Dade County Building Code (1935)

1935-Miami-Dade-Building-Code_p225_244

Properties1
description1935 Miami-Dade code sections on masonry walls, fire safety, and structural construction.

4 min read

This document contains Sections 2903–3303 of the 1935-miami-dade-building-code, detailing requirements for wall construction, fire safety, floors, roofs, and exits.

Masonry and Wall Construction

The code specifies thickness and structural requirements for various wall types:

  • Solid Masonry Walls: Thickness depends on height and building group; solid masonry exterior bearing walls may be of lesser thickness if constructed as specified (p. 225). Non-bearing masonry walls must meet minimum thicknesses in Table 3 (p. 225). Walls in Groups H and I buildings under three stories require structural columns and tie-beams (p. 225).
  • Hollow Walls: Walls of hollow clay tile, concrete block, or hollow brick must be supported laterally at intervals not exceeding 16 feet (p. 226). Air spaces combined with cellular space cannot exceed 45% of the gross cross-sectional area (p. 227). Thickness requirements are detailed in Table 4, with a minimum of 12 inches for the uppermost 25 feet (p. 227). This aligns with hollow-wall-construction.
  • Reinforced Concrete Walls: Minimum thickness is 1/25 of the unsupported height for bearing walls (p. 228). Maximum allowable compressive stress is when unsupported height is 25 times thickness (p. 229). Minimum thicknesses are provided in Tables 5 and 6 (p. 229-230). This relates to reinforced-concrete-wall-design.
  • Stone Walls: Rubble stone walls must be 4 inches thicker than solid brick walls of similar height, never less than 16 inches (p. 230).
  • Veneered Walls: Veneering materials (stone, terra cotta, brick, etc.) have specific minimum thicknesses (p. 231). glass-veneer must be at least 11/32” thick, with max section areas of 10 sq ft (below 15’) or 6 sq ft (above 15’) (p. 232).

Structural Details

  • Bonds: Solid unit masonry walls require a header course every sixth course (p. 225). Hollow masonry units must have full bond (p. 228).
  • Piers: Unsupported height of isolated piers shall not exceed 10 times their least dimensions (p. 225). Hollow tile piers must be filled with grout and reinforced (p. 228).
  • Chases and Recesses: No chases in walls 12 inches or less thick; chases cannot exceed 1/3 wall depth (p. 226). Aggregate area of recesses/chases in one story cannot exceed 1/4 of the wall face area (p. 226).

Fire Safety

  • Fire Walls: Solid masonry fire walls must be at least 12 inches thick (8 inches for reinforced concrete) (p. 234). Hollow masonry fire walls are prohibited in fire-zones No. 1 and must be at least 16 inches thick (p. 235). This is part of fire-wall-construction.
  • Parapet Walls: Required on most buildings except low-rise Group H/I or specific street-fronting cases; must project 18 inches above roof (p. 235).
  • Vertical Openings: Stairways and ramps must be enclosed with 2-hour fire-resistive-construction-requirements (p. 238). Elevator enclosures require 1-hour fire-resistive construction (p. 239). These are vertical-opening-enclosure standards.

Floor and Roof Construction

  • Floors: Concrete rib slab floors must be at least 2.5 inches thick (p. 240). Steel joisted floors require fire-resistive-construction-requirements ceilings in Type I/II buildings (p. 240). Public toilet floors must be impervious (p. 241). This falls under floor-construction-standards.
  • Roofs: Must be tied into framework (p. 242). Precast concrete roof slabs must be at least 2 inches thick (p. 242). Access to attics/roofs requires scuttles or ladders (p. 242-243). Roof drainage requires metal downspouts connected to storm sewers (p. 243). This is covered by roof-construction-standards.

Stairs and Exits

  • Stairways must sustain a live load of 100 psf (p. 244). Tread variations and riser heights are strictly regulated (p. 244). Half the required stairways must continue to the roof in buildings three stories or more (p. 244). This relates to egress-and-exit-standards. smokeproof-towers may be substituted for stairways where required (p. 243).

Entities

Graph View

Backlinks