Fire Doors / Sprinkler Trade-Offs

[LGreene]

I need to put together a report about the code changes that have occurred over the last 10+ years that have resulted in fewer fire doors. I've looked at all of the Corridor Fire Resistance Rating tables from the various versions of the IBC as well as the UBC, BOCA, and SBC, and I see a few changes there that impacted fire doors. Now that sprinklers are mandatory for schools and hospitals, that has had a huge impact on the number of fire doors.

I know there have been changes to the allowable building height and area and I'm guessing that would affect horizontal exits (I could use some help understanding the impact of this change on fire doors). I have also looked at the tables for Incidental Accessory Occupancies. Where else should I be looking? If any of you use NFPA 101, are there changes to that code which affected the amount of fire doors in a new building?

 

[cda]

This is a little old

Impact of Building Code Changes on Fire Service Safety

I think I have an older version of this in my office, if it is the same it talks about trade offs

https://nfsa.site-ym.com/store/view_product.asp?id=882261

http://afscc.org/Papers/NSF_sprinkler_trade_offs.pdf

 

[cda]

The Perks for Automatic Sprinklers in the 2003 IBC - Feature Articles - PMEngineer

 

[Paul Sweet]

A lot of the sprinkler tradeoffs predate the IBC, especially in BOCA land. Height & area increases and unrated corridors, were all in the BOCA code in the mid 1980s.