International Building Code and Deadbolts
Are deadbolts allowed?YES! When used with an INDICATOR: The International Building Code (IBC) states “except as specifically permitted by this section, egress doors shall be readily openable from the egress side without the use of a key or special knowledge or effort.” Double cylinder deadbolts provide security, but the deadbolt alone does not meet code. However, the IBC has an exception that allows the use of deadbolts when they are used in conjunction with an indicator and signage.
International Building Code (IBC) Requirements
- IBC 2003 & 2006: 1008.1.8.3 Locks and latches
- IBC 2009 & 2012: 1008.1.9.3 Locks and latches
- 2014 Oregon Structural Specialty Code (OSSC): Based on 2012 IBC
- IBC 2015: 1010.1.9.3 Lock and latches
- IBC 2018: 1010.1.9.4 Lock and latches
- IBC 2021: 1010.2.4 Lock and latches
Locks and latches. Locks and latches shall be permitted to prevent operation of doors where any of the following exists:
1. Places of detention or restraint.
2. In buildings in occupancy Group A having an occupant load of 300 or less. Groups B, F, M and S, and in places of religious worship, the main exterior door or doors are permitted to be equipped with key-operated locking devices from the egress side provided:
2.1 The locking device is readily distinguishable as locked;
2.2 A readily visible durable sign is posted on the egress side on or adjacent to the door stating:
2003-2012 IBC: THIS DOOR TO REMAIN UNLOCKED WHEN BUILDING IS OCCUPIED.
2015, 2018 & 2021 IBC: THIS DOOR TO REMAIN UNLOCKED WHEN THIS SPACE IS OCCUPIED.
The sign shall be in letters 1 inch (25 mm) high on a contrasting background; and
2.3 The use of the key-operated locking device is revocable by the building official.
*Your local Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) always has the final say in code compliance.
Check List to have a Deadbolt and Meet Code
-
Must be the main exterior door or doors. Other doors must be approved by the AHJ.
-
Must have and Occupancy load of 300 or less.
-
Occupancy group must be one of the following:
- Assembly (A) - Occupant Load of 300 or less.
Group A-1: Occupancy includes assembly uses, usually with fixed seating, inteded for production and viewing of performing arts or motion pictures. Includes but is not limited to:
- Motion picture theaters
- Symphony and conceart halls
- Television and radio studios with audience seating
- Theaters
Group A-2: Occupancy includes assembly uses intended for food and/or drink consuption. Includes but is not limited to:
- Banquet Halls
- Casinos (gaming area)
- Nightclubs
- Restaurants, caferias and similar dining facilites (including associated commercial kitchens)
Group A-3: Occupancy includes assembly uses intended for worship, recreation or amusement and other assembly uses not classified in elsewhere in Group A. Includes but is not limited to:
- Amusement arcades
- Art galleries
- Bowling allies
- Community halls
- Courtrooms
- Dance halls (that do not have food or drink consumption)
- Exhibition halls
- Funeral parlors
- Greenhouses
- Gymnasiums (that do not have spectator seating)
- Indoor swiming pools (that do not have spectator seating)
- Lecture halls
- Libraries
- Museums
- Places of religious worship
- Pool and billiard parlors
- Waiting areas in trasportation terminals (i.e. bus stations)
Group A-4: Occupancy includes assembly uses intended for viewing of indoor sporting events and activies with spectator seating. Includes but is not limited to:
- Arenas
- Skating rinks
- Swimming pools
- Tennis courts
Group A-5: Occupancy includes assembly uses intended for the participation in or the viewing of outdoor activities. Includes but is not limited to:
- Amusement park structures
- Bleachers
- Grandstands
- Stadiums
- Business (B)
Group B: Occupancy includes amoung others, the use of a building or structure, or a portion therof, for offices, professional or service-type transactions, including storage of records and accounts. Business occupancies shall include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Airport traffic control towers
- Ambulatory care facilities
- Animal hospitals, kennels, and pounds
- Banks
- Barber and beauty shops
- Car washes
- Civic adminstration
- Clinc and outpatient facilities
- Dry cleaning and laundies: pick-up and delivery stations and self-service
- Education occupancies for students above 12 grade including universities, collages, higher education labratories
- Electronic data processing
- Food processing establishments and commercial kitchens not associated with restaurants, cafeterias and simlar dining facilies not more than 2,500 square feet in area
- Laboratories: testing and research
- Motor vehical showrooms
- Post offices
- Print shops
- Professional services (i.e. architects, attorneys, dentists, physicians, engineers, etc.)
