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PAQE: Life Safety, Accessibility, and Code Compliance

PAQE · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Life Safety, Accessibility, and Code Compliance

This is the domain where drawings get checked against numbers. The exam tests whether you can classify a building, compute occupant load, size egress, locate exits, and apply accessibility dimensions without hesitation.

Core rules

  • Classify first. Occupancy group (A, B, E, F, H, I, M, R, S, U) and construction type (I–V, subdivided A/B) set allowable height, area, and fire resistance. Structural frame ratings: Type IA = 3 hour, IB = 2 hour, IIA = 1 hour, IIB and VB unprotected, IIIA and VA = 1 hour.
  • Occupant load = area ÷ load factor: business 150 gross, classroom 20 net, assembly unconcentrated 15 net, mercantile 60 gross, storage 300 gross.
  • Egress capacity = occupants × factor: 0.2 in. per occupant on level components and 0.3 in. in stairs when sprinklered; 0.3 and 0.4 when not sprinklered. Minimums still apply: 32 in. clear at a door, 36 in. corridor, 44 in. where the corridor serves 50 or more.
  • Exits and travel. Two exits are generally required above 49 occupants, separated by at least half the diagonal of the space. Business travel distance is 200 ft unsprinklered and 300 ft sprinklered; common path of travel 75 ft; dead ends generally 20 ft, with limited sprinklered exceptions.
  • Accessibility: 36 in. accessible route, 32 in. door clear width, 60 in. turning space, ramps at 1:12 maximum with 30 in. rise per run and level landings, reach range 15–48 in., grab bars 33–36 in., and accessible parking beginning at one space per 25.

Worked example

An 8,000 SF business tenant on one floor: 8,000 ÷ 150 = 54 occupants. Egress width required = 54 × 0.2 = 10.8 in. - far below the 32 in. clear door minimum, so the door size governs, not the calculation. Because the load exceeds 49, two exits are required, and each must be reached within 200 ft in an unsprinklered building. If the tenant is a single-egress suite, sprinklering plus a second remote exit becomes the design driver, not the door width.

Traps

  • Applying stair capacity factors to corridors, or vice versa.
  • Measuring clear width to the door frame rather than the clear opening at 90 degrees.
  • Forgetting that mezzanines, storage, and unoccupied mechanical rooms still have occupant loads.
  • Ignoring egress from accessible routes that dead-end, or treating ramps as exempt from landings.