There Probably Is a Law

The office building where I work is fairly typical in construction. There are some nice parts (the lobby that everyone sees) and some less than nice parts (that only employees see). In our case there are some unfinished areas, like the basement, the parking structure and the stairwells. In these areas you can see lots of pipes, mostly for the sprinklers for the fire suppression system. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we have a sprinkler system in the office. The floor I work on is higher than the tallest ladder the local fire department has, so sprinklers are good. But man, are there are lot of pipes for that system. They are everywhere.

The weird part is, apparently there is a law that these pipes must always look good. They get repainted fairly regularly. Nothing else get's repainted. Not the walls. Not the metal stairs or railings. The paint on them has worn through in some places, but they never get repainted. Only the bright red pipes that no ever touches get's repainted. Weird. There's probably some law... Who know what's it is trying to accomplish, but it seems rather pointless. I suspect it's a conspiracy by the makers of red paint. :-)