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  1. BayPointArchitect

    Existing hospital, fully sprinkled, with existing storage and mechanical rooms.

    Given: NFPA 101 Life Safety Code, Chapter 18, Existing hospital. All storage and mechanical rooms shall be one-hour fire-rated - or - protected with an automatic fire sprinkler system. Situation: Local inspector is requiring me to analyze all existing doors and write a report that identifies...
  2. BayPointArchitect

    Is it a hotel or a conference center or something else?

    e hilton, your candor is much appreciated! :cool: I will forward that definition to the permit applicant which includes "ten or more persons or more than five or more rooms." The hotel area of the building being questioned is said to be for short-term use (less than 30 days). There is also a...
  3. BayPointArchitect

    Is it a hotel or a conference center or something else?

    I did ask them to color code each type of occupancy according to its use. Then I was going to require fire separation between each type of occupancy. But then they gave me three different colors for three large areas - including a 5,418 S.F. hotel... with one lonely sleeping room. I like the...
  4. BayPointArchitect

    Is it a hotel or a conference center or something else?

    If I review it the way I see it, then I would color the plan differently to show a smaller "hotel" area that includes the ADA hotel room and restroom. That area would then need to be fire separated from all other areas of the "B" business office occupancy. Separate handicap entry-exit...
  5. BayPointArchitect

    Is it a hotel or a conference center or something else?

    The architect is now saying that the area beyond the sleeping room is part of the "hotel suite". The suite being less than 50% of the total area of the "hotel".
  6. BayPointArchitect

    Is it a hotel or a conference center or something else?

    Rather than describe how we got here, our planning department has approved a new hotel. The plan proposed by the architects show a two-story 5,418 S.F. area labeled "hotel". Fair enough. But there is only one sleeping room and eighteen other accessory rooms. While I agree that hotels have many...
  7. BayPointArchitect

    Two-hour floor-ceiling assembly upgrade to allow for Romex wiring.

    After the State Fire Marshal agreed with me that the 3/4" plywood has the 15 minute value - that the electrical inspector is looking for - the electrician still insists on the 1/2" gyp.bd. Another electrical inspector recommended that I file a formal appeal to the State Electrical Board because...
  8. BayPointArchitect

    Two-hour floor-ceiling assembly upgrade to allow for Romex wiring.

    Now I have been told that the electrical inspector does not care that the overall floor-ceiling assembly is two-hour fire-rated and he does not care about any testing of plywood with respect to a thermal barrier. He wants our State Fire Marshal to produce a document that proves that a fire can...
  9. BayPointArchitect

    Two-hour floor-ceiling assembly upgrade to allow for Romex wiring.

    Sounds good to me. You have my non-partisan vote. Meanwhile, I will propose that the inspector read the document produced after 23/32" thick plywood was tested in accordance with the test method for evaluation as a 15 minute thermal barrier. And that test was conducted by an approved...
  10. BayPointArchitect

    S-1 Warehouse seperation

    No. But if you were to provide two separate electrical supplies to two separate power systems (East side versus West side) then those areas would need to be separated by a two-hour fire-rated partition. Otherwise, one main meter followed by one or more subpanels and no fire separation would be...
  11. BayPointArchitect

    Two-hour floor-ceiling assembly upgrade to allow for Romex wiring.

    Beniah – If I were to take away one layer of ¾” plywood from the top side and then add a layer of 5/8” Type “X” on the bottom side for a total of four layers of drywall, then I would be closer to UL Design L556. MtLogCabin provided an illustration of that assembly which includes four (4) layers...
  12. BayPointArchitect

    Two-hour floor-ceiling assembly upgrade to allow for Romex wiring.

    Given: Nonsprinkled, mixed-use occupancy building, wood framing, requiring two-hour fire separation between business office below an apartment unit above. A floor ceiling assembly that is not in strict accordance with a given UL design number but is equivalent to three UL listed assemblies that...
  13. BayPointArchitect

    Statement of Special Inspections

    Considering that most special inspections are related to structural, we typically see the special inspection form filled out by the structural engineer. And - in most cases - the structural engineer will over-design the building in a way where she or he believes that a special inspection agency...
  14. BayPointArchitect

    Exit discharge problem

    Yes, the cover sheet states IEBC Level 2 compliance method. Change in occupancy to daycare. I am well aware that I need to account for the number of people exiting into the central exit access area - both from the daycare and from the other business office tenant. Both tenants depend on this...
  15. BayPointArchitect

    Exit discharge problem

    Very helpful comments Code Chronicle. So I changed the numbers on the plan to include a calculated 17 occupants from the unoccupied office tenant. So long as I don’t exceed a total of 160 people trying to make their way into the center area of convergence, we are still okay. Yes, all doors...
  16. BayPointArchitect

    Exit discharge problem

    Plan review comment: "Exit discharge is not complying with IBC Section 1028.1 item 2." There was a second floor but that is being abandoned because plan reviewer required an exterior second stairway to be constructed from this historic military building. So theoretically, we could remove the...
  17. BayPointArchitect

    Exit discharge problem

    Given: 2018 IBC Section 1028 EXIT DISCHARGE 1028.1 General. Exits shall discharge directly to the exterior of the building. The exit discharge shall be at grade or shall provide a direct path of egress travel to grade. The exit discharge shall not reenter a building. The combined use of...
  18. BayPointArchitect

    Elevator in main entry lobby

    I agree with the general intent of your statement. Although the elevator is normally unoccupied, it is located within a two-hour rated shaft with doors at the main floor lobby level leaking a little (not a lot) of smoke. And the contents of the elevator are.... nothing combustible. The retail...
  19. BayPointArchitect

    Elevator in main entry lobby

    We are going to propose this to the State Fire Marshal to see if it is acceptable. See attachments. Just to restate the issue, the orange elevator is not otherwise separated by the green exit stair.
  20. BayPointArchitect

    Elevator in main entry lobby

    1. This is a non-fire-sprinklered apartment building but it is not more than 75 feet in height. 2. Yes. Egress from the stairs is through the lobby to the public right of way. 3. The egress between the bottom of the stairs to the exterior is through the lobby. 4. The lobby has entrances to...
  21. BayPointArchitect

    Elevator in main entry lobby

    Yes. The A.H.J. did require that a two-hour fire-rated corridor be installed between the bottom of the six level stairway and a new exterior door. That was a few years ago before that building owner gave up and sold the building. Today, the same A.H.J. is okay with not requiring the two-hour...
  22. BayPointArchitect

    Elevator in main entry lobby

    So what you are saying is that the unenclosed stairway (green) does not need to be separated from the unenclosed (or open) yellow lobby. And therefore the rules of 14.3.1 do not apply because we are not dealing with an “enclosed” stairway. Can you elaborate?
  23. BayPointArchitect

    Elevator in main entry lobby

    The elevator and stairways are colored green. The lobby is colored yellow. The issue is that the green elevator does not have an elevator lobby that segregates it from the lobby - which has a six story stair dumping down into it. So I am uncertain how I can argue that this is okay.
  24. BayPointArchitect

    Elevator in main entry lobby

    I don't think that I can be so straight forward and tell the AHJ that they are being dumb. That's not going to go over very well.
  25. BayPointArchitect

    Elevator in main entry lobby

    Elevator opens into lobby. The applicable code is NFPA 1 section 14.3.1 (8) which states that only doorways from normally occupied spaces may enter into a stair enclosure. In this case, the stairway from five stories above is open to the main entry lobby. Existing non-sprinkled apartment...
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