Apartment Building Demising Wall Extension

[G.A.]

Hello,

I have a question: I am designing a 3-story apartment building in Texas. See attached partial floor plan, in the middle of the building, where the demising wall (shown as gray thick dashed line) is located, there is a recessed area with one side opening to public sidewalk in the north. I made the exterior walls around the area fire rated but left the two 4 ft windows (each for the units on both sides) in the area not fire rated to save some cost. Do you guys think the city would be OK with this? I am not able to find a provision in codes specifically dealing with this kind of condition, or may be it is something of inspector's interpretation of the codes?

Thank you very much for reading!

G.A.

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

Is the demising wall a fire wall or a fire barrier?

 

[G.A.]

Thanks for replying. The demising wall is a fire partition, according to 2015 IBC, Sect. 708.

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

As a fire partition providing dwelling unit separations, it does not create either two fire areas or two "buildings." A building does not need to be protected from itself. I see no issues.

 

[G.A.]

Yankee Chronicler:

Thanks for the comment! Liked "A building does not need to be protected from itself". I think I will keep the design as it is, unless later on the inspector points out something. Then I will let you know.

 

[redeyedfly]

Yankee Chronicler:

Thanks for the comment! Liked "A building does not need to be protected from itself". I think I will keep the design as it is, unless later on the inspector points out something. Then I will let you know.

Why did you add the fire rated exterior walls? There's no need to have 1hr exterior walls at this location in a Type VB building.

Randomly adding fire ratings because you don't know the code is just wasting your client's money. Are you an architect? This is basic code, no gray area. If you're an architect, you are not ready to be taking people's money, you are not anywhere near the standard of care.