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2012 IRC Section R501.3 Fire protection of floors.

skipharper

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Dec 23, 2009
Messages
242
Location
Louisa County, Va.
Is anyone familiar with your State Code making any ammendments to this new section?

Floor assemblies, not required elsewhere in this code to be fire-resistance rated, shall be provided with a 1/2-inch (12.7 mm) gypsum wallboard membrane, 5/8-inch (16 mm) wood structural panel membrane, or equivalent on the underside of the floor framing member.

Exceptions:

1. Floor assemblies located directly over a space protected by an automatic sprinkler system in accordance

with Section P2904, NFPA13D, or other approved equivalent sprinkler system.

2. Floor assemblies located directly over a crawl space not intended for storage or fuel-fired appliances.

3. Portions of floor assemblies can be unprotected when complying with the following:

3.1. The aggregate area of the unprotected portions shall not exceed 80 square feet per story

3.2. Fire blocking in accordance with Section R302.11.1 shall be installed along the perimeter of the unprotected portion to separate the unprotected portion from the remainder of the floor assembly.

4. Wood floor assemblies using dimension lumber or structural composite lumber equal to or greater than 2-inch by 10-inch (50.8 mm by 254 mm) nominal dimension, or other approved floor assemblies demonstrating equivalent fire performance.







 
I had a class last Thursday from Coastal Forest products and they are now selling finger jointed framing lumber in part to give people another option in the "engineered lumber" world and not have to sprinkler....Via exception $4....I think it is good code, passive protection does work...
 
2012 IRC Section R501.3 Fire protection of floors.

PA is still on the 2009 and the state took out the sprinkler requirements and added wording like the new section above for basements.
 
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