Hello. I am a newbie and have been tossed a curve that I cannot figure out.
I am restoring a former commercial sawmill building that was closed in 1973. It is 24000 sq ft single story. It has no sprinklers. Its use has been classified as F1, low hazard factory, and it will be only used for storage and display of the old sawmill equipment. Construction is V-B There is no public use.
In one corner of it (2 exterior walls) I was hoping to put a residence of 1500 sq ft R3. There are multiple egress points along all the walls, in the worst case from the farthest room, to the farthest egress, it is 60'. The planning department has approved the use and so we went to building. Unfortunately the building officials have insisted that I sprinkle the entire 24000 sq ft with a commercial sprinkler system because of the change of use!
This is what they sited, saying it says "Shall":
[F] 903.2.8 Group R
An automatic sprinkler system installed in accordance with Section 903.3 shall be provided throughout all buildings with a Group R fire area.
[F] 903.2.8.1 Group R-3
An automatic sprinkler system installed in accordance with Section 903.3.1.3 shall be permitted in Group R-3 occupancies.
[F] 903.2.8.2 Group R-4, Condition 1
An automatic sprinkler system installed in accordance with Section 903.3.1.3 shall be permitted in Group R-4, Condition 1 occupancies.
[F] 903.2.8.3 Group R-4, Condition 2
An automatic sprinkler system installed in accordance with Section 903.3.1.2 shall be permitted in Group R-4, Condition 2 occupancies.
This seems ridiculous, because if the building were on fire, you would simply walk out.
My engineer insists that they are not applying the code correctly, but also say that they do not do code analysis, so cannot supply me with references to supply to the county. So I am stuck.
I have been reading a lot of the prior threads and can see that there seems to be a lot of grey areas concerning this. Can someone please point me in the the right direction so I can help my engineers to prepare a rebuttal to this requirement?
We even offered to put a residential sprinkler system intothe R3 portion, but they rejected that as well.
Here is one reply from a prior thread, and there are many others. I just don't know where to begin. Thank you in advance.
Interesting....I don't spend much time in the IFC....That section does read a lot like the prescriptive compliance part of the IEBC....But in the IEBC there may be some additional relief with work area or performance...
407.1 Conformance. No change shall be made in the use or
occupancy of any building unless such building is made to
comply with the requirements of the International Building
Code for the use or occupancy. Changes in use or occupancy
in a building or portion thereof shall be such that the existing
building is no less complying with the provisions of this code
than the existing building or structure was prior to the change.
Subject to the approval of the building official, the use or
occupancy of existing buildings shall be permitted to be
changed and the building is allowed to be occupied for purposes
in other groups without conforming to all of the
requirements of this code for those groups, provided the new
or proposed use is less hazardous, based on life and fire risk,
than the existing use.
I am restoring a former commercial sawmill building that was closed in 1973. It is 24000 sq ft single story. It has no sprinklers. Its use has been classified as F1, low hazard factory, and it will be only used for storage and display of the old sawmill equipment. Construction is V-B There is no public use.
In one corner of it (2 exterior walls) I was hoping to put a residence of 1500 sq ft R3. There are multiple egress points along all the walls, in the worst case from the farthest room, to the farthest egress, it is 60'. The planning department has approved the use and so we went to building. Unfortunately the building officials have insisted that I sprinkle the entire 24000 sq ft with a commercial sprinkler system because of the change of use!
This is what they sited, saying it says "Shall":
[F] 903.2.8 Group R
An automatic sprinkler system installed in accordance with Section 903.3 shall be provided throughout all buildings with a Group R fire area.
[F] 903.2.8.1 Group R-3
An automatic sprinkler system installed in accordance with Section 903.3.1.3 shall be permitted in Group R-3 occupancies.
[F] 903.2.8.2 Group R-4, Condition 1
An automatic sprinkler system installed in accordance with Section 903.3.1.3 shall be permitted in Group R-4, Condition 1 occupancies.
[F] 903.2.8.3 Group R-4, Condition 2
An automatic sprinkler system installed in accordance with Section 903.3.1.2 shall be permitted in Group R-4, Condition 2 occupancies.
This seems ridiculous, because if the building were on fire, you would simply walk out.
My engineer insists that they are not applying the code correctly, but also say that they do not do code analysis, so cannot supply me with references to supply to the county. So I am stuck.
I have been reading a lot of the prior threads and can see that there seems to be a lot of grey areas concerning this. Can someone please point me in the the right direction so I can help my engineers to prepare a rebuttal to this requirement?
We even offered to put a residential sprinkler system intothe R3 portion, but they rejected that as well.
Here is one reply from a prior thread, and there are many others. I just don't know where to begin. Thank you in advance.
Interesting....I don't spend much time in the IFC....That section does read a lot like the prescriptive compliance part of the IEBC....But in the IEBC there may be some additional relief with work area or performance...
407.1 Conformance. No change shall be made in the use or
occupancy of any building unless such building is made to
comply with the requirements of the International Building
Code for the use or occupancy. Changes in use or occupancy
in a building or portion thereof shall be such that the existing
building is no less complying with the provisions of this code
than the existing building or structure was prior to the change.
Subject to the approval of the building official, the use or
occupancy of existing buildings shall be permitted to be
changed and the building is allowed to be occupied for purposes
in other groups without conforming to all of the
requirements of this code for those groups, provided the new
or proposed use is less hazardous, based on life and fire risk,
than the existing use.