Egress from a surrounded courtyard to exit

[theMcManiac]

Hi all,

I’m working with an apartment project (Type III-A, NFPA 13, 3-story enclosed corridor) that has a pool courtyard fully enclosed on all four sides by the building.

• The courtyard currently has 2 exits directly into the building corridor, but based on the occupant load I’ll need 3 exits.
• There’s also an “aqua lounge” amenity space that is completely open on the exterior side directly to the courtyard and has an exit to the building corridor on the other.

The issue:

• The aqua lounge has an occupant load of 50+, so it requires 2 exits. Has only 1 leading directly to corridor
• Pool courtyard occupant load is 500+ with 2 exits, requires 3.

My question:
Can I treat the aqua lounge and courtyard together for egress purposes?

• In other words, could I count the aqua lounge exit into the corridor as the third required exit for the courtyard?
• And at the same time, could the courtyard’s two exits to the corridor count as the second required exit for the aqua lounge?

Since the lounge is an amenity space directly connected to the courtyard, I’m wondering if it could be considered accessory and allowed to share exits this way.

 

[arwat23]

I would say it depends on the layout, but it's possible. Got a plan you can share?

 

[steveray]

My question:
Can I treat the aqua lounge and courtyard together for egress purposes?

Depends on the layout really, but yes...

 

[theMcManiac]

I would say it depends on the layout, but it's possible. Got a plan you can share?

Depends on the layout really, but yes...

I've attached a snip from our civil plan. The bottom right exits to a horizontal exit, top right exits to exterior, and the top left would go through aqua lounge to exterior