Maximum Area of Exterior Wall Openings/ IBC Table 705.8

[jrandol6]

I am working on an apartment building in Tennessee which is located 7 feet from the property line at it's closest point. The exterior walls are 1 hour fire rated (per Table 602) and is sprinklered (NFPA 13R), however, the plans reviewer believes that per table 705.8 (Maximum Area of Exterior Wall Openings...) that a type 13R sprinkler system is classified as Unprotected, Nonsprinklered which only allows 10% of opening area. He is arguing if you see the footnotes, only a NFPA 13 sprinkler system would qualify as sprinklered. It seems counter intuitive that a type 13R sprinkler system is as good as not sprinklered.

If the openings are reduced to fit within the 10% allowable, windows will be too small to meet egress requirements. Any ideas for maintaining openings other than switching to a NFPA 13 sprinkler system? Rated glazing?

 

[RLGA]

Only a NFPA 13 system allows the use of "unprotected, sprinklered" percentages of Table 705.8.