dwell unit Type A and Type B

[zrh2103]

In Accessibility chapter, how do we determine when to design to Dwell Unit Type A requirements or Type B?

[hnQ_9999]

ground floor and elevator
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ScreenShot-045.jpg

[zrh2103]

ground floor and elevator

Your brief answer has nothing to do with the question. please defend your point if i am missing something, otherwise, please don't post to confuse others who view the post.

[MandaKR]

Type A and B units are in the IBC, but not CBC. Is there a reason we'd need to know the IBC? Or are you talking about spec A or spec B unit bathrooms?

[adventurer4hire]

In Accessibility chapter, how do we determine when to design to Dwell Unit Type A requirements or Type B?

http://evstudio.com/type-a-vs-type-b-in-residential-design/
Type A = Multifamily housing. Type B = Public Housing (FHA).

ground floor and elevator

https://jeromymurphy.wordpress.com/2008/08/08/type-a-type-b-spec-a-spec-b/

Type A and B units are in the IBC, but not CBC

I am not sure this is entirely true. Yes CBC does not refer to these spaces as "Type A" or "Type B" but the intent is in there. California broke the chapter up into two parts, 11A and 11B. The first page of Chapter 11A explains it, or attempts to. 11A handles multifamily housing. 11B handles everything else, plus public housing. Then they throw this in: "Newly constructed covered multifamily dwellings, which can also be defined as public housing, shall be subject to the requirements of Chapter 11A and Chapter 11B." HA! If you look at the Matrixes and the Chapter Headings for 11A and 11B it's like they tried to break it up into A & B, then discovered they did a poor job of it, so they threw that statement in there to cover themselves...

defend your point

Where are we, the Thunderdome? j/k. No he did not explain it very well and gave a short Coach-ish response, but give him/her a break. hnQ has been studying really hard for this, and is probably burnt out like the rest of us! Good luck to everyone on exam day!

[MandaKR]

Lots of As and Bs... I'll try to clarify.

In IBC, which is generally the model code for CBC but is NOT the model for chapters 11A or 11B, you have two kind of units:
Type A: Accessible unit. Requirements above and beyond FHA. Only a subset of units are required to be Type A.
Type B: Adaptable unit. Similar to units required by FHA. All remaining units are required to be Type B.

IBC refers to ANSI A117.1 for technical requirements. I'm not an expert on IBC accessibility, but as far as I know Chapter 11 applies to both private and public projects. There are some other scoping details, too.

In CBC, there are two accessibility chapters:
11A: Multi-family housing, privately funded. Roughly similar/comparable to the Fair Housing Act Design Manual.
11B: Public/commercial buildings and public housing. Quite similar to ADA standards, more stringent in a number of ways.

You select which chapter to use based on the project type and whether it's public or private. In a privately funded multi-family housing project where you use 11A for units and common-use (tenant/guest) areas, the areas that are public accommodations (usually the leasing office and parking for the leasing office) are subject to compliance with 11B.

Within the Fair Housing Act Design Manual, there are two types of dwelling unit bathrooms:
Specification A: (Called Option 1 in CBC) If you choose this option, every bathroom in a unit must comply.
Specification B: (Called Option 2 in CBC) If you choose this option, one bathroom must comply and the remainder must still be on an accessible route, have usable doors, have switches/outlets/controls in correct locations, and have reinforcing for future grab bar installation.

Spec B bathrooms have greater access at the tub. It's entirely up the architect and owner to choose Spec A or Spec B.

There is a way you could end up caring about the ICC unit types in California, but it's silly. There are 10 safe harbors you can use to comply with FHA, and you could, in theory, choose one of the editions of ANSI A117.1 or the IBC listed. It's not a particularly good idea, though, and I don't think most folks do that.
http://www.fairhousingfirst.org/faq/safeharbors.html

[hnQ_9999]

Thank you for the great post. I learned a lot from this post.
Q: Perhaps I dived a little much into Opt2 for CSE, but isn't true
to say building elevator and ground floor condition are the thresholds
to define which level and units, areas to be adaptable/accessible ?

[MandaKR]

Yeah, building configuration and whether or not there's an elevator are relevant. Per FHA and CBC, units are "covered", meaning they need to adaptable, if a building has 4 or more units and either has an elevator or has ground floor units. It can get more complicated than that, but that's the basic threshold. So, you can have a development of several duplex buildings and none of those units will be covered even if they're typical privately funded rental units. If you have an 'elevator building', all units are covered, so you can't have an elevator that only goes to the 4th floor and then claim the 5th floor units aren't covered. If you have a multi-story unit, typically the ground floor or the floor served by an elevator is covered. Carriage units are exempt completely.

So, first select your code chapter - private or public housing
Then figure out scoping based on building configuration.
Then select spec A or B for your unit bathrooms.