Interior or Exterior Wall?

[Mech]

2015 IBC
Type 3B construction

Steel building construction, girts, metal siding
In one corner along two exterior walls, there will be a small office with a structural ceiling/plywood roof directly above the office for storage. The office ceiling will be supported by the office metal wall studs, not the main building steel framing. Is this office wall an exterior bearing wall, which requires a 2 hour rating, or can I safely call this an interior bearing wall that does not require a fire rating?

I am leaning towards this being an interior wall, not an external wall.

Thanks

 

[Builder Bob]

Are the walls on the interior and on-load bearing??

 

[Mech]

The two shaded office walls are immediately adjacent to the girts, so they could be considered part of the exterior walls. Or can the exterior wall end at the girts and the stud walls be considered interior walls? The four office stud walls could be removed and it would not affect the building structure.

The stud walls support a 110+/- sf storage platform above the office ceiling (10 ft above the floor), but below the building roof (23 ft above the floor.)

I have not finished ComCheck yet, but it looks like this building will require R19 batt insulation on the girts followed by R10 rigid insulation and a fire barrier of some sort (drywall, metal liner panel, skrim paper). I can provide a fire barrier between the rigid insulation and the office walls.

 

[Keystone]

Are you more concerned about IBC for rating or IECC for R Values?
What your describing appears to be infill framing between primary vertical beams.
I would say this infill framing is still exterior wall and the two walls projected within the floor footprint of the building are interior walls unless the entire shell already meets IBC & ComCheck.

 

[tmurray]

I think you could make an argument either way. You could look at it as part of the exterior wall assembly, or you could look at it as being an interior partition.

I would look at it as an interior wall because we could move the office anywhere in that building and it would still need those walls.

 

[steveray]

I see structural steel, is the "exterior" wall even bearing?

 

[Mech]

Keystone - I am more concerned with IBC and fire rating requirements, not the energy code.

steveray - the main building does not have a load bearing wall. The office wall is load bearing due to the storage above it.




After completing this section, I will make the structure meet IBC and IECC independently of the office, consider the metal liner panel the end of the exterior wall, and consider the office wall as an interior wall.

Thanks for the responses!

 

[steveray]

Interior bearing...no rating

 

[ameliasolis]

2015 IBC
Type 3B construction

Steel building construction, girts, metal siding
In one corner along two exterior walls, there will be a small office with a structural ceiling/plywood roof directly above the office for storage. The office ceiling will be supported by the office metal wall studs, not the main building steel framing. Is this office wall an exterior bearing wall, which requires a 2 hour rating, or can I safely call this an interior bearing wall that does not require a fire rating?

I am leaning towards this being an interior wall, not an external wall.

Thanks

2015 IBC
Type 3B construction

Steel building construction, girts, metal siding
In one corner along two exterior walls, there will be a small office with a structural ceiling/plywood roof directly above the office for storage. The office ceiling will be supported by the office metal wall studs, not the main building steel framing. Is this office wall an exterior bearing wall, which requires a 2 hour rating, or can I safely call this an interior bearing wall that does not require a fire rating?

I am leaning towards this being an interior wall, not an external wall.
eifs Raleigh
Thanks

In this age of moving to superinsulated buildings, it is important to be able to automatically draw a double wall system with two different wall thickness at the same time. It would require that the program allow the user to select what kind of wall at the outset and set all the parameters for it before proceeding with the creation phase.

My suggestion would be that the program allow for context-sensitive menu bars. When selecting the wall creation mode, the menu shows a drop down to change wall type (and therefore wall pattern, ie. wood stud, concrete block,etc.), stud spacing or block length, thickness, and whether or not there is a second wall and the similar settings for it. At this point, all walls would be created that same way until changed.

This option does not show up on the menu bar in any other mode. Selection mode would only have a context menu option to make changes.

Further, walls should be measured and placed from the exterior side and not the center point

What do you think?