- Radio and television stations
- Telephone exchanges
- Tranining and skill development not in a school or academic program (this shall include, but not limited to, tutoring centers, martial arts studios, gymnastics and similar uses regardless of the ages served, and where not classified as Group A occupancy)
- Factory (F)
Group F: Occupancy includes amoung others, the use of a building or structure, or a portion therof, for assembling, disassembling, fabricating, finishing, manufacturing, packaging, repair or processing opertaions that are not classified as a Group H (Hazardous) or S (Storage) occupancy.
Group F-1: Moderate-hazard factory industrial. Factory industrial uses that are not classified as Factory Industrial (F-2 see below). Includes but are not limited to, the following:
- Aircraft manufacturing, not to include repair – must comply with section 412.6 of 2021 IBC.
- Appliances
- Athletic equipment
- Automobiles and other motor vehicles
- Bakeries
- Beverages: over 16% alcohol content
- Bicycles
- Boats
- Brooms and brushes
- Business machines
- Cameras and photo equipment
- Canvas or similar fabric
- Carpet and rugs (incuding cleaning of)
- Clothing
- Constructiona and agrigultural machinery
- Disifectants
- Dry cleaing and dyeing
- Electric generation plants
- Electronics
- Enery Storage Systems in dedicated use buildings
- Engines (Including the rebuilding of engines)
- Food processing establishments and commercial kitchens not associated with restaurants, cafeterias and similar dining facilities MORE THAN 2,500 square feet in area.
- Furniture
- Hemp products
- Jute products
- Laundries
- Leather products
- Machinery
- Metals
- Millwork (windows, doors, trim)
- Motion pictures and television filming (without spectators. See A occupancy with specators)
- Musical instruments
- Optical goods
- Paper mills or paper products
- Photographic film
- Plastic products
- Printing or publishing
- Recreational vehicals
- Refuse incineration
- Shoes
- Soaps and detergents
- Textiles
- Tobacco and tobacco products
- Trailers
- Water and sewer treatment facilities
- Wood; distillation
- Woodworking (cabinets and other)
Group F-2: Low-hazard factory industrial. Factory industrial uses that involve the fabrication or manufacturing of noncombustible materials that during finishing, packaging or processing do not involve a significant fire hazard. Includes but are not limited to, the following:
- Beverages: 16% alcohol content or less
- Brick and masonry
- Ceramic products
- Foundries
- Glass products
- Gypsum
- Ice
- Metal Products, both fabrication and assembly
- Mercantile (M)
Group M: Occupancy includes, among others, the use of a building or structure or a portion thereof for the display and sale of merchandise, and involves stocking of goods and wares. Includes but are not limited to, the following:
- Department stores
- Drug stores
- Markets
- Motor fuel-dispensing facilities – Must comply with Section 406.7 of 2021 IBC.
- Retail or wholesale stores
- Sales rooms
- Storage (S)
Group S: Occupancy includes, among others, the use of a building or structure or a portion thereof for storage that is not classified as hazardous.
