn’t the wildfire itself that is the threat, it’s the windborne embers that can travel many miles from the blaze, fall on your dry roof, and start a devastating fire. In fact, 90% of homes destroyed by wildfire are not consumed in the flames of a raging wildfire, but by the flying embers blown from the main fire.

Because of the relatively high purchase price of wildfire roof sprinklers, people often search for alternatives, like discounted systems and even garden hoses and lawn sprinklers. Because they are ineffective and often counter-productive, they’re actually more expensive than a professional made-for-purpose system.

Can you fight a wildfire with a garden hose?

While you sometimes hear stories about people fighting house fires with a garden hose or using garden sprinklers to try to save a house in a wildfire, experts do not recommend it.

Garden sprinklers are nothing like wildfire roof sprinklers. Trying to use a sprinkler made for garden use to fight a serious fire has serious, and dangerous, drawbacks.

First let’s talk about the hose itself. Quality is highly variable, making it risky to use when your life or your home depend on it. Garden hoses struggle to maintain pressure and can kink and burst with relative ease, especially in the heat of a fire. They also change length when pressured with water, expanding and growing shorter, potentially limiting their reach.

Training by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group specifically warns against using a garden hose to fight fires.

Using sprinklers made for garden use and garden hoses is also discouraged for these reasons:

• You must be present to use them. You should already be evacuated if there is a risk of fire in your area, not standing on your roof with a garden sprinkler. Professional systems can turn on automatically or can be started remotely from your safe location.
• It is dangerous for you. If you don’t have a professionally installed sprinkler on a roof for wildfires, you may have to climb on your roof. If you are injured, you will distract firefighters from their vital work.
• You reduce water pressure and take water from firefighters. Firefighters need all the available water they can possibly access, along with enough pressure to use it. If you and your neighbors turn on your garden sprinklers, you deprive the professionals of a vital tool. The Frontline system is water-smart and uses significantly less water than a standard garden hose.
• Water alone isn’t enough. While water is critical to fire fighting, professional systems incorporate class A fire fighting foam that helps the water seep into materials vs. pooling and evaporating. The foam provides environmentally friendly, non-toxic and biodegradable protection that plain water from a garden hose cannot match.
• A garden hose is not powerful enough to be effective. You and your hose can’t be everywhere, yet the embers will be falling everywhere. A professional system saturates your entire structure and its perimeter in a way you and your hose cannot.

Leaving garden hoses attached to taps outside your home can help professional firefighters, but you should evacuate and leave the fight to the pros.

Can garden sprinklers save your home from a wildfire?

You cannot be sure that garden sprinklers will save you when your home is in fire danger. A wildfire can be miles away, yet hot embers may be floating downwind to threaten your home.

You can’t know exactly when to turn on your garden sprinklers to try to douse your lawn and home in advance, as embers can travel many miles. If you turn on your lawn sprinklers too early, the water will evaporate before it can do any good. Leaving lawn sprinklers on as you evacuate robs firefighters of the water and water pressure they need.

Roof sprinklers vs. a wildfire protection system

While it is tempting to try to save on costs by making a DIY wildfire sprinkler system using garden hoses and a cheap sprinkler on your roof, it may be money wasted. 

Low quality components can fail when you need them the most. If you lack professional expertise, you may not get the placement right, failing to get necessary overlap and perimeter saturation.  

Compare a DIY roof sprinkler with an exterior wildfire sprinkler system. 

Roof sprinklers are:

• Affordable, but potentially costly in the long run.
• Useless with a fire-resistant roof.
• Not as effective.
• Not automated.
• Take water from firefighters.
• Difficult to maintain.
• Have the potential to leak and damage your structure.
• Do not provide comprehensive protection.

On the other hand, an exterior wildfire sprinkler system like Frontline:

• Is a long-term investment to save your home.
• Hydrates the most critical zones.
• Is designed to provide precise and comprehensive coverage—not just of your roof, but the eaves and perimeter.
• Includes class A foam, which is five times more effective than water alone.
• Is automated to turn on ahead of the fire.
• Has intelligent water management that limits public water use, works with low pressure, and switches to backup water sources automatically.
• Is always on alert and stays connected to a highly accurate wildfire tracking system.
• Can be controlled by you remotely, activated by a dedicated app.
• Is professionally installed and blends discreetly with the architecture of your home.

Don’t stand on your roof with a hose! Fight fire intelligently

Standing on your roof with a hose from a big box store is no way to protect your property and puts you at risk. The Frontline Wildfire Defense System is the better, safer, and ultimately more cost effective solution. When you add up what your house is worth, what you pay for insurance, and the value of things that could be lost, the price is reasonable.Beyond installing a professional wildfire system that provides comprehensive protection, you can take additional steps to protect your property. You should fire harden your home as a start. Take the time to create defensible space landscaping around your structure. Plan ahead with a  wildfire evacuation checklist and a way to quickly pack what you need and go.