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IBC 3008.1 states that when elevators are used for occupant self‑evacuation, all passenger elevators for general public use must comply with Sections 3008.1–3008.10.
The language is unclear: does this require full 3008 compliance for every passenger elevator in the building, or only for the elevators specifically designated for occupant self‑evacuation (e.g., those serving levels above 420 ft / 128 m)? How is this typically interpreted in super high‑rise buildings where adding an additional exit stair is not feasible? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe
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How do people do elevator recall during dust-producing construction/tenant fit-outs?
I have heard smoke detectors being replaced with temporary heat detectors. I have heard bag the smoke detectors (but keep it live) and install an adjacent heat detector so that flames could melt the plastic bag. How have people done this? Before people say ask the AHJ, I am an AHJ, and I am trying to keep my constituents safe and am waffling back and forth. Thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe I have a 10-story condo building with 70 units. Each floor has 7 units, and the unit doors open to an open-atmosphere walkway with two exit stairwells at each end.
Do each unit door that swings into the unit need self-closing hinges? Thanks in advance for your help or guidance with this. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe Is there a code or standard that requires inspection or testing, or preventative annual, quarterly or monthly maintenance of smoke management systems?
Is this spelled out somewhere and I'm just missing it? Thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe What are the applicable requirements for speaker placement in high-rise Group R-2 buildings equipped with fire alarm or emergency voice/alarm communication systems, specifically regarding speakers inside dwelling or sleeping units?
What practices have you been applying or enforcing in these areas? Industry feedback suggests inconsistent approaches: some designs include speakers within bedrooms and living rooms, while others install speakers only in the corridors and rely on in-unit smoke-detector sounder bases for occupant notification, expecting residents to move into the corridor to hear prerecorded or live voice messages. Thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe Is there an NFPA 13 or 14 restriction for a combined sprinkler - standpipe dry system?
This is an open parking structure. Thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe I am working on a project that is building and connecting an open parking ramp to an existing building via an open bridge. The open garage will be going next to an existing building (different from the one it will be connecting to).
Does the open parking ramp need a dry standpipe? It will be just over 69 feet tall, and it doesn't look like there are elevators within the enclosed stairwells from the architect's rendering. I don't have a CAD background to compare to yet. Thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe We are completing a buildout for a spec suite; the shell warehouse building was just constructed and has a fire sprinkler supervising panel.
The fire department is saying we have to tie the duct detector into the fire alarm panel. This building does not have fire alarm, only sprinkler monitoring. Are they correct in saying we have to tie in the duct detector? Thank you! Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe I am modeling the elevator pressurization system in CONTAM to demonstrate compliance with SBC 201 (IBC-based) requirements.
Normally, we use simplified spreadsheets, but code enforcement now requires performance verification through simulation. In a model where the elevator shaft is adjacent to a protected service lobby, shell and core area, and a loading bay, is it sufficient to demonstrate pressure differentials only along the egress path (shaft → lobby → stair), or should other adjacent but enclosed spaces also be included? What method do you recommend for extracting and presenting results—direct export from simulation (as in ASHRAE Applications, Fig. 21 Ch. 54) or summarized plots similar to Fig. 11.13 in the Handbook of Smoke Control Engineering, 2nd Ed.? Lastly, when modeling the shaft, should it be defined as a flow path with cross-sectional area and perimeter replicated across all floors, except the top floor? Thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe How do you coordinate what dialing out method with the client/telecom group, etc.?
A new fire alarm system, let's say a college building, for example, what do you typically see? Does the college have its own monitoring station? Do you dial out signals via cellular or internet, or both? Do dial-out signals go to both the college monitoring station (say, a life safety office) and a central monitoring station? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe I have a hotel building that requires a standpipe in each of the two staircases. One of the stair shafts has a door to the outside at grade level, but there is no door to the first level inside. The lowest level with an interior door is the second floor, which has its own hose connection.
It doesn't make sense to provide a hose connection at the ground floor, but is there a code basis to support this? Thanks! Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe My coworker and I are disagreeing about townhomes.
Can each townhouse (3 total) have its own NFPA 13D system? Or do they need to have one total system? Each townhouse has a 1-hr separation in the form of UL U347. I cannot find anything that says they can't each have their own, but he is saying he can't find anything to say they can, to which I have always said if it doesn't say no, then it's usually allowed. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe Good morning, I am in Florida and use the Florida Fire Prevention Code 8th Edition, which references NFPA 1 and 101 (2021), NFPA 72 (2019), NFPA 96 (2021), and NFPA 17A (2021).
I have a mixed occupancy strip mall that is fully sprinklered and has a fire alarm that was initially installed to monitor the sprinklers only. One tenant upgraded the panel to accommodate a full fire alarm for their unit. A different tenant, mercantile class C, in the strip mall has installed a hood and hood suppression system along with duct detectors for their upgraded AC system. The ducts serve only their unit and do not cross demising walls or serve other units. My interpretation is that the duct detectors and hood suppression systems must be tied into the building's fire alarm. Is this correct? Another question, would this tenant then need to upgrade their unit to include pulls and notification appliances? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe How are we supposed to approach Fire Alarm requirement for elevator recall on key lock private elevator (elevators that goes directly into an apartment)?
