Masonry Magazine November 2005 Page. 20
BUILDING CODES
(NIST), a series of proposals for changes was defeated that would have reduced the required level of fire protection for closely spaced houses.
Redefining crawl spaces
For residential houses that incorporate crawl spaces, a proposed revision would have redefined such crawl spaces as an independent story.
Recognizing the impact this change would have on the existing IRC requirements, the building code officials denied this change.
Fire Safety Changes to the IBC
* Hose stream application for fire walls
Although the vote was close, the industry sponsored code revision that would have required three- and four-hour fire walls to be tested using the original fire endurance test specimen was not adopted. NCMA has long argued that greater wall integrity is needed in certain applications and that the hose stream test is a good method of measuring that integrity. While the Fire Safety Committee agreed with NCMA and MACS that fire walls in critical applications require more robustness, the building officials voted to overturn the committee recommendations and leave the code unchanged in this regard.
Some of the arguments used in the testimony include:
* This issue should be debated within ASTM and not within the building code. ASTM does not distinguish between the testing of the original wall and a duplicate wall, so why should the building code.
* The proponents of this code change have not provided substantiation that hardened walls will provide more protection.
* The current use of the hose stream has been in place since 1927 and has served the building community well.
* The building official will be saddled with trying to determine compliance with different wall systems. Current resource documents do not provide information that will allow building officials to see which wall systems were tested with original and duplicate specimens, thus requiring them to labor through actual test reports to decipher the method of testing.
While the masonry industry refuted these objections and argued the merits of the change and the need for more protection, the proposed change was defeated. However, the fact that the Fire Safety Committee supported the change provides another stepping stone on which to build. Success in building codes is achieved by relentless pursuit of appropriate provisions and the masonry industry has already begun strategies for how to reintroduce the topic in the next cycle.
* Fire protected columns
In certain applications, the IBC permitted the reduction of the fire resistance requirements for loadbearing columns. Under a newly adopted code amendment, this reduction will no longer be permitted.