Smoke alarms — fire + life safety: code vs good practice

Code: each bedroom + outside + each floor. Good practice: meet code.

Alarms — fire + life safety: code vs good practice

Code: hardwired, interconnected, battery backup. Good practice: meet code.

Code: with fuel appliances or attached garage. Good practice: meet code.

Code: 3 ft. Good practice: more.

Code: no specific requirement. Good practice: every 10 yrs.

Code: no specific requirement. Good practice: each floor + kitchen.

Systems · Chapter 27

Alarms, separation and a way out save lives. Most of these rules are minimums for good reason; exceeding them is cheap.

IRC R314 smoke alarmsIRC R315 CO alarmsIRC R302 fire separationIRC R313 sprinklers (often amended)NFPA 72 / NFPA 10

27.1

Alarms are the cheapest life-safety device in the house. Location matters as much as quantity.

One goes off, they all go off.

The rest of Fire + life safety: 1 more spread, 6 drawings and 7 code citations, plus every other chapter, is part of the full fieldbook.

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