fire/smoke damper for bathroom exhaust

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raider1

Senior Member
Staff member
Location
Logan, Utah
Raider,
The answer is no, the venting goes directly from the bathroom to an adjacent exterior wall.

Is the bathfan itself located in the ceiling?

The only reason that I ask is this is an issue with apartment complexes where the ceiling is fire rated to protect the apartment above. If the fan is located in the rated ceiling there is a penetration of the ceiling membrane that must be protected.

What I have seen done to fix this is the fan being located in a dropped ceiling below that actual rated ceiling.

Chris
 

mgookin

Senior Member
Location
Fort Myers, FL
Is the bathfan itself located in the ceiling?

The only reason that I ask is this is an issue with apartment complexes where the ceiling is fire rated to protect the apartment above. If the fan is located in the rated ceiling there is a penetration of the ceiling membrane that must be protected.

What I have seen done to fix this is the fan being located in a dropped ceiling below that actual rated ceiling.

Chris

The ceiling can (might) still be rated even if it's attic space above in which case a damper is still required.

OP needs to find out if it's a rated ceiling, and if so, what that rating is (in hours).
 

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
Is the bathfan itself located in the ceiling?

The only reason that I ask is this is an issue with apartment complexes where the ceiling is fire rated to protect the apartment above. If the fan is located in the rated ceiling there is a penetration of the ceiling membrane that must be protected.

What I have seen done to fix this is the fan being located in a dropped ceiling below that actual rated ceiling.

Chris
Putting the fan in the dropped ceiling area only helps if the duct then goes out the wall(s) or up a fire rated chase and not up to the roof through the fire barrier.
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Putting the fan in the dropped ceiling area only helps if the duct then goes out the wall(s) or up a fire rated chase and not up to the roof through the fire barrier.

Please see post #23 for the answer to that question.
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Yup. A fan in the structural ceiling could not, by definition, exit directly to the wall. This situation came up in the first place in regard to going through the unit above to the roof.

Are you talking about the current case or some other instance?
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
That's only in residential, you have different restrictions in commercial which is where this is located, but he also did not give us all of the particulars.

No. The IBC is for commercial as well. The IRC is for residential only.
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Right and depending on the occupancy you may well be required to have 60' side yards for a commercial building.

Sure, but that's a matter for the zoning ordinance. As far as the IBC is concerned you can have unlimited unprotected openings if your separation is 30 feet or greater.
 

cowboyjwc

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Simi Valley, CA
Sure, but that's a matter for the zoning ordinance. As far as the IBC is concerned you can have unlimited unprotected openings if your separation is 30 feet or greater.

If, but he hasn't told us what the actual conditions are or why he's being required to install a damper. So most of us are trying to answer a question that we don't even really know.
 

seth207

Member
Location
Maine
I ran into this issue recently in an apartment building. If you are installing a Panasonic unit they make a nice dampener adapter that fits many models.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
 
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