Dealing with difficult building permit official in Oakland, CA

[Sanjay Gupta]

Hi,

We have property which was used as child day care , earlier it was SFR and now we are converting back to SFR

Building official says It has to follow new constructions guidelines which requires to install fire sprinkler. Planning and Zoning said it was given conditional use permit which was already expired so no issues in converting to SFR but building again said that our codes are different and if property is changing different occupancy group so it must follow new construction guidelines. Due to new construction guideline, he has asked us to lot of unnecessary reports like survery, soil report, fire sprinkler plan which costs lots of our time and money but was provided to get us permit.

He is saying this is change in function and it requires new construction code. 

Any idea on how to deal with this issue ?

[Nik Moushon]

@Sanjay Gupta

I'm an architect. So my first advice is to trust your architect. He is the professional you hired to take on this responsibility to find solutions to your problems. Not some random people on the internet. Regardless of what experience we have. Its very insulting to any professional when their clients go behind their back and try to do their job for them. Odds are your architect knows what they are doing and, more importantly, knows how to handle the bs that city officials through around. Having suggestions and bringing up questions is fine. But bring it up to them. Not trying to bash you for asking questions but seriously...thats what you are paying them for. 

Second, change of occupancy does trigger that you need to bring the entire building up to code. This would include any part of the building you are not even touching. This is part of the risk you take when in doing REI and doing your due diligence. As for the 1 hr rated wall its not the fence that is your problem its how close the other house/building is to yours. Its a fire separation code. I dont remember the exact minimum distance off the top of my head. But something to keep in mind is its not the distance from exterior wall to exterior wall. Its the distance between any part of your building. Whats the closest part of two buildings....its usually the eaves. So you need to measure eave to eave AND that distance has to meet the IRC fire separation distance. Its that or you get to add fire sprinklers system in your eaves.

Third, an AMMR is very common, especially when its comes to proposing new materials or methods when it comes to fire safety. There is nothing about building that is more nit picked to death than fire safety codes and issues. The AMMR is usually just a form that requests the architect explain, in writing, a detailed installation and application instructions for the contractors. Masking a installation manual...except the architect takes on the liability (and time) for doing so. Sometimes the manufacturer can provide this. 

Fourth, taking off siding to add one layer a waterproof GWB Type X (you left out the waterproof part...make sure its the GWB that is meant to go on the exterior or you will have mold problems within a year) is really not that much work. By the time you go through the AMMR process (and pay for it) and the cost of a more expensive product am sure it will pretty close to a wash at the end (probably a savings) to go put the GWB on the outside.