6 unit codes may kill the deal

[John Matthew Johnston]

I am used to dealing with 2-4 units and mostly single houses. My friend acquired a property and has asked for my help with the renovation. It’s a 6 unit 3 story building. I believe it’s around 6000 square feet and basically needed gutted. It’s located in Pennsylvania. They had to have an architect walk the property and the list came back with some codes that look very costly like sprinkler systems and 2 hour fire ratings in all shafts and vertical spaces. I’ve attached a list guidelines in the comments from the architect. Looking into any insight on ways around some of these or any information at all. Thanks BP

[Chris Seveney]

Quote from @John Matthew Johnston:

@John Matthew Johnston

The building will be evaluated as a single R-2 Occupancy - Apartment

• All new work will need to be in compliance with the Energy Compliance Code

• All new work will need to be in compliance with the 2018 IBC/IEBC unless the work is started after July 15, 2025. After that date, the work will need to be performed in compliance with the 2021 IBC/IEBC.

• The area per floor is within code requirements.

• The number of floors is within code requirements.

• The building height should be within code requirements.

• All vertical shafts in the building have to have a 2-hour fire rating.

• The building will need to be equipped with an automatic sprinkler system. A 13R system is acceptable.

• The apartments must be separated from each other and from the hallway by a ½ hour fire separation. The sprinkler system reduces the fire separation from 1-hour to ½ hour.

• The current code requires an STC rating of 50 for Lab Tested Systems and 45 for Field Tested Systems for walls and floor/ceiling assemblies for apartments. This will need to be verified on site.

• A monitored fire alarm system is required.

• No steps are permitted at any of the exterior exit doors.

• Exit doors from the corridors to the exterior of the building must swing outward in the direction of travel.

• Exit doors must be a minimum of 36 " wide.

• Exit doors must have panic style hardware so they cannot be locked from the inside and they must have lever handles on the exterior for accessibility purposes

• Apartment doors must be 36" wide, they must be fire rated in a metal frame and they can swing into the apartments

• Apartment doors must have lever handle hardware

• One commonly shared exit corridor/stair from the second floor meets code

• Emergency lighting is required in the exit paths

• Stairs must be a minimum of 36" wide and must have handrails on both sides.

• Stair handrails must be at code required heights and must extend 1'-0" beyond the top and bottom riser of the stair.

• Stair walls must be 1-hour fire rated construction.

• No storage is allowed in the stair.

• No storage is allowed under the stair unless the underside of the stair is fire rated

• All doors that open into the stair must be fire rated except any door that opens from the stair to the exterior

• At least one window in every bed room must, when open, have a clear opening of 5.7 square feet at the second floor and 5.0 square feet at the first floor. The minimum opening height is 24" and the minimum opening width is 20". The window sill cannot exceed 44" from the finished floor level

• There needs to be a

• All apartments and hallways must have interconnected smoke detectors

• One of the first floor apartments must be designed as a Type "B" accessible unit and must be on an accessible path

• Accessible parking will be required for the building

The mechanical/electrical components of the building will need to be evaluated by an engineer to determine if modifications or upgrades will be required.

An onsite review of the building may bring up additional issues beyond those mentioned in

 This is all very common building code requirements when doing multifamily. This is one reason why I see so many people fail when they go from a single unit into multifamily (because they think they can just slap some lipstick on the pig and rent the units), but there is a lot more that goes into it, like the sprinkler system, adequate fire alarm system, properly sized stairwells. For the STC ratings and 1/2 fire rating those are easy as that is just drywall, but between units you may have to use 1/2" drywall or install two layers on one side. type b units are HC accessible so bathrooms have to have specific swing radius for the vanity (its oversized not a standard bathroom)...

You will need a legit architect to design all of this for you