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Commercial Rooftop Deck

C

Cole Hartke

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Joined
Aug 30, 2017
Messages
6
Location
Effingham
i have a project that has a 1000 sq ft rooftop deck with all the necessary fire requirements and exits . it is on the third story of the building. the two floors below are a business occupancy and each floor is 1500 sq ft. the occupant load of the bottom two floors are 30 people total . the deck itself we are trying to use for commercial use for parties and events but the city is giving us a hard time and wont allow it to be classified as an assembly space, as of now it is classified as a residential space. my question is that if we limit the assembly space to less than a 50 person load then it is considered a non-accessory assembly use which turns it into a B classification am i wrong to think this way?
 
To answer your question, no; and welcome to the forum.

What is the construction type? That be be the limiting factor for a Group A above the second story.
 
Welcome

Effingham at the cross roads.

So how are they calling it residential??

Is it all B below??
 
yes it is all B below. it is in a B-2 zone in a downtown building, we attached it to the building next to it with a 2 hr fire door. the building next to it has residential on the third floor which we would also like to change but nothing is residential in the building with the deck. apparently there were documents that stated if we made a deck on the tired floor of the building then it would become residential. that why i am having this problem, we provided all the egress for both areas and all the necessary requirements for both areas to be used for commercial use. we were allowed a door swing to stay because it was existing. then added a fire stair to add a second means of egress
here is an image of the floorplan
https://plus.google.com/photos/phot...42?icm=false&iso=true&authkey=CL-DnqqOg_fTwAE
 
RLGA said:
To answer your question, no; and welcome to the forum.

What is the construction type? That be be the limiting factor for a Group A above the second story.
Click to expand...

it is a construction type 3 which does not allow assembly on the third floor which is why i want to call it a non-accessory assembly use and limit the load to 50 people
 
Ok you say it is business, but the floor plan says apartment and appears the apartment can access the roof in question????.

Not a BOCA person, but is the major use residential or mixed occupancy residential and business
 
cda said:
Ok you say it is business, but the floor plan says apartment and appears the apartment can access the roof in question????.

Not a BOCA person, but is the major use residential or mixed occupancy residential and business
Click to expand...

yes there is an apartment up on the third of the first building which we would like to eventually change to be used for a gathering space that can access the deck but the deck is on a completely different building the masonry wall is the end of the first building they share a wall as a lot of old downtown buildings are like this
 
Seeking the services of a qualified designer applying the compliance alternatives method may get you there with the future (partial) change of occupancy from residential in accordance to section 3408.
 
Last edited:
So I guess the question is

What are the reasons the city is telling you it cannot be assembly??

Did they give you code sections??
 
cda said:
So I guess the question is

What are the reasons the city is telling you it cannot be assembly??

Did they give you code sections??
Click to expand...
well the main concern is that i believe that we can not call it an assembly because it is built on the third floor. that is why i wanted to limit the load of people to under 50 to create a non-accessory assembly use thus classifying it as a B occupancy. i brought this idea to the building commissioner and was told that if the assembly changes to a B occupancy then the load would change from 15sq ft to 100 sq ft per person then only 10 people would be allowed on the deck. to me this made no sense because that would defeat the purpose of even calling it a non-accessory assembly use. the building commissioner and fire marshal are new to there jobs just appointed about a year ago which is a hassle to try to understand how they perceive the code and what it states
 
The building commissioner is wrong. Function of space per Chapter 10 has no direct correlation to occupancy group in Chapter 3. You can have an assembly function in a Group B. Section 303.1.2 even addresses small assembly spaces and assigns them to Group B as a default.
 
Just curious what are the qualifications and background of the building commissioner.

When I have seen building officials or inspectors make questionable interpretations it often seems to be because they do not know what they are doing or have an nonconventional view of the world.
 
Massachusetts BC's are typically required to have and maintain CBO status through ICC...That is the only place I know that uses BC as a term...
 
I'm looking answer on my post for commercial deck related question:

Commercial deck egress through adjoining storage space

Hello, I'm designing an office building with a deck on the second floor accessed from a storage space. The deck is a covered with roof and guard rails. Is deck an assembly or it can be an S1 occupancy as an accessory for the space next to it? Is there a separation requirement between the deck...
www.thebuildingcodeforum.com
 
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