Just to be clear, the exit discharge portion of a means of egress system cannot start above the level of exit discharge. Interior and exterior exit stairs and ramps must discharge at the level of exit discharge.
Also, stairs within the exit discharge are not exit stairs.
This may create some potential problems. If the main entrance is the accessible entrance, how do persons with disabilities access the portion of the building that is partitioned off? Also, if a floor is required to have two or more exits, then at least two accessible means of egress must be provided. If the main entrance is one of the accessible means of egress and a portion of the building is prevented from using that as an accessible means of egress, then the other two exits must also be accessible means of egress. Further, does the portion of the building with access to the main entrance have a second means of egress and a second accessible means of egress?
ah ok....I misunderstood your post #8. If I am on the second floor and exit that floor, that is not called the exit discharge until I am on the floor that discharges directly to grade. Do I have that right? They would be using exterior open air wood stairs to get to grade. Going back to my original question, can multiple exits (once outside the building) be funneled into one exterior open air stair tower to get to the level of discharge below, as long as the width accommodates? Or does 2 required exits at this floor mean 2 separate paths down to the floor below where the discharge begins?
I didn't realize I need 2 accessible means of egress. The existing building only had 1 accessible means of egress on this floor. The other egress was onto a wood deck that used exterior stairs to grade, similar to what I am proposing. This is an existing building....90% fire damaged...gutted, and we are rebuilding on approximately the same footprint, so it may be considered new by the time we get to permit drawings. We are also adding some square footage.
I'm still noodling the design with exiting through an accessory space for the accessible egress during the times we use the sliding partition. If I can make this work, the space that is partitioned off with the sliding doors will have 3 exits even though only 2 are required (but only one exit is accessible).
Glenn, yes the deck will have OL to it and has a covered roof over part of it. The stairs are off of the deck. The OL of the level I've been referring to requires 2 exits (including the deck OL). The OL of the deck by itself only requires one exit. I have 3 exits from this level but one will be eliminated if we use the interior sliding partition. The deck itself only has one exit, which is the exterior stairs down to the level of discharge.
Thanks for your input...as usual one question prompts many.