nealderidder
Sawhorse
I've got a small one story commercial space (500 SF) sitting in front of a 2.5 story residential building with 4 units. This is in CA. Basically, a CMU box was plunked down in front of an old Victorian that was long ago divided up into apartments. It's on a busy street and 30 years ago someone decided this would be a good place for a little commercial space. All of this is existing. That's the context...
I said 2.5 floors because the ground floor has mostly dirt floors and the floor joists above are roughly 6.5' above the ground. Not tall enough to be habitable. The "ground floor" directly behind my little commercial space actually has a concrete floor slab, and some finished walls and even a window. I'm calling this the "crawl space" in the attached drawings even though you don't have to crawl. The floor joists above are 6'-7" above the slab with beams even lower)
My question is - Can I use this space for storage?
The fire code (315.3.4) acknowledges that attics and under-floor spaces exist and are often used for storage.
After reading this section I'm thinking I can provide a one hour separation (handy since that's required between the mercantile use and the residential use anyway) a self closing door and I'm good to go.
But... this looks an awful lot like a space that just doesn't meet the requirements of chapter 12 for ceiling height. No one would call this a crawl space but it's not tall enough to be occupiable.
Can I throw up a couple of layers of gyp. and use it for storage?
Thanks,
Neal
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I said 2.5 floors because the ground floor has mostly dirt floors and the floor joists above are roughly 6.5' above the ground. Not tall enough to be habitable. The "ground floor" directly behind my little commercial space actually has a concrete floor slab, and some finished walls and even a window. I'm calling this the "crawl space" in the attached drawings even though you don't have to crawl. The floor joists above are 6'-7" above the slab with beams even lower)
My question is - Can I use this space for storage?
The fire code (315.3.4) acknowledges that attics and under-floor spaces exist and are often used for storage.
After reading this section I'm thinking I can provide a one hour separation (handy since that's required between the mercantile use and the residential use anyway) a self closing door and I'm good to go.
But... this looks an awful lot like a space that just doesn't meet the requirements of chapter 12 for ceiling height. No one would call this a crawl space but it's not tall enough to be occupiable.
Can I throw up a couple of layers of gyp. and use it for storage?
Thanks,
Neal