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January 16, 2008
Fire rating and means of egress
Is it necessary to provide a means of egress plan therefore providing fire rated walls and doors on stairways and common areas for a renovation with no change of units?
Comments
How many units in the building? Is the work taking place entirely within the unit, or is the work taking place in the egress path too?
Posted by: Smokychimp at January 17, 2008 9:04 AM
Renovations that are not ordinary repairs require filing with the building department.
Posted by: guest at January 17, 2008 10:50 AM
How many units in the building? If it's 3 or more, the requirements are different.
Posted by: guest at January 17, 2008 12:37 PM
OP here. There are 2 units in the building. The work is taking place in both units.
We are enclosing a stairway and placing a door there. This stairway is the means of access to the basement from the upper duplex unit.
Does that door and walls need to be fire rated?
Posted by: casabella at January 17, 2008 3:51 PM
Someone may correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe that in a 2-family it does not need to be fire rated. It's when you are 3-family or higher that you need to deal with those issues. For most purposes, the DoB treats a 2-family like a single family for code issues.
Posted by: guest at January 17, 2008 8:25 PM
That is correct, the door and stair wouldn't need to be fire rated in that case.
Posted by: Smokychimp at January 20, 2008 2:33 PM
Thanks for the advise. I have been researching the NYC Building Code with no luck. Would you be so kind as to point out the section where this is explained in the NYC Code? Thanks again.
Posted by: casabella at January 29, 2008 9:39 PM
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