Fire access routes must meet the following criteria.
Attic hatch fire requirements.
Since the staircase to the attic can act as a chimney for the fire to quickly spread it s necessary to have a secondary point of egress or exit.
Attic area exceeds 30 square feet and.
Any drywall edges on both the hatch and the surrounding area exposed to physical damage should be protected.
Attics are the worst place to be in a fire because heat and fire rise rapidly.
Minimum vertical height of 30 inches measured from the top of the ceiling framing members to the bottom of the roof framing members.
The florida building code fbc and international residential code irc both require a minimum of one attic access opening for homes with combustible such as wood roof construction if the attic space meets these two criteria.
Solutions for the new code requirements r 42 attic access hatch exceeds all code requirements 22x30 pre finished white wood frame trim e zh t h triple gasketed air tight seal z hatch mark d.
In most codes this means an opening not fixed window to the outside.
Missing or opened covers should be called out as should covers made from flammable materials such as thin plywood.
An insulated fire rated door carries a temperature rise rating that uninsulated ones don t have.
It is for this reason that for safety and durability fire rated access door ceiling application requires an insulated product.
They must have a width of at least six metres they must have overhead clearance of at least five metres they must have a climate resistant surface like concrete or asphalt.