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Manufactured wood stairs in commercial.

Manufactured wood stairs in commercial.

Manufactured wood stairs in commercial.

(OP)
I have a 4' wide staircase to a basement in a building to be built with hollowcore planks for first floor.  Original plan called for precast stairs, but owner now wants to build in wood.  Local stair manufacturer says they have a commercial grade stair, but doesn't provide certification or calcs to back it up. From my internet searches, seems to be a common situation.  The max span in my case is about 9' horizontal.

Anyone ever seen calcs for a straight, pre-built wood staircase? for 100psf? I don't want to reinvent the wheel if i don't have to.

RE: Manufactured wood stairs in commercial.

Check to ensure that wood stairs meet the building type and requirement.  Sometimes they need to be non-combustible.  You should be able to do the calcs in a few minutes though, just get the material specs and details from the provider.

RE: Manufactured wood stairs in commercial.

IBC and NFPA-101 require stairs to be non-combustable.  Residential (one & two family dwelling) stairs can be wood.

RE: Manufactured wood stairs in commercial.

Bagman,

Are you sure?  We have designed 3 and 4 story timber framed condos.  IBC didn't require non-combustible stairs.

RE: Manufactured wood stairs in commercial.

I always thought that the stair material had to jail with the building type.  I.E: if the building type was combustible and egress was designed that way, the stairs could be as well.  We need an architect....(did I just say that out loud?)

RE: Manufactured wood stairs in commercial.

(OP)
At this point, the architect is signing off on the change to wood.  I know with steel, the design is often spec'd to the manufacturer/detailer.  In this case (pre-built wood stairs), one manufacturer says they don't do that.  

The architect doesn't want me to whip out my calc pad and design and detail new stairs, just to spec a wood staircase.  I was investigating the likelyhood of actually getting a staircase that can be provided as spec'd, like steel.

Looks like that's not likely.  Thanks.

RE: Manufactured wood stairs in commercial.

I stand corrected.  IBC-2006 section 1009.5 all stairways shall be built of materials consistent with the type of building construction.  Building Types I & II are non-combustable.  Types III & IV are a mixture of combustable and non-combustable and Type V can be all combustable.

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