smoke detector placement requirements seem to be one of the things that varys the most between localities, but that's usually in regard to hallways and bedrooms as far as i've seen. my question is this:
short version: do localities base their building codes on the nec or the nfac??
long version: i was finishing a rough-in today on a house and had just finished wiring up the smoke detectors. there was a 25' long hallway that i placed 2 smoke detectors in on the ceiling about 5' from each end of the hall, and 6" off the wall. shortly after our lead electrician comes behind me and rips the boxes off the ceiling and yelling saying "according to code smoke detectors have to be at least
12in off the wall." i told him he was full of it because the national fire alarm code clearly states that ceiling mounted smoke detectors must be no closer than 4in off the wall so my location was just fine. at that point he claimed that he had failed inspections before for mounting them less than 12in. he also yelled at me for the one that i placed in the living room. according to the nfac wall mounted smoke detectors must be within 12in of the ceiling but no closer than 4in. he told me that i put it "unnecessarily high" and asked me why i didn't mount it much lower (it was about an 18ft ceiling). he also yelled saying that "we don't follow the nfac because we're not installing a fair alarm system, just smoke detectors. we follow the nec." now i may have missed a section of the nec, but the only section i can find that pertains to smoke detectors is article 760. and in article 760 fpn no. 1 clearly says that the nec only covers the wiring and refers to the nfac for everything else regarding them. i assume that its referring to 11.8.3 - smoke detectors and smoke alarms in the nfac.i'm just really sick of getting chewed out for doing things that im almost positive are correct. am i wrong here?? if anyone can give me a definite answer i would greatly appreciate it. thanks in advance!