I’m at the BHMA meetings this week in Salt Lake City, Utah, and my hotel room has a view of this nearby rooftop area, which gave me the idea for today’s post. Let’s say the facility manager came to you looking for suggestions on how to secure the area, preventing people from entering the building from the rooftop while the business is closed. There are currently two exit doors leading from the rooftop into the building – can those doors be secured to prevent access to the interior of the building? If yes, what are the requirements? What kind of locks would you use? What are the other considerations? The Utah State Building Code is based on the 2024 International Building Code.
WWYD?
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Yes, I’m cheating but several times when I’ve submitted questions to AI chatbots, they’ll reference your articles. If they can, why can’t I? Refer to a Decoded article from 06/30/2025 titled Egress From Exterior Spaces. No need to repeat it here. Mic drop.
Electronic access control to re-entry from roof side and/or delayed re-entry based on code.
Authorized access and egress only.
Seems to me the doors are roof access for purposes of building system maintenance not exit access because the roof would be a poor exit access because of no lighting, snow exposure to the elements.Maybe there is more to this than is evident
Every hospital building I am familiar with had roof access, either by stairwell or roof hatch. They write always locked because people under great stress may chose the roof for suicide.
See IBC 2021 and 2024 1010.2.4.8 Locks and Latches. There are six point to be meet 8.1 through 8.6 for exterior spaces.