appartment buildings

[Marc M]

Hey Jerry,
Do The codes in the CRC apply to appartment buildings?

[Jerry Peck - Codeman]

No, the Building Code would be the applicable code.

With apartment buildings, the building is one structure, each apartment is only the space within the rented space.

[Marc M]

This is what I found, so I was a little confused. Its basically an article that says what is under the jurisdiction of the CRC.

So in multi fam, the interior is under the jusrisdiction of CRC and exterior is CBC?

There is a new California Residential Code applicable to detach one & two family dwellings. This regulation will be covering all structural conventional construction and non-structural related designs of dwelling construction.

1 The International Residential Code with particular amendments has been adopted as the new residential code. Residential construction will be subject to significant changes.

2 This code will be covering all requirements for Multi-family residential projects.

3 Disable access requirements for multi-family contains small changes, refer to CBC chapter 11A.

4 One of the most impact changes is that new residential construction will be required to have fire sprinklers. (Sec. R313.2)

5 Townhouses up to three stories height are regulated in the Residential Code.


CRC:
1.1.3.1.1 Residential Group R. Residential Group R
includes, among others, the use of a building or structure,
or a portion thereof, for sleeping purposes when not
classified as an Institutional Group I. Residential occupancies
shall include the following:
R-3 Residential occupancies where the occupants are
primarily permanent in nature and not classified as
Group R-1, R-2, R-2.1, R-3.1, R-4 or I, including:
Buildings that do not contain more than two dwelling
units.
Townhouses not more than three stories above
grade in height with a separate means of egress.
Adult facilities that provide accommodations for
six or fewer persons of any age for less than
24-hours. Licensing categories that may use this
classification include, but are not limited to:
Adult Day Programs.

[Jerry Peck - Codeman]

Do The codes in the CRC apply to appartment buildings?

5 Townhouses up to three stories height are regulated in the Residential Code.

You first asked about "apartment" buildings, your reference is about "townhouses" - "apartment" buildings and "condominium" buildings are one and the same (except in "condos" one 'owns' the space which one would 'rent' in an "apartment" building). The same construction applies to 'condos' and 'apartments' as the condo building is one common owned building (owned by the condo association) whereas the apartment building is one common owned building (owned by the owner of the apartment building).

Townhouses, on the other hand, are considered to be each their own structure and building, except that instead of having space between the townhouse units, the townhouse units are attached at one or two sides (such as a row of townhomes is attached at the common wall between units and only the two end units have end walls which are not attached to another units). With townhouses, the property under the townhouse is owned along with the townhouse building itself being owned - you will never find one townhouse over/under another townhouse. Whereas with apartments the the ground under the building and the building itself are owned by the owner of the apartment and the apartment occupant only rents the 'air space' within the confines of the walls of their apartment (while a condo owner owns the 'air space' within the confines of the walls of their condo unit) - apartments and condos may well be one over/under another apartment/condo as the building is one building, not separate buildings like for a townhouse building.

Think of it this way: stack a series of cardboard boxes on the ground next to one another - those cardboard boxes represent townhomes and the owner of each townhome owns the land their box sets on plus their box, up to the wall of the box next to it (think of the two cardboard box walls as being one common wall which is divided in the center and one half of the common wall is owned by one owner while the other half of the common wall is owned by the other owner); now stack cardboard boxes on top of one another - these cardboard boxes represent apartments/condos in that the owner/tenant does not own/rent any of the structure, they just own/rent the space within their box, whether their box is on the first floor or the tenth floor.

When a townhome burns, the fire-resistance wall between two townhomes is intended to allow the one townhome to burn to the ground while the townhome adjacent to it remains structurally intact and standing.

When an apartment/condo burns, there is no real fire-resistance wall between any of the units, there is a fire-partition between the units which tries to keep the fire contained so as to limit the damage to the common structure and to give each of the occupants time to safely escape, yet the single common structure will suffer the fire damage.

Not sure if the above helps clear up the difference between apartments/condos and townhouses/townhomes or muddies it up?

You could have four story townhouses, and if you did then the Building Code, not the Residential Code, would apply to their construction as the Residential Code only applies to townhouses which are three-stories or less.

[Marc M]

Excellent example, puts it into perfect perspective.
So now my question is, all of the components within these boxes are installed to meet the standards of whatever individual AHJ i.e., UPC, UMC, NEC etc...yes? So therefore not the IRC...
So then the building structure is under the jurisdiction of the CBC...
I get it.

[Jerry Peck - Codeman]

So now my question is, all of the components within these boxes are installed to meet the standards of whatever individual AHJ i.e., UPC, UMC, NEC etc...yes? So therefore not the IRC...
So then the building structure is under the jurisdiction of the CBC...
I get it.

Correct.

The building is covered by the CBC, which may or may not include other separate codes as part of it, such as the NEC would address the electrical aspects in conjunction with any electrical requirements within the CBC.

The same would apply to the mechanical code - all requirements in the adopted mechanical code as well as any included in the CBC. Same goes for the plumbing and fuel gas codes, etc.

A typical example would be the International Codes:
- IBC (International Building Code)
- IPC (International Plumbing Code)
- IMC (International Mechanical Code)
- IFGC (Internationial Fuel Gas Code)

And any other codes which have also been adopted, such as:
- NFPA 70 (National Electrical Code)
- NFPA 101 (Life Safety Code)
- NFPA 58 (Fuel Gas)
- other like codes - there code be a lot of them which are referenced in the other codes.

Yep, you got it.

Even the IRC, or the CRC for California, includes references to some of the other codes, but that one code also tries to roll in most of the applicable requirements of the other major codes (plumbing, mechanical, fuel gas) into the one Residential Code - electrical being the major code which is excluded and left in the domain of the NEC (NFPA 70).

[Marc M]

great, thanks jerry.
Its funny, I worked in public works construction for years i should have figured this one out.

I appreciate your time.