Defend your most valuable assets against bushfire.

Full-deluge sprinkler system

A full-deluge bushfire sprinkler system is one of the most effective measures in protecting your valuable assets from bushfire.

According to the CSIRO, a reliable sprinkler system can increase the chances of your home surviving a bushfire.

The team at Great Ocean Plumbing have been involved in the design and installation of custom bushfire sprinkler systems for 20 years. Our system has been developed and refined in consultation with experienced CFA firefighters and can be incorporated discreetly into your new build or retrofitted to an existing home.

Installation of a full-deluge sprinkler system will defend all vulnerable areas of a house and have proved in the past to be one of the most effective measures for protecting houses from radiant heat and ember attack during a bushfire.

Our system is designed to meet your specific requirements and custom built to ensure optimal hydraulic performance, from water source to sprinkler head.

Mist, not sprinklers

Our bushfire ‘sprinkler’ system is designed to mitigate the threat of ember attack, which is a leading cause of structure loss in a bushfire.

Our system generates a dense shield of mist around your home. These fine droplets create a wet microclimate that defends against ember attack by extinguishing embers on contact. We recommend mist heads because they also maximise the system’s running time at optimal pressure and minimise the risk of wind dispersal and evaporation, which can render alternative designs – such as butterfly or impact sprinklers – ineffective.

Comprehensive system design and construction

Great Ocean Plumbing custom designs each system to meet the specific conditions of your site and buildings.

To ensure optimum hydraulic performance, we carefully calculate the size of the pump and pipework to deliver the ideal volume of water and system-operating pressures. This enables us to calculate the running time for your system and minimise the load on the pump during extreme bushfire conditions. Each system is designed to provide a minimum of 1 hour’s operating time.

We can design your sprinkler system to draw water from any source, such as a dam, swimming pool or tank, or we can install a new tank as part of your sprinkler system.

Copper pipe and brass sprinkler fittings provide great flexibility when designing your system, allowing us to deliver water coverage to all areas of your building exposed to fire. They are also tough and durable, delivering long life, low maintenance and minimal service requirements.

Unlike other sprinklers, which can fail due to corrosion, brass sprinklers are resistant to corrosion. They have no moving parts to fail, unlike impact or butterfly sprinklers, and can be easily serviced if they block. Two-stage filtering provided as part of the system excludes contaminants and can readily be serviced.

Impact or butterfly sprinklers require large volumes of water and are less effective in hot and windy conditions due to evaporation loss and wind dispersal.

To prevent any chemical reaction between the copper pipe and zinc or Colorbond roofs, we mount the copper pipe on stand-off brackets insulated from the roof with plastic spacers. This also reduces the amount of leaf build-up around the pipes.

It is important to train family members and familiarise them with the system without wasting precious water. We provide a recirculation line – a pipe from the outlet side of the pump which returns water to your water supply – so you can start and run your pump regularly, whether for servicing or for training purposes.

The recirculation line also allows the pump to be started long before the fire front arrives to warm up the pump and prevent panicky last-minute starts. A pump must have water flowing through it to keep the unit cool.

You can also connect a 25mm fire hose to your system to extinguish spot fires that may start beyond the area protected by your sprinkler system.

To provide maximum protection for your buildings, consider employing as many current bushfire-protection measures as possible in conjunction with your sprinkler system. Information is provided by the CFA, Australian Standards Association, local councils, the CSIRO, and other regulatory bodies.

Water where you need it most

Wind-driven embers can arrive long before (or after) the fire front reaches your property. Your sprinkler system is intended to wet the building’s façade (including walls, eaves, and rooftops) and any vegetation and fine debris in the immediate vicinity of your home as a bushfire approaches, and until long after the fire front has passed.

Your system will be custom designed to meet the specific conditions of your site and buildings. It will deliver water to wherever your building is exposed to fire; it can provide coverage not only for walls and the ridge, valley and gutter lines of your roof, but also windows, skylights, decks, gas bottles and areas beneath floors if needed.

Pumps

Mains electricity often fails during a bushfire. Our system employs a high-quality petrol or diesel pump mounted on a concrete slab and started with either a pull cord or a key to drive water through the sprinkler system.

The pump is enclosed in a vented pump cover with its own sprinkler to protect and cool the pump and prevent fuel vaporisation, which sometimes occurs with petrol-driven pumps in extreme temperatures. Petrol pumps are less expensive than diesel pumps, but diesel pumps are more fuel efficient and better suited for running over longer periods.

We provide laminated operating instructions for starting the pump and operating the sprinkler valves, as well as full training for the homeowner, their family and any friends, neighbours or other occupants who may need to know how to start the pump and activate the sprinkler system.

You can arrange for annual servicing by Great Ocean Plumbing, or we can teach you basic servicing of the system.

Water sources

Our sprinkler systems are designed to provide a minimum of 1 hour of operating time with an appropriate water supply.

The sprinkler system can be designed to draw water from any existing water sources such as dams, swimming pools, tanks, etc., or we can install a new tank with the sprinkler system.

We believe a 1-hour water supply will enable you to wet down your building before the fire front arrives, protect it during the fire and extinguish any spot fires or embers after the fire front passes.

Bushfire behaviour is unpredictable. Great Ocean Plumbing encourage our customers to install additional water supplies to increase system run times and maximise the defence of your property.

Safe and reliable remote activation

The Victorian CFA recommends that on hot, dry, windy days when the risk of bushfire ignition is increased, the safest option for protecting yourself and your family is to leave your property early.

Your bushfire sprinkler system is an active bushfire protection system, which means its effectiveness depends on it being activated and operational for the duration of the fire threat.

Our systems offer a simple, safe, and reliable remote activation function, enabling you to evacuate your home with peace of mind whilst protecting everything and everyone you love.

Always remember, the safety of you and your family is paramount, and in the event of a bushfire, the safest place to be is as far away as possible.

Heat activation

In addition to remote activation, we can install a heat activation ring main around the perimeter of your property as an extra safeguard for activating your bushfire sprinkler system. The heat activation ring is comprised of heat sensors, which can be installed in fire-prone areas with dense vegetation. These sensors will trigger your fire pump and deploy your sprinkler system in the event of a fire.

Our process

Step 1 Site Inspection

Simple standard inspection. This option includes property type, location, water sources, roof and house cladding types.
OR
Complete site inspection. Great Ocean Plumbing works closely with South Coast Bushfire Consultants, who can provide you with an extensive site inspection package.

Step 2 System Design

Design and quote proposed system

Step 3 Installation

Installation (1–5 days standard house)

Step 4 Training

Training for family and residents on how to start the system.

Experience. Expertise. Quality. Reliability.

Great Ocean Plumbing brings 20 years’ experience to the design and installation of our bushfire sprinkler systems

Our licensed plumbers and gasfitters offer a comprehensive range of plumbing services and can install sprinkler systems in new builds or retrofit existing buildings.

Great Ocean Plumbing uses only the finest components; tough, durable, corrosion-resistant parts and materials.

Great Ocean Plumbing’s sprinkler systems are designed and built for ease of operation, low maintenance and reliability when it matters most.

See for yourself

Samples of our system in action

Recent work