Fire Separation

[David M]

Is the maintenance area located behind the dryers in a coin operated laundry facility required to be separated by a rated fire wall or barrier? This is not part of a residential building. It is a public facility. I can't find specifics on this in the IBC or IFC. We are currently under the 2015.

 

[RLGA]

The laundry room, if over 100 sq. ft., would need to be separated from the maintenance area with a 1-hour fire barrier or have a sprinkler system installed within the laundry room. If sprinklered, then all you need is a wall and openings that prevent the passage of smoke, doors shall be self- or automatic-closing upon smoke detection, and only air transfer openings with a smoke damper.

 

[classicT]

Ron has it.

But if you are interested in the code reference that requires this, here you go.

2021 IBC 509.1 General​

Incidental uses located within single occupancy or mixed occupancy buildings shall comply with the provisions of this section. Incidental uses are ancillary functions associated with a given occupancy that generally pose a greater level of risk to that occupancy and are limited to those uses specified in Table 509.1.
Exception: Incidental uses within and serving a dwelling unit are not required to comply with this section.

[F] TABLE 509.1
INCIDENTAL USES​

ROOM OR AREA	SEPARATION AND/OR PROTECTION
Furnace room where any piece of equipment is over 400,000 Btu per hour input	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
Rooms with boilers where the largest piece of equipment is over 15 psi and 10 horsepower	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
Refrigerant machinery room	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
Hydrogen fuel gas rooms, not classified as Group H	1 hour in Group B, F, M, S and U occupancies; 2 hours in Group A, E, I and R occupancies.
Incinerator rooms	2 hours and provide automatic sprinkler system
Paint shops, not classified as Group H, located in occupancies other than Group F	2 hours; or 1 hour and provide automatic sprinkler system
In Group E occupancies, laboratories and vocational shops not classified as Group H	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
In Group I-2 occupancies, laboratories not classified as Group H	1 hour and provide automatic sprinkler system
In ambulatory care facilities, laboratories not classified as Group H	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
Laundry rooms over 100 square feet	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
In Group I-2, laundry rooms over 100 square feet	1 hour
Group I-3cells and Group I-2 patient rooms equipped with padded surfaces	1 hour
In Group I-2, physical plant maintenance shops	1 hour
In ambulatory care facilities or Group I-2 occupancies, waste and linen collection rooms with containers that have an aggregate volume of 10 cubic feet or greater	1 hour
In other than ambulatory care facilities and Group I-2 occupancies, waste and linen collection rooms over 100 square feet	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
In ambulatory care facilities or Group I-2 occupancies, storage rooms greater than 100 square feet	1 hour
Electrical installations and transformers	See Sections 110.26 through 110.34 and Sections 450.8 through 450.48 of NFPA 70 for protection and separation requirements.

For SI: 1 square foot = 0.0929 m2, 1 pound per square inch (psi) = 6.9 kPa, 1 British thermal unit (Btu) per hour = 0.293 watts, 1 horsepower = 746 watts, 1 gallon = 3.785 L, 1 cubic foot = 0.0283 m3.

 

[David M]

The laundry room, if over 100 sq. ft., would need to be separated from the maintenance area with a 1-hour fire barrier or have a sprinkler system installed within the laundry room. If sprinklered, then all you need is a wall and openings that prevent the passage of smoke, doors shall be self- or automatic-closing upon smoke detection, and only air transfer openings with a smoke damper.

The table

Ron has it.

But if you are interested in the code reference that requires this, here you go.

2021 IBC 509.1 General​

Incidental uses located within single occupancy or mixed occupancy buildings shall comply with the provisions of this section. Incidental uses are ancillary functions associated with a given occupancy that generally pose a greater level of risk to that occupancy and are limited to those uses specified in Table 509.1.
Exception: Incidental uses within and serving a dwelling unit are not required to comply with this section.