Group S-1: Buildings occupied for storage uses that are not classified as a Group S-2 occupancy. A Group S-1 occupancy is also known as a moderate-hazard storage occupancy. Includes but are not limited to, the following:
- Aerosal products, Level 2 and 3
- Aircraft hangar (storage and repair) Bags:cloth,burlap and paper Bamboos and rattan
- Baskets
- Belting:canvas and leather
- Beverages over 16-percent alcohol content
- Books and paper in rolls or packs
- Boots and shoes
- Buttons, including cloth covered, pearl or bone
- Carbiard abd cardboard boxes
- Clothing, woolen wearing apparel
- Cordage
- Dry boat storage (indoors)
- Furniture
- Furs
- Glues, mucilage, pastes and sizing
- Grains
- Horns and combs, other than celluloid
- Leather
- Linoleum
- Lumber
- Moter vehicle repair garages complying with the maximum allowable quanities of hazardous material. See section 406.8 of the 2021 IBC
- Photo engravings
- Resilient flooring
- Self-service storage facilities (mini-storage)
- Silks
- Soaps
- Sugar
- Bulk storage of Tires
- Tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, and snuff
- Upholstery and mattresses
- Wax candles
- Aircraft Hangers – must comply with Section 412.3 of the 2021 IBC
- Motor vehicle repair garages – must comply with Section 406.8 of the 2021 IBC
Group S-2: include, among others, buildings used for the storage of noncombustible materials such as products on wood pallets or in paper cartons with or without single thickness divisions; or in paper wrappings. Such products are permitted to have a negligible amount of plastic trim, such as knobs, handles or film wrapping. Includes but are not limited to, the following:
- Asbestos
- Beverages up to and including 16% alcohol
- Cement in bags
- Chalk and cryons
- Dairy prducts in nonwaxed coated paper containers
- Dry cell batteries
- Electric coils
- Electrical motors
- Empty cans
- Food Products
- Foods in noncombustible containers
- Fresh fruits and vegetables in nonplatic trays or containers
- Frozen foods
- Glass
- Glass bottles, empty or filled ith noncombustible liquids
- Gypsum board (aka sheetrock)
- Inert pigments
- Ivory
- Meats
- Metal cabinets
- Metal desks with plastic tops and trim
- Metal parts
- Metals
- Mirrors
- Oil-filled and other types of distribution transformers
- Procelain and pottery
- Stoves
- Talc and soapstones
- Washers and dryers
- Public parking garages, open or enclosed. Shall comply with Section 406.4 – 406.6 of the 2021 IBC
- Other occupancies must be approved by your local Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ).
-
The locking Device must be key-operated from the egress side (aka the inside of the building). Thumbturns must be approved by your AHJ.
-
The locking device has to have an indicator that clearly shows locked or open.
-
There must be a sign posted on the egress side frame head or adjacent to the door with the proper terminology for your jurisdiction.
-
The AHJ has the final say.
Who is my Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ)?
The Authority Having Jurisdiction, also known as the AHJ, is the term used for an organization or individual who is given the responsibility to enforce codes and standards set down or approved by a local or state governing body. When it comes to egress, the exiting of a space or building, and the use of a deadbolt on a door, the AHJ will most likely be your local or state building department and/or Fire Department life safety inspector. If your project involves new construction, your building department will be the AHJ. If you have an existing building or business, then your AHJ will be your fire department. If you are in the senior care industry, some states have a separate AHJ just for these facilities.
IBC Adoption by State: as of August 2022
|
2021 IBC |
SD |
|
2018 IBC |
AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, HA, MD, MT, NE, NJ, ND, NV, NY, PR, SC, VA, WA, US VIRGIN ISLANDS, UT, WY |
| 2015 IBC | AL, CT, ID, IA, KY, LA, ME, MA, MI, MS, NH, NM, NYM NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, VT, WV, WI |
| 2012 IBC | AK, DC IN, MN OR, TN |
| 2009 IBC | GU, NOTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS |
| 2003 IBC | TX |
| VARIES BY COUNTY IN STATE | AZ, DE, IL, KS, MO, NV |
For more detailed information CLICK HERE
Note: Click on each state in the spreadsheet for complete state data
Contact your local AHJ to confirm your local requirements.
Have the SECURITY of a
DEADBOLT
and be CODE COMPLIANT
The patented Egress Deadbolt Indicator (EDI) is bring the security of a deadbolt back and allowing them to be code compliant . The EDI working in conjunction with a Schlage or Falcon commercial deadbolt lock provides a clear indication of the status of the deadbolt. Since the EDI fits into the standard 2-1/8″ cylindrical deadbolt prep, installation is easy. Add the EDI to a door with an existing deadbolt prep or easily add the most common prep to the door. Install the EDI with the correct deadbolt, add the signage and you are code compliant.