I'm working on a new 3 story small apartment building where the first floor is only S-2 occupancy with no dwelling units and the 2nd and 3rd are R-2. Each floor classified as R-2 has 3 apartments and each one has a corresponding elevator that goes from the 1st floor and enter directly to each apartment. Access to each apartment is granted with a key that goes into the elevator. The building will have sprinklers likely NFPA 13 and will have smoke detectors with sounder base inside the dwelling units for notification. My question is how would you approach the elevator recall in this case taking into account that the only common area that the elevator land to on the whole building is the S-2 garage on the first floor? Thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe Does a panoramic or free-standing elevator have to be in a fire-rated shaft if it's not penetrating a floor assembly? IBC 3002.1 requires shaft enclosures per Sections 712 and 713 and opening protections for the shaft, but in this photo example of an elevator in an open atrium, I wouldn't think it's penetrating a floor slab, so it would be required to be in a shaft. I believe that the wall facing the floor would need to be rated accordingly, but not the rest of the shaft. I'm pretty sure this makes sense, but I don't see any code language that would explicitly say this is right. Thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe  Assuming a jurisdiction requires sprinkler pipe to be bonded to the building grounding system, would a sprinkler system fed from a fire pump be considered bonded since it is attached to the pump which is already grounded?
Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe As an AHJ, I would like to ask what other AHJ's enforce for sprinklers in R-3 Occupancies when home health or Boarding Care businesses open facilities in single-family homes?
Please explain your reasoning as well as thresholds like 5 or more, etc. We're evaluating what our requirements and/or enforcement should be. Thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe Existing High Rise that was converted from office to residential (large Massachusetts program). I am the third party reviewer and they currently don't have a elevator recall.
Google searches point to that if the elevator doesn't change they don't need add recall, but for the "Trust but Verify" portion of this code investigation is turning up naught. Closest I can find is IEBC, Section 902.1.2 commentary, but as this is a change of occupancy I am not sure if I can apply Level 3 Alterations Requirements to Change in Occupancy. Is there an applicable code or standard reference that requires retrofit of elevator recall for an elevator that doesn't already have this capability? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe When does a Community Room trigger the need to use NFPA 13 as opposed to NFPA 13R? If the first floor of a 3-story apartment building is a meeting room, does the building, or perhaps the first floor need to meet NFPA 13?  Thanks in advance.
Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe I have a mixed-use building, retail ~6250 square feet on the ground floor with residential occupancy on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The building is a mix of wood construction with bar joists, with a ceiling attached to the bottom chord of the bar joist.
These bar joists have the bottom and top chords made of wood with 1" steel tubing to create the open bar joist. My question concerns 2016 NFPA 13, Section 8.15.1.2.4. Can I classify these open hybrid joists as noncombustible bar joists? The ceiling is flat without access to the space. The ceiling assembly between the retail and the 2nd floor residential is 1-hour rated. The big question is, can we use the exception 8.15.1.2.4 and not provide sprinklers in the space above the ceiling? If not, I was told that if the ceiling assembly was two hours that the sprinklers in the concealed space can be eliminated. I haven't been able to find this in the NYS Building and Fire Codes. Thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe My question is about small assembly occupancies and the total area of accessory occupancies per floor, with the 2021 IBC being the governing code. A small assembly occupancy can be considered part of the overall building occupancy if it is less than 750 sq ft and is accessory to that other occupancy (Section 303.1.2(2)).
My confusion comes when applying 508.2.3, which says that aggregate accessory occupancies cannot exceed 10% of the floor area. Is the small assembly occupancy still considered accessory, or is it part of the overall occupancy? Two scenarios have come up recently with multiple architects having differing interpretations. Assume the main occupancy is R-2. 1) Multiple small assembly occupancies scattered throughout the floor, that when added together, make up more than 10% of the floor area. Is the 10% in aggregate or is it per small assembly occupancy? One line of thought is that 303.1.2(2) is applied to each small assembly occupancy, meaning that they're all considered R-2. 2) A small assembly occupancy that is less than 10% of the floor area, but other accessory occupancies (storage for example) push the total accessory area over 10%. Does the small assembly occupancy not contribute to the 10% since it's considered part of the overall occupancy? Or does the small assembly occupancy + the storage occupancy need to be under 10%? Thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe We have a project where there is one large building that has many different activities throughout. There is also a trailer that is not connected to the building by walkway or anything except some plumbing for what I believe is a restroom.
This trailer is maybe 2-4 feet away from the larger main building, and the activity being done in the area closest to this trailer is woodworking/carpentry. I am trying to determine how the trailer should be classified to determine the requirements for a fire alarm system. I have gone back and forth between NFPA 101 and the IBC, but I am either overthinking or underthinking the scenario. I would just like to ensure I understand the criteria correctly because these two buildings do not share exit access or an exit, but may share an exit discharge. Would it be correct to classify the trailer as an existing business occupancy and look at Chapter 39 of NFPA 101? If I arrive there and look at Section 39.3.4.1, it appears that the three criteria listed there, which the trailer would not meet, result in a fire alarm system not being required. This does not sound correct but I could not piece together why. A ny help would be much appreciated! Thanks! Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe For an apartment building (highrise), we have a situation here where a child with autism is has intense panic whenever there’s a fire alarm, including false alarms and testing.
We are planning to disconnect the smoke detector sounders from their flat and let the sounders from the common area notify them in case of a fire scenario. Is this allowed by code? Would it be allowed if permitted by AHJ? Would NFPA 72 or 101 address this specifically, or are there means of alternative approaches for a situation like this? Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe For a wet sprinkler system in a single-story building with only one room, is it necessary to install a zone control valve?
An inspector's test valve has been installed at the farthest point. Thanks in advance. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe In California (and other states), are diesel fire pumps subject to emissions requirements, or are they exempt?
Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe |
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