BEFORE THE ARCHITECT – HOME DESIGNING BACKGROUND – HOME DESIGNING ARTICLES
Home elevator fire safety
By Before The Architect Copyright 2005-2008 Before The Architect
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HOME ELEVATOR FIRE (a/k/a home lift) SAFETY HOME DESIGN GUIDELINES:
Sure did surprise Before The Architect: Home elevators seem to be installed without a shred of fire safety code to be had across the fruited plain far as this ol boy can tell so far. (Now, there is a U. S. elevator code in the form of ASME A17.1 Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators, which addresses essential safety concerns, e.g., access, switching, guardrails, and such – but not home fire safety.)
An elevator shaft, or hoistway, could make a swell chimney, and double the peril by holding within the cab those who could be the most physically vulnerable folks in the home.
Much codified ado is made of home fire-blocking, but nothing specific about fire safety that the author can reckon in regard to the potentially airflow-permissive [read: smoke and flame flow-permissive] elevator shaft. (Fire safety regarding vertical shaft enclosures gets some considered attention, e.g., IBC 2000 707.1ff, but not “…for openings totally within an individual dwelling unit and connecting four stories or less." IBC 2000, 707.2, Exception 1.)
In regard to home elevators, what’s at stake here is fire-degraded wood stud walls and wood ceiling joists collapsing within a hoistway, or shaft, engaging cab and contents, including human contents, in smoke and fire.
Home Elevator (a/k/a home lift) Fire Safety Guidelines
 | A home elevator shaft, or hoistway
|
NOTE: Remember to
adjust the elevator system's manufacturer's shaft framing dimensions to
accommodate thicker interior clad; advise the elevator system manufacturer (and
your local Fire Marshal) of your specific intentions in regard to home fire
safety methods and materials early-on.
| The shaft ceiling
| ||||||||||||
| Shall be enclosed by not less than 1 door at each stop, which door
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| Within the cab, outside the door at each stop, a smoke detector
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| Within the cab, there shall be not less than 1 dry-chemical,
portable fire extinguisher rated not less than 2A:10B:C mounted at 3'-6"
above finish floor level to carrying handle. | ||||||||||||
| At each stop, a hallway or other space to which there is direct access from the cab shall have passage within line of sight at two linear feet outside the cab door on-center to not less than two means of egress, not more than one of which means may be an emergency egress window. |
Please note that an electrical box attached to steel frame shall be metal and grounded to Code.
In sum, the steel’s there to break down more slowly when engaged, to wrack and sag but not to cinders and ash; the tight sealing is intended to counter smoke intrusion; the extra layers of Type-X are there to better hold its form and hold flames from you on your travel through the hoistway.
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