Place of Assembly

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speedypetey

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Hudson Valley, NY
I have similar dilema to the "Mobile Home" thread from today.
I need to wire a range in a church/school hall. It is a standard residential free standing range.
The building used to be the school, in 189?. It's basically a big room, with a stage and two bathrooms. There has always been a small counter area for serving coffee, etc.. They now want a range at this area.
Is it my responsibility to find out if it is required to be a fire rated area? Even if the building is exisitng and over 100 years old?
Is it possible to have this grandfathered in and to use NM. I just don't want to get a chunk of 8/3MC if I don't have to.
 
Re: Place of Assembly

Oh, it is definitely a place of assembly.

The only thing I wonder is the line in 518.4(B):

"...buildings or portions thereof that are not required to be of fire rated construction".


How is it possible that a building that fits into the "place of assembly" category might not need to be fire rated? The "portions thereof" part I get.
 
Re: Place of Assembly

The section of code speedypetey quoted goes on to say ".... by the applicable building code" That, in my opinion is the part that is most open to interpretation here. Does that mean the current building code if the building were to be built today? Existing buildings are allowed to be maintained in accordance with the building code in effect when they were built (if any) so maybe that is the "applicable" building code. It sounds as if the building had a change in use at some point in time from school (occupancy group E) to church (occupancy group A). Change in use often triggers a requirment to bring the building up to code at the time of change. When did the change take place? Maybe that building code is the "applicable" building code. A talk with the AHJ is most likely in order.
 
Re: Place of Assembly

Under the 2003 IBC a single story church (occupancy A-3) of up to 6,000 sq. ft. could be built with non-rated wood frame construction. For type II-B, which is non-combustible, but non-rated construction, it could be 9,500 sq. ft. Add automatic sprinklers and those areas get multiplied by four. So it is very possible to have a non-rated building that houses a church.
 
Re: Place of Assembly

Just for clarification. The building is a hall, with a stage. Like an assembly hall. It has a small counter area with a refer and sink. Now they want a range.

Eprices' statement is point I was trying to make.

[ September 16, 2004, 08:38 PM: Message edited by: speedypetey ]
 
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