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B1/S1 or B1/S2 on my storage?

jeffo

REGISTERED
Joined
Nov 12, 2021
Messages
24
Location
Texas
Hi,

Got some good knowledge on my post last week, and one of the guys said I should post this out there for opinions.

The city currenly came in and said we are B1/S2, thus wanted us to put up a 2 hour Fire Barrier which I am showing (solid black line) that my architect created.

My concern is am I S2 or S1. We store alloy wheels in cardboard boxes. I see metal parts in S2 that can be stored in thin paper but see cardboard in S1.

With this B1/S2 means I need the fire barrier. But with this I can expand up to like 17000 sq ft.
With B1/S1 means no fire barrier. I can go 12000 sq ft (is this overall or just in S1?)
warehouse.jpgimage2 (31).jpegimage0 (46).jpegimage1 (35).jpeg
 
You are an S-2, if you persuaded them that your an S-1 then there would be no separation of occupancy required, but area limitations Assuming an S-2, I cannot read the dimensions on your building but if your overall building size is less than 9,000 SF then no occupancy separation would be required, per non separated occupancies. If your building is larger than 9,000 SF then a 2 Hour occupancy separation would be required between the B and S-2. In your situation the B is actually the more restrictive occupancy and you are actually protecting the S-2 from the B, not the other way around.
 
Based on 2018 IBC 903.2.9 when the S-1 fire area exceeds 12,000 square feet sprinklers are required. With no separation, the fire area is the whole building.
 
My building overall is currently 9000 sq ft.

I am on IBC 2015 in our city.
9000 is the B occupancy table value. If separated, you would use a pro-rated calculation based on the S-2 table value, too. Then you would apply the frontage increase of as much as 0.75x the table value.

My reference to 2018 IBC is the same in 2015.
 
If your building is 9,000 SF then there is no occupancy separation is required as the most restrictive occupancy allows 9,000 SF.
See Nonseparated occupancies 508.3.
 
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