"Hoistway Fire Rating and Machine Room Enclosure" is lesson 3 of 4 in the Elevator (C-11) Learning Hub. It opens with "A Hoistway Is a Shaft Enclosure" and works through 5 short steps, then a worked example you can check yourself against.
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The worked example in the course applies this lesson to a realistic job in 5 steps, moving through "Count stories connected", "Shaft rating", "Cars per hoistway", and "Machine room".
The 2025 California Building Code (CBC) 3002.1 and 713.14 say that where an elevator hoistway must be enclosed, it is built as a shaft enclosure under Section 713. A shaft enclosure is a fire barrier or horizontal assembly, made of materials permitted by the type of construction (713.2, 713.3).
CBC 713.4 requires a fire-resistance rating of not less than 2 hours where the shaft connects four stories or more, and not less than 1 hour where it connects less than four stories. The count includes basements but not mezzanines. The shaft must also be rated not less than the floor assembly it penetrates, but need not exceed 2 hours.
Table 716.1(2) gives the minimum fire door assembly rating for enclosures for shafts: 1 1/2 hours in a 2-hour wall and 1 hour in a 1-hour wall, with a vision panel of 100 square inches maximum. Section 707.6 normally limits openings in a fire barrier to 25 percent of the wall length and 156 square feet each, but Exception 6 lifts both limits for elevator car entrances protected by a fire door assembly in a hoistway enclosure.
The remaining 2 steps, the worked example and the quiz are in the course. This is a preview. The full lesson, with the step-by-step explanations, a worked example and a quick-check quiz, is inside the classroom.
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