Question of the Day
I am going to start a "Question of the Day" series to ask one question each day, to see if our ARE candidates can answer it correctly. Other are welcome to post in this thread too.
Here is the first Question of the Day:
Does a fire riser room need to be fire rated?
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Google says " Neither the NFPA nor the ICC (International Code Council) requires that a proper riser room be provided for a fire sprinkler system's risers," however although I am finding lots of information about the location and size of the room, I am not finding much information about the enclosure structure. I think the answer could be "it depends on Local codes, both Fire and Building". I am using UpCodes Chapter 7 and have not found anything yet.
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Sprinkler pipes do not require rated protection and no rating is required on the riser room.
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Great! I am glad it was helpful.
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Why 12'-0" is a magic number for floor to floor height?
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Orkun,
Yes, this is part of the IBC requirements:
1009.6 Vertical Rise
A flight of stairs shall not have a vertical rise greater than 12 feet (3658 mm) between floor levels or landings, except that the vertical rise shall not be greater than 8 feet (2438 mm) in Group A and I occupancies.
Avoiding an intermediate landing can be a major saving, especially for apartment or condo, or prototype buildings that have some basic designs that are used again and again.
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Does an electric room need to be fire rated or accessible?
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Correct, electrical rooms do not need to be fire rated or accessible.
Can you give the specific code section that requires exit access and panic hardware if above or below a particular voltage?
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Chapter 10 of the ICC has 1010.1.10 has specific mention of: But personally I was going to answer that the room DID need to be fire rated because that seemed logical to me but I have never been able to find information to support my deduction. Electricity - hazardous - fire spread. That was my logic but I guess that is why I better keep studying...
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https://www.nfpa.org/Codes-and-Standards/All-Codes-and-Standards/Free-access
Yep I registered and have read only access.
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Should an architect show spot elevations of building entrances and corners on an architectural site plan? Why?
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Should you still show these spot elevations if civil grading plans already show grading information?
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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What is the maximum travel distance to toilets in covered and open mall buildings? How about other buildings?
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Gabriel,
For the purpose of ARE, your answer is correct. The reason is that everything should only be shown once on a set of construction documents. This way, if something changes, you only need to change it once and you avoid the possibility of conflicts.
Besides getting an architect license, I think it is more important for us to be come a better architect. Here are some information to help you to achieve your goal if you are interested:
To do or not to do, I have heard both sides of arguments, and based on past experience, I think sometimes some redundancies are necessary. In this case, showing these spot elevations probably will have more benefits that not showing them:
- In the early stages of the project, the grading plans are very rough and lack details. Based on reviewing the general grades around the building, an architect can show these spot elevations (grades) to use them as a tool to tell the civil engineers what s/he wants to see around the building. It is a very effective communication tool to coordinate with the civil engineer.
- These grades are connecting points to tie a building to its context.
- As a project progress, a civil engineer probably will change the grades a few times. If you show these grades, you will notice the differences between what the civil engineer shows and what you show on the site plan right away, the conflicts are clearly shown on the plans. You want that. If you do not show these grades, it is harder for you to notice these changes made by the civil engineer.
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Good. Here comes the next one:
Does an elevator machine room need to be fire rated or accessible?
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Do you mean the actual elevator or elevator machine room? The actual elevator needs to be fire rated and accessible per 3008. Elevator machine rooms for solid-state elevator controls are to have an independent ventilation or air conditioning system to protect against overheating of control equipment.
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Section 3005 indicates that machine room access needs to have an "approved means of access" but does not anywhere indicate that it needs to be accessible, assuming that in this case 'accessible' refers to ADA requirements.
Fire barriers are required for machine rooms, the ratings of which need to meet or exceed that of the hoistway. What that rating is depends heavily on context / adjacencies.
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Gabriel,
Good catch! My typo. I meant to ask if an elevator machine room needs to be rated. You have not answer this question yet.
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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Hadar,
Yes, in this case 'accessible' refers to ADA requirements.
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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What is the maximum length of a dead end corridor?
Gang Chen, Author, AIA, LEED AP BD+C (GreenExamEducation.com)
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