Smoke detectors in new portion of basement.

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Mr.Sparkle

Mr.Sparkle

Senior Member
Location
Jersey Shore
Anyone know if I need to add an additional SD in the new basement portion under the new addition in a house, there is an existing finished basement in which I will add a new Combo unit at the bottom of the stairs, but there will be a door between the existing finished basement and the new unfinished one, it does not show one in there on the print but I am not quite sure of the actual code seeing how I loaned my copy of NFPA 72 to a friend.
 
raider1

raider1

Senior Member
Staff member
Location
Logan, Utah
Is there a bedroom in the new portion of the basement?

The building codes contain the requirement for placement of smoke alarms, so you would be best off to contact your local building department.

Chris
 
Greg Swartz

Greg Swartz

Senior Member
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado
In Colorado...

In Colorado...

In Colorado Springs...
We just ran into this this week...

Not only did we need to add a smoke to the new bedroom, and outside it... the entire house required a complete smoke retrofit.
The rest of the house didn't have any smokes. They do now!

We had to bring all the smoke stuff up to code, as well as the new bedroom had to all be up to code.
(Except the FPE panel... I can't AFCI the bedroom! :rolleyes:... but it's got new smokes!)

Oh, that was required by the local AHJ.
Nothing about it in the NFPA-72.
 
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ceb58

ceb58

Senior Member
Location
Raeford, NC
I have been made to put one in a large storage/mech. room in a basement. The inspector's reasoning was it was a usable room. I am just glad he caught it on rough in. No big deal to add and charge for
 
R

Riograndeelectric

Senior Member
Location
Lakewood Colorado
Greg Swartz said:
In Colorado Springs...
We just ran into this this week...

Not only did we need to add a smoke to the new bedroom, and outside it... the entire house required a complete smoke retrofit.
The rest of the house didn't have any smokes. They do now!

We had to bring all the smoke stuff up to code, as well as the new bedroom had to all be up to code.
(Except the FPE panel... I can't AFCI the bedroom! :rolleyes:... but it's got new smokes!)

Oh, that was required by the local AHJ.
Nothing about it in the NFPA-72.
Click to expand...


this comes from the 2003 IRC code.(EB)R313.1.1
"when interior alterations,repairs, or additions requiring a permit occur, or when one or more sleeping rooms are added or created in existing dwellings, The individual dwelling unit shall provided with smoke alarms located as required for new dwellings; the smoke alarms shall be interconnected and hard wired

Exceptions: not required if alterations or repairs do not result in removal of wall or ceiling finishes exposing the structure unless there is attic, crawl space or Basement
most of the Denver metro area jurisdictions are enforcing this enforcing this.
 
Greg Swartz

Greg Swartz

Senior Member
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Riograndeelectric said:
this comes from the 2003 IRC code.(EB)R313.1.1
"when interior alterations,repairs, or additions requiring a permit occur, or when one or more sleeping rooms are added or created in existing dwellings, The individual dwelling unit shall provided with smoke alarms located as required for new dwellings; the smoke alarms shall be interconnected and hard wired

Exceptions: not required if alterations or repairs do not result in removal of wall or ceiling finishes exposing the structure unless there is attic, crawl space or Basement
most of the Denver metro area jurisdictions are enforcing this enforcing this.
Click to expand...

That is freaking awesome!
The stamp that was on the set of plans had the IRC quote on it!
That is EXACTLY what it said.
Now... it did not have the exception, which I did know about.
And the inspector did not have a problem, when we put battery smokes on the main level of the house.

Thank you for that quote...

By the way, does Denver RBD require you to have ground clips / screws on plastic outlet boxes? PPRBD does...
 
R

Riograndeelectric

Senior Member
Location
Lakewood Colorado
Greg Swartz said:
That is freaking awesome!
The stamp that was on the set of plans had the IRC quote on it!
That is EXACTLY what it said.
Now... it did not have the exception, which I did know about.
And the inspector did not have a problem, when we put battery smokes on the main level of the house.

Thank you for that quote...

By the way, does Denver RBD require you to have ground clips / screws on plastic outlet boxes? PPRBD does...
Click to expand...


this does not make sense. why would you have to put ground clips or screw on plastic boxes?

am I missing something here?

if you look in the back of the IRC it also has an electricla code section taken from the NEC.
 
R

Riograndeelectric

Senior Member
Location
Lakewood Colorado
Riograndeelectric said:
this does not make sense. why would you have to put ground clips or screw on plastic boxes?

am I missing something here?

if you look in the back of the IRC it also has an electricla code section taken from the NEC.
Click to expand...


how was it that they let you slide with out Arc fault Breakers?
I undesrstand you can not get AFCI for fpe panel but here in denver that would not fly. either install sub panle or change out service to accomodate Arc Faults
 
Greg Swartz

Greg Swartz

Senior Member
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Riograndeelectric said:
how was it that they let you slide with out Arc fault Breakers?
I undesrstand you can not get AFCI for fpe panel but here in denver that would not fly. either install sub panle or change out service to accomodate Arc Faults
Click to expand...

I talked to a very important person in the RBD (to be held nameless...) and he stated that he will not require us to install a new panel.

One of the jobs just finaled today. Another is due tomorrow...
On old panels MWBCs = No AFCI... mainly because there are no MWBC breakers.
On FPE... no AFCI period.
 
R

Riograndeelectric

Senior Member
Location
Lakewood Colorado
Greg that is pretty interesting. I had a rehab project on some condo's a couple of years ago. the units all had Zinsco breakers and MWBC. Inspector made us either replace the panels or install sub panels with Arc fault breakers . he did not care about the fact they were Zinsco panels and MWBC he said we had to install Arc Faults for the bedrooms Job was on 2005 code.
Most of the inspectors here will require use of Arc Faults.
we wound up replacing all of the panels

sounds like the inspector was very Nice to you on this Job
 
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