ARCH 465 Fire Safety
Reading due week 6, Oct. 2, 2006

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Read Chapter 7, Sections 701 - 710, IBC. Answer the following questions:

1. Section 702:

  1. What is the difference between a "draftstop," "fireblocking," and a "membrane-penetration firestop"?
  2. What is the difference between a "fire damper," a "smoke damper," and a "combination fire/smoke damper"?
2. Section 703:
  1. Is it possible for a wall to have a different resistance to fire on its two sides; if so, how is its rating determined?
3. Section 704:
  1. Under what conditions can a new building on the same lot as an existing building be considered as portions of one building?
  2. What distance separates exterior walls that need to be fire-rated on both sides from exterior walls that only need to be fire-rated from the inside?
  3. Under what circumstances are unprotected openings permitted in exterior walls that are between 3 and 5 feet from a property line (examine footnotes to Table 704.8 and section 704.8.1)?
4. Section 705:
  1. What is the essential difference between a party wall and a fire wall with respect to openings?
5. Section 706 and 708:
  1. What is the essential difference between a fire barrier and a fire partition with respect to continuity (that is, which of the two wall-types must extend from floor to ceiling/roof assembly)?
6. Section 709 and 710:
  1. What is the essential difference between a smoke barrier and a smoke partition with respect to fire-resistance rating?

A relatively new edition of the International Building Code is online. Follow these steps to gain access (Cornell netID required):
  • Go to the Cornell Library Catalog and type MADCAD in the search field, set for "title."
  • Click on the link, "Connect to full text" under electronic access.
  • Click on the button to login to madcad.
  • Click on IBC 2003 at the top of the left-hand menu bar, and then immediately below on "contents."
  • From this point, you're on your own...

Last Updated: 8 September 2006
© 2006 J. Ochshorn. All rights reserved.