[F] TABLE 509.1
INCIDENTAL USES​

ROOM OR AREA	SEPARATION AND/OR PROTECTION
Furnace room where any piece of equipment is over 400,000 Btu per hour input	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
Rooms with boilers where the largest piece of equipment is over 15 psi and 10 horsepower	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
Refrigerant machinery room	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
Hydrogen fuel gas rooms, not classified as Group H	1 hour in Group B, F, M, S and U occupancies; 2 hours in Group A, E, I and R occupancies.
Incinerator rooms	2 hours and provide automatic sprinkler system
Paint shops, not classified as Group H, located in occupancies other than Group F	2 hours; or 1 hour and provide automatic sprinkler system
In Group E occupancies, laboratories and vocational shops not classified as Group H	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
In Group I-2 occupancies, laboratories not classified as Group H	1 hour and provide automatic sprinkler system
In ambulatory care facilities, laboratories not classified as Group H	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
Laundry rooms over 100 square feet	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
In Group I-2, laundry rooms over 100 square feet	1 hour
Group I-3cells and Group I-2 patient rooms equipped with padded surfaces	1 hour
In Group I-2, physical plant maintenance shops	1 hour
In ambulatory care facilities or Group I-2 occupancies, waste and linen collection rooms with containers that have an aggregate volume of 10 cubic feet or greater	1 hour
In other than ambulatory care facilities and Group I-2 occupancies, waste and linen collection rooms over 100 square feet	1 hour or provide automatic sprinkler system
In ambulatory care facilities or Group I-2 occupancies, storage rooms greater than 100 square feet	1 hour
Electrical installations and transformers	See Sections 110.26 through 110.34 and Sections 450.8 through 450.48 of NFPA 70 for protection and separation requirements.

For SI: 1 square foot = 0.0929 m2, 1 pound per square inch (psi) = 6.9 kPa, 1 British thermal unit (Btu) per hour = 0.293 watts, 1 horsepower = 746 watts, 1 gallon = 3.785 L, 1 cubic foot = 0.0283 m3.

I did find this table, but this facility is not an incidental use. It is a coin operated laundry business and will be a stand-alone building. I don't think the table will apply to this situation.

 

[classicT]

Will the laundry facility be the only tenant? Mixed use building? What occupancy classification are you going with?

If this is truly a standalone laundry building (single tenant, not mixed use), then it may be that the occupancy classification of the building could be Group F-1.

Laundries are listed under Group F-1 in 306.2; whereas, dry cleaning and laundries: pick-up and delivery stations and self-service are listed as Group B in 304.1.

 

[RLGA]

Then, it is a Group F-1 occupancy and is treated as such for height and area. The maintenance area is considered a part of the F-1 occupancy, so no occupancy separation would be required.

 

[David M]

This is a coin operated laundry, which by definition puts in a class B occupancy as a self-service laundry.

 

[classicT]

This is a coin operated laundry, which by definition puts in a class B occupancy as a self-service laundry.

Is the laundry facility the only tenant in the building?

 

[David M]

Yes.

 

[RLGA]

This is a coin operated laundry, which by definition puts in a class B occupancy as a self-service laundry.

You are correct if it is self-service. The maintenance area would still be a Group F-1, but it could be considered an accessory occupancy per Section 508.2 if you have issues complying with the allowable area limits using the nonseparated occupancies method and the maintenance area is 10% or less of the building floor area.

 

[classicT]

Yes.

Ok. If I were to review, I would be comfortable with a Group B designation and could disregard the incidental use provisions given that the laundry is the primary function of the whole building; thereby, an incidental use does not exist. The risk/hazard is uniform, so the protections intended by the incidental use provisions are unnecessary.

 

[David M]

Ok. If I were to review, I would be comfortable with a Group B designation and could disregard the incidental use provisions given that the laundry is the primary function of the whole building; thereby, an incidental use does not exist. The risk/hazard is uniform, so the protections intended by the incidental use provisions are unnecessary.

This is exactly what I was looking for. This is what my self and our building inspector were going with in the beginning but we had a contractor question it. We needed to make sure we were giving the correct information. Thank you sir.

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

We have a coin-op laundromat in the office for plan review at this very moment. The laundromat will be the sole tenant of a building that's roughly 3,000 square feet. We're viewing it as Use Group B and not looking at any internal fire separations.

 

[klarenbeek]

Not sure how you would even separate the maintenance area behind the dryers from the customer area in front with a rated assembly. The front of the dryer is in the customer area, the back in the maintenance area. You would have an unprotected hole in the wall the size of however many dryers go through the wall.