I am hoping somebody can answer these questions on a commercial building:
Does there need to be any seperation in the attic area between suites, i.e., drywall?
Can the breaker panel be located in the bathroom?

Yes. Unless ...

Each suite which has a separate tenant *should be* separated by at least a 1 hour fire rated wall assembly, and said wall should go from the structural floor to the structural ceiling or roof above.

Unless ...

The ceiling itself is a 1 hour fire rated assembly, same with the walls and the floor - i.e., if the suite is in its own little fire rated assembly "box", then, no, it would not be necessary. But finding something like that fire rated box would be highly unlikely.

Yep. The prohibition for overcurrent devices being in bathrooms applies to " In dwelling units and guest rooms of hotels and motels," only.

Obviously, not the wisest place to locate the panel as one may need to access the breakers while the restroom is in use ... creating an unnecessary delay in shutting power off to the problem circuit or equipment ... but ... 'it is allowed'.

I would write it up as 'not the smartest thing to do, apparently done by someone whose *light was one but no one was home* '.

Also, that bathroom would be a handicapped accessible bathroom and you would not want the 'clear floor space' for the required working space to also be 'the clear floor space' required for a wheelchair. No need to complicate matters even worse than they already would be during an emergency.

__________________
Jerry Peck, Construction / Litigation Consultant
Construction Litigation Consultants, LLC ( www.ConstructionLitigationConsultants.com )
EastWestData (www.EastWestData.com )

Jerry,

Draftsopping the attic space could still be required with your scenario.

Suppose each tenant space was its own protected box. If each space was not fully sprinkled, then the attic would have to be draftstopped to no more than 3000 sf of open area.

Fritz,

It depends on the use of the building as Jerry said. Is it multiple tenants or single use with staff office suites? If it requires an egress corridor which does not have a 1-hr ceiling as Jerry described, then the rated wall assemblies would have to go clear to the underside of the roof deck.

Without further detail, I presume as Jerry did that the 'suites' are separate tenant lease spaces.

*Might* still be required. *Might not*. I was assuming the 'might not' size, but I should have stated so. The draftstopping in that scenario (greater than 3,000 sf), though, would not be required as you stated, because the question asked "Does there need to be any separation in the attic area between suites, i.e., drywall?", and, in 'separate boxes', with an attic space over 3,000 sf, the draftstopping would only be required where it would need to be located to cut off that space into 3000 sf area. I.e., you could have a 4 tenant, 6500 sf, single story, office building, constructed with 'separated boxes' for each suite, and the two draftstopping walls could be located at the 1/3 points, i.e., *not* over the tenant walls. Or, the draftstopping walls in the attic 'could be' over two of the tenant fire partitions.

The location of the draftstopping walls in the attic would more likely be related to the truss layout than the tenant layout as the trusses is what the draftstopping walls would be attached to.

In fact, the tenant walls could go north-south and the draftstopping walls could go east-west, provided the tenant spaces were their own little 'fire rated boxes'.

Most likely, in a *new* commercial building, the tenant walls will go from floor to roof, and be "fire partitions" all the way.

Then, after a few tenants have come and gone and the office building interior reconfigured to account for new tenant requirements, the large suites will have been subdivided into smaller suites, and the smaller suites combined into larger suites, with those alterations having been re-altered, all with no particular attention paid to "fire partitions" - other than cutting through them to create doors.

Fritz,

It depends on the use of the building as Jerry said. Is it multiple tenants or single use with staff office suites? If it requires an egress corridor which does not have a 1-hr ceiling as Jerry described, then the rated wall assemblies would have to go clear to the underside of the roof deck.

Without further detail, I presume as Jerry did that the 'suites' are separate tenant lease spaces.[/quote]

__________________
Jerry Peck, Construction / Litigation Consultant
Construction Litigation Consultants, LLC ( www.ConstructionLitigationConsultants.com )
EastWestData (www.EastWestData.com )