Soffit Protection

[EXALLSPANIAN]

Hi.

We are presently constructing a 9 unit aparment building with a common roof area over more than 2 units. The national building code of Canada states that for fire protection of the soffits you must not have any openings in the soffit within 4' of a window or door opening.
Now this poses a serious problem for us, because we have doors and windows along the front and back of the building within 7'(or less) of each other. So, this wouldn't allow us any soffit vents at all on the front or rear of the apartment building.(Totally cutting off any intake ventilation we would have for the attic space, which I might add is supposed to be pretty important to disperse moisture in the attic space)
The only suggestion the Department of Environment building code co-ordinator could come up with was to install roof vents about 3' back from the fascia. We do not want to do this for aesthetic reasons.
SO, I was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions for this?
I have thought that it might be possible to get a soffit vent with a fire damper in it, which would meet the code requirement, but have not found anything as of yet.

Any input would be appreciated,
Thanks in Advance,

Troy Sabean

[Rich]

That's for exterior soffits? I would think with fire blocking at the tops / midspans of walls would account for that. Anyway, I don't have much knowledge of Canadian code so I shouldn't comment further on that.
And as far as another suggestion - none as I've never ran into that issue. Maybe Grumpy will have an idea when he comes by.

[mjpliv]

Rich, I just saw this old topic. The reason for the code requirement is to slow any fire from spreading into the attic space through the soffits in the event an nearby opening fails to contain the fire to the unit (window glass explodes or someone exits and the door remains open behind them).

The Canadian code for this scenario is quite specific (9.10.12.5) in stating that the soffits "shall have no unprotected openings......" if they are within a certain distance from a window or door. You can make an opening "protected" using a fusable link damper of some sort approved for that purpose. The common fix for the problem, as the building inspector mentioned in this case, is to add a decorative gable set back far enough up the slope to meet codes requirement or adding low profile hood type vents at the appropriate distance from the soffit.

[grumpydasmurf]

I've seen mushroom vents installed 3' back from the overhang, which is fine if you want ice backup coming in those vents. Muchroom vents are engineered to be exhaust and are very poor intake.

I've never seen a fire dampening soffit vent. They might exist, but I have not seen them.

What about fascia vents? WOuld those count? There are some that would be shielded by the gutter. I am not a fan of these but it beats mushroom vents as intake and it beats no intake at all.

The other option is if your home has a gable style roof, install gable vents.

[mjpliv]

We actually use a low profile hood that is an effective way to introduce air to the attic space close to the facia. Venting the facia won't fly because its still too close to the door and window openings.

Clearence requirements are 2.5 Meters (8 feet) vertically above a window or door and 1.2 meters (4 feet) on either side of that opening.