How to Prepare for Your Residential Building's LSE inspection

1.  Carefully Review Your Building’s Life Safety Evaluation (LSE) Report
The report contains upgrades to your life safety systems that are required pass the final LSE inspection.

These upgrades will be different for every building, depending on the report your building submitted to the City. They may include but are not limited to: installing a one-way/two way voice communication system, providing one hour fire doors for stair openings, fire-stopping and sealing of holes, penetrations or missing areas in stair enclosures, adding smoke detectors to corridors and units, repairing emergency lighting.

PLEASE NOTE: A building will not pass the final LSE Inspection unless all of the required upgrades contained in a building’s LSE report are completed at the time of the inspection. The Department of Buildings recommends buildings review their LSE reports with a design professional as well as have a design professional pre-inspect in order to verify the completion of the required upgrades. Buildings should only schedule a final LSE Inspection when certain that all of the required Life Safety Upgrades are in place and functioning properly.

2.    Carefully Review Key Life Safety Areas and Components In Your Building
City Inspectors will inspect and spot test key life safety areas and components of your building. These components must be installed and functioning properly in order to pass the LSE inspection. These areas and components include:

• Rated fire doors and rated door frames

Rated fire doors and door frames for stair enclosures, fire escapes, and doors between “mixed use” separations (ie: entrances from a building into a parking garage or adjacent commercial space) must be in place, undamaged and without holes or ventilation grills (“louvers”). Rated fire doors and rated door frames must have their fire rating labels visible and free of paint or other coverings, have their self-closing devices intact and functional, be readily operable, and fully close and latch. Additionally, any vision panels/windows must be compliant with the Chicago Fire Code.

PLEASE NOTE: Laundry-room doors must also have an automatic door closure and be closed at all times.

• Stairwell door-locking hardware

Door-locking hardware in stairwells must meet the requirements of The Stairwell Door Re-entry Ordinance (Code Section 13-196-084).

Occupants using the enclosed fire /exit stairs must be able to leave the stair and re-enter a public corridor

For stairwells that are connected to dwelling unit doors open into an exit stair.  The door hardware for an individual unit shall require that the door opening into a stair may only be locked from the stair side (which would allow the occupant to re-enter the unit with their key in an emergency).

• Required exit doors

Required exit doors must be operable in the direction of egress without the use of keys, tools, unusual strength or special knowledge. Security devices or locks that are not approved by the Chicago Building Code and/or ones that make exiting difficult or impossible must be permanently removed.

• Self-closing corridor dwelling unit doors

Individual dwelling unit doors that lead into building corridors must be equipped with door self-closing devices. City inspectors will spot-check these corridor doors to verify that the corridor doors self-close and latch when released from an open position.

Battery type smoke detectors
Battery-operated smoke detectors located in public spaces, such as corridors, lobbies, or stairs, will be spot tested. They must be operable and should sound a tone when the “test” button is pushed.

PLEASE NOTE: Smoke detectors that are hardwired and part of a fire alarm or elevator re-call system will not be spot tested by the Department of Buildings.

• Open holes

Holes that lead into a building’s exit stair enclosures or trash chutes, as well as penetration holes made by piping or conduit into stair enclosures, must be sealed and fire-stopped.  Proper fire-stopping materials, such as fire-rated caulk with mineral wool back-up, must be used.

For exit stairs that are in a “scissor” formation, the standpipe and holes around the standpipe must be fire-stopped on each stair landing.

PLEASE NOTE: Holes and penetrations made through walls or floors that separate mixed-use spaces must also be sealed and fire-stopped with proper fire-stopping materials. Fire-ratings for various separation between mixed-used spaces are as follows:

• Firewall between a parking garage and the residential portion of a building: 4-hour required fire rating

• Fire separation between dwelling units in the residential portion of a building: 1-hour required fire rating

• Fire separation between walls and floors of residential portion of a building and a commercial space like a retail store or office: 1-hour fire rating

• Fire separation between walls and floors of a residential portion of a building and a commercial space like a restaurant: 1-hour or 2-hour fire rating, depending on the size of the restaurant.

• Obstructions on enclosed exit stairs

Any obstructions or potential obstacles to exiting, such as furniture, stored items, storage racks, shelving or other built-in obstructions, must be permanently removed from enclosed exit stairs.

• Obstructions on fire escape stairs and landings

Any obstructions or potential obstacles to exiting, such as air-conditioning units, furniture, grills, or flowerpots, must be permanently removed from the fire escape egress path. Additionally, the moveable portion of a fire escape, usually the bottom ladder, must be functional and able to land; it must not be obstructed by items such as parked cars or trash containers.

• Fire-escape stairs

Fire-escape stairs must be maintained in good structural repair and condition.

• Battery-pack operated emergency lights

Emergency battery pack lights will be tested by City inspectors to ensure that the lights come on when the test button is pushed.  

• Illuminated “Exit” and “Stair” signs

Illuminated “exit” and “stair” signs in corridors must be intact and functional. Additionally, the lettering must be readable.

• Garbage Chute Doors

Garbage chute doors must fully close and latch. Every trash chute, as well as the trash room for a building, must be equipped with fire sprinklers.

PLEASE NOTE: If a building’s garbage chutes are abandoned, the garbage chute doors must be permanently closed and sealed shut.  

• Stair Signage

Every entrance to a stairwell must be labeled by geographical location both in the corridor floor landing and in the stairwell.

PLEASE NOTE: Entrances to the stairwells of “scissor” type staircases should be differentiated by indicating “A” and “B” stairs, not by geographical location. A colored stripe or graphic may also be used to differentiate each individual stair in “scissor” type staircases.

Technical questions pertaining to LSE Inspections may be e-mailed to:
DOBLSE@cityofchicago.org.