A typical situation in provincial NZ: Two storey building, small plan footprint (say 150m2) , one internal stair with no inter-floor separation around the stairwell. Cannot use intermediate floor solution.
Need to make each storey a separate firecell which means building a wall around the stair at one of the storeys.
But is a safe path necessary if the DEOP from the upper storey down the stairs to the final exit at the ground storey is compliant? I.e. one open path.
Hi Tim
Will depend very much on whether it is a domestic dwelling, a transitional living type house, or a resthome with mobile but dependent occupants upstairs.
Sorry, it is a commercial office situation.
Tim
An open path continuation down a stair is commonly used provided there is no meaningful fire load at the bottom of the stair. If there is, or can have, a fire load at the base of the stair then that would make the upper level an intermediate floor.
the general premise of C/AS2 is that each floor is a fire separation with no openings other than for closures such as door sets, refer paragraphs 4.5.2, 4.5.3
Thanks gentlemen, that is perfectly sorted. Really appreciate the help.