Meadowbend99
Registered User
I have a 7,000 SF existing 2 story house being turned into a reception center for a wedding venue.
First floor is to be used for predominately assembly space (A-2), and some storage.
We run into issues with the second floor. There are three bedroom suites that they would ideally like to rent out for wedding events. We are sprinklering the building, but creating a 1 hour fire wall between the A-3 & R-3 will be very costly and challenging (air handler over wall that would need to go to roof, would lose decorative stain glass windows in interior wall, would lose intricately detailed wood doors that match other doors).
The area of those suites is 14% of the total gross occupied area. I have not taken covered patios into consideration with the occupant loads (if I count the covered patios then I'd be able to bring the R-3 under 10%. And then if I turn those suites into offices, I can claim the offices as accessory and not need to provide the fire wall). Then down the road they can convert the offices to suites.
The other main issue is exits. My common path of travel from the second floor is greater than 75'. I have two interior stairs. One empties in the foyer 26' from the front door (door visible from stairs). The other empties into a small hallway with an exit door just outside that hallway 16' from the stairs (door is visible from the base of the stairs). Since this is an existing building, are there any concessions I can look at since neither exits directly to the exterior? There is a window directly in front of where the second stairs empties. If they converted the window to a door, would they also need to close off the hallway? (Really prefer not to do this). Getting sprinklers is already really painful with all the custom trimwork.
** Any recommendations on literature on what it takes to convert an existing residential wall to a fire partition. I'm trying to explain it to my clients and they need visuals.
First floor is to be used for predominately assembly space (A-2), and some storage.
We run into issues with the second floor. There are three bedroom suites that they would ideally like to rent out for wedding events. We are sprinklering the building, but creating a 1 hour fire wall between the A-3 & R-3 will be very costly and challenging (air handler over wall that would need to go to roof, would lose decorative stain glass windows in interior wall, would lose intricately detailed wood doors that match other doors).
The area of those suites is 14% of the total gross occupied area. I have not taken covered patios into consideration with the occupant loads (if I count the covered patios then I'd be able to bring the R-3 under 10%. And then if I turn those suites into offices, I can claim the offices as accessory and not need to provide the fire wall). Then down the road they can convert the offices to suites.
The other main issue is exits. My common path of travel from the second floor is greater than 75'. I have two interior stairs. One empties in the foyer 26' from the front door (door visible from stairs). The other empties into a small hallway with an exit door just outside that hallway 16' from the stairs (door is visible from the base of the stairs). Since this is an existing building, are there any concessions I can look at since neither exits directly to the exterior? There is a window directly in front of where the second stairs empties. If they converted the window to a door, would they also need to close off the hallway? (Really prefer not to do this). Getting sprinklers is already really painful with all the custom trimwork.
** Any recommendations on literature on what it takes to convert an existing residential wall to a fire partition. I'm trying to explain it to my clients and they need visuals.