Impact protection for fire doors?

[chris macko]

This came up as a permit comment, and there are some adjacent issues I'm looking for clarification on. IBC 2021. Section 704.9 requires that all fire rated columns have some form of impact protection applied to prevent forklifts, hand carts, pallet jacks, etc from hitting them and knocking off the fireproofing. That makes sense, but when we have fire barriers and fire walls in the same building that have overhead doors in them, I don't see anything requiring impact protection for those doors (bollards or goalposts). These openings would regularly have vehicles moving through them, and one could easily render that door inoperative which would compromise the fire barrier. Maybe a damaged door is more likely to be fixed than a column with missing fire protection. Is there anything in the code that actually requires this impact protection for shutters in fire rated walls? In this case the client is pushing back on installing anything not code required.

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

I have not encountered that question, and I can't recall anything specifically calling for impact protection of fire doors. It's understandable for a building owner to not want to pay for enhancements beyond what's required by code (except in the CEO's office, of course).

That said, the building code technically requires that required systems be maintained in functional order, and the fire codes also require that fire safety features be maintained in working order. In designing industrial facilities, we always installed bollards on both sides of doors and openings through which fork lifts and/or pallet trucks would be traveling.

 

[steveray]

He can pay to put in protection (cheap now) or pay to replace the doors later (not cheap).....Give him a cost comparison and let him make the right choice for him....

 

[chris macko]

We've made them very aware of the upfront cost and potential repair costs down the road. In this case it's a separate construction arm of the owners company and they say the operations team (who is also installing all the process equipment) will handle adding bollards in those areas as they see necessary. We will not have any real influence over that piece of the work though, and it does not seem like the construction team does either. This is also a foreign company that's not very familiar with US codes, so we constantly have to show them actual code language to justify why we're doing certain things.

 

[Penguin87]

This came up as a permit comment, and there are some adjacent issues I'm looking for clarification on. IBC 2021. Section 704.9 requires that all fire rated columns have some form of impact protection applied to prevent forklifts, hand carts, pallet jacks, etc from hitting them and knocking off the fireproofing. That makes sense, but when we have fire barriers and fire walls in the same building that have overhead doors in them, I don't see anything requiring impact protection for those doors (bollards or goalposts). These openings would regularly have vehicles moving through them, and one could easily render that door inoperative which would compromise the fire barrier. Maybe a damaged door is more likely to be fixed than a column with missing fire protection. Is there anything in the code that actually requires this impact protection for shutters in fire rated walls? In this case the client is pushing back on installing anything not code required.

It is "industry standard best practice" to locate bollards at EVERY door entrance (both sides) that can accommodate a forklift or vehicle (such as at an overhead door in a warehouse), as well as outside 90 degree corners at walls.

If they don't, eventually thew walls will get hit. If the owner refuses to pay, then they don't care that their facility gets destroyed. I have seen a fair number of warehouses that required column and wall replacements due to the lack of protection. Including a million SF warehouse that went down outside of DC killing half the employees in it.

But, best practice is not the code...