Historic Buildings: In 1966, the U.S. Department of the Interior was assigned the responsibility of ensuring historic buildings were preserved under the National Historic Preservation Act. The legislation required each state to establish a historical building preservation office. As a result of this act, many communities also enacted their own local historic building preservation laws.

Historic buildings generally must be maintained in their original condition. Historic buildings may lack fire safety features normally required for new buildings having the same occupancy classification. These buildings also may not comply with means of egress requirements because they were constructed prior to the development of fire and life safety design regulations in model codes and standards.

Click to continue reading more on this excerpt from the Building Code Basics: Fire, Based on the 2009 IFC.

The Building Code Basics series based on the 2009 International Building, Residential and Fire Codes explains requirements using non-code language to help you understand the material or explain it to others. Technically accurate and easy to understand, these are the perfect resources for builders, owners, students, plan reviewers, inspectors and permit technicians.

Each book contains:

• 150-plus color diagrams and photos that help readers visualize correct code application.
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• a glossary of code and construction terms to clarify key terminology as it applies to the code.