Space Planning - CH 2 (Life Safety/Egress

Question 1

What is an assembly occupancy?

Answer 1

High density project types involving lots of people. Examples theaters, nightclubs, restaurants

Question 2

What are business occupancies?

Answer 2

Office projects, often in high-rise office buildings; requiring a challenging situation evacuating hundreds of people from the building in case of emergency.

Question 3

What are mercantile occupancies?

Answer 3

Retail projects

Question 4

What are the number of doors required in a business, mercantile, or assembly building that’s one story, doesn’t exceed 50 occupants and 75’ of travel distance to an exit?

Answer 4

1 exit door

Question 5

When is it still acceptable for 2-story business or mercantile occupancy buildings to still have a single exit?

Answer 5

If the occupant load doesn’t exceed 30 and the travel distance does not exceed 75 feet

Question 6

In what situation can tenant spaces in all 3 types of buildings still have only one exit?

Answer 6

When the occupant load is 50 or less.

Question 7

Floors or suites in a multistory building with an occupant load up to 500 require a minimum of how many exits?

Answer 7

2

Question 8

Floors or suits with occupant loads between 500 and 1000 require a minimum of how many exits?

Answer 8

3

Question 9

Floors and suits exceeding 1,000 occupants require how many exits?

Answer 9

At least 4

Question 10

How is the swing of egress doors determined in a building based on occupancy?

Answer 10

Those serving occupant loads of 50 or more must swing in the direction of travel (usually outward).
Individual office doors can swing in . It’s usually only the main doors of the suite that have to swing out in to the public corridor

Question 11

What is the minimum clear opening and width of door for egress doors?

Answer 11

32” and 36”

Question 12

How wide are egress corridors required to be?

Answer 12

44”

Question 13

What’s the maximum projection of a door from a vestibule into the corridor?

Answer 13

7”

Question 14

In what case can a door swing completely into the corridor?

Answer 14

If there is still at least half the required corridor width around the door.(22”)

Question 15

In an apartment or suite, how is the distance between the two required exits determined?

Answer 15

Equal to 1/2 of the distance from the farthest part of the room to the exit. Or, in the case of a sprinklered suite, 1/3 the distance.

Question 16

What are the two important objectives when designing corridor systems in relation to life safety?

Answer 16

1) ensuring the occupants promptly reach a point where they have a choice of two egress directions;
2) avoiding conditions in which there are long corridors that do not lead to an exit, causing occupants to have to turn back and lose valuable time during an emergency situation caused by fire.

Question 17

What two concepts are used in the codes that address these two safety objectives?

Answer 17

1) Common path of travel - distance occupants have to travel when exiting before they reach a point where they have a choice of two ways to go. Codes set limits to keep that distance as short as possible, which vary from occupancy to occupancy. (For business occupancies, max is 75’ or 100’ if sprinklered.
2) . Dead end corridor - limitations determined by the code. Most are limited to 20’, but can be up to 50’ if sprinklered.