Adrian Peschi, LCAM, knew that if the retrofit went badly, he’d hear it from hundreds of unofficial supervisors – the residents of the high-rise apartment building he manages in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

As general manager of the 338-unit Coral Ridge Towers South, Peschi feared the fire sprinkler retrofit required by state law would disrupt the lives of residents and bring complaints about noise, dirt, blocked hallways and other problems. But thanks to a decision to use BlazeMaster fire protection systems and to hire Sprinklermatic Fire Protection Services to install it, the retrofit was problem-free.

“The project in every sense was superb,” Peschi relays. “We had good comments from our residents. We were happy with the entire process, and it moved along much faster than we thought it would.”

Coral Ridge is one of hundreds of older high-rise residential buildings in Florida complying with new sprinkler requirements. While new buildings three stories or higher have been required since 1994 to have fire sprinklers, many older high-rise buildings were left unprotected. To close that gap, the state legislature set a Dec. 31, 2019, deadline for unsprinklered high-rise buildings (generally 75 feet or higher) to add fire sprinklers.