# Exterior egress balcony



## Yikes (Jan 18, 2017)

I have a multifamily housing development that (for your purposes of visualizing the MOE) looks like a 5 story "motel".  It has an exterior egress balcony at each level with unit doors and bedroom windows that open onto the balcony.  At either end of the balcony, there is a 5-story stair.  We would like to have stairs that open directly to/from the balcony, with no separation walls or doors.  I'm looking at CBC 1027.6 to justify this.  Questions:

1)  In CBC 1027.6 exc. #2 it says: 
"Separation from the interior of the building is not required where the exterior exit stairway or ramp is served by an exterior exit ramp or balcony that connects two remote exterior exit stairways or other approved exits *with a perimeter that is not less than 50 percent open*."
In the sentence structure above, what does the phrase "with a perimeter that is not less than 50 percent open" apply to: (a) the perimeter of the "exterior ramp or balcony", or (b) the perimeter of the "exterior exit stairways", or (c) the perimeter of "other approved exits"?

2)  Is an exterior egress balcony considered part of the Exit Access?  Or is it part of the Exit, and the unit entry door is the end of the Exit Access?

3)  In case I need to use CBC 1027.6 exc. #3 instead, can I consider the egress balcony to be a type of "open-ended corridor"?


----------



## tbz (Jan 19, 2017)

Yikes,

I would look to see if that is a ICC-IBC wording or a Cal modification first.

Then I would look for the commentary on it 

Seems to have specifics behind it that I think the commentary would go in to


----------



## JBI (Jan 19, 2017)

1) In my opinion, (a) and (b) as there are no commas to separate the sentence. 
2) Part of the exit by definition (see chapter 2)
3) I don't think you need exception 3.
All qualified by tbz's comment above.


----------

