To The Editor:

In response to Mr. Palmer’s letter to the editor in the May 10th issue of the Newberry Observer, the Newberry County Home Builders resent the fact that he thinks we are a bunch of greedy individuals that would line our pockets with money, while putting our customers at risk. Most of the builders in this county are custom home builders and build to the specifications of the people we do work for.

I have been in the construction industry for 42 years and owned my own company for the past 37 of those years and have built many homes. In those years, I have not had one customer to even ask about a sprinkler system for their home. To my knowledge there are no other builders in this county that have been asked about installing a sprinkler system in any of their homes.

We as builders have not had any input in the process. We have not received any information nor found anyone with information or specifications to what would be required in these systems. This is a”Cat In The Sack” approach.

I can not believe that Mr. Palmer thinks the residents of this state and county are not intelligent enough to decide for themselves whether or not to install a sprinkler system in their home. In the past 10 years or so our customers are some of the most informed people in the county because of the Internet and the T.V. Fact is, sometimes they have researched materials and products that we know little about. So to make these uninformed people safer the government mandates something that most of them are not going to want.

When Mr. Palmer is talking about profits and lining pockets he must be talking about the people who are manufacturing these systems. Just because they are installed in a house does not mean they will function properly. Is there going to be a mandatory inspection once a year and fines if the homeowner does not keep the system maintained? I would think not.

We have all heard about insurance rates and how they will be lowered and the money that will be saved with these systems. I have not heard anyone talk about what it will cost the insurance companies for the systems that malfunction. Most of the houses that we build have oak flooring, sheet rock walls and ceilings. We all know what happens to these materials when they get soaked with water. Also, the rural parts of the state and county that are served by wells could require special equipment that would make the cost skyrocket.

In his letter, Mr. Palmer talked about smoke detectors. It is a fact that smoke detectors are 99.45 percent effective when they are working properly. I would also like to remind him that poverty is the cause of a lot of house fires. People who live in sub-standard houses and older mobile homes try to heat with wood or space heaters. These will not be affected by the codes, only new houses.

In closing, I would like to say that as builders, we have touched the lives of every citizen in this county and state. Some of our work will stand for hundreds of years and span many generations. I would like to remind Mr. Palmer that we too are your friends, neighbors and volunteer fire and rescue members. Also that the builders of the Laurens-Newberry County UBA constructed the first mobile Childs Fire Safety House in Newberry County. We the builders and members of the L-N HBA think the citizens of this county and state are tired of the mandates that try to protect us from ourselves. We also think that Mr. Palmer owes all of the citizens and builders of this county and state an apology.

Ted Z. Waites

Owner: Waites Bro. Builders

Newberry