I posted I Want Top Floor…
It is about living in a high-rise condo. It is one of those “what if” situations. Comments proved that these things rarely even being considered. Not because they are not important, but because buyers do not know about it. And too often agents, who are not condo people and never lived in a high-rise, do not talk about it because of the same reason: they do not know about it.
If I were a boss, I would force agents, who sell condos, to get certified in condos, so that at least they know the issues. The assumption is that there is no difference between selling a house, and selling a condo, can’t be further from the truth.
Coming back to living in a high-rise.
Take fire rescue. In Daytona Beach Shores, where we have the most highrises on a 23 mile stretch of the beach, the longest ladder is 57'. We do not have a single fire engine capable of reaching heights over 7 floors. Even if newer engines could reach higher, they can't reach the top floors of highrise buildings no matter what. And we have 29-story building, and plenty of 20-22-story buildings.
Would it make 7th floor absolutely safe?
It depends.
Many oceanfront condos have underground garages. Well, a fire truck can't get close to the building, it has to stay on the road off the property, as the concrete on top of garage would not hold a truck. So, even if they had the ladders, they can't use them.
If you talk to firefighters, they are not really concerned with newer condominiums built after 2000, as they are built are built to the National Fire Protection Association code, and they have ladders built into the condos – the stairs. They would tell you that stairwells have several safety features, including positive air pressure, standpipes that they hook our hoses directly into and fire-resistant construction materials...
It is great. The problem is that overwhelming majority of our highrises were built well before 2000. And do not have these safety features.
So, fire can be a danger, and whether it is a danger or not depends on the type of corridors. If it is an outside corridor system, you are fine. Just step out of your unit and you are outside. You are pretty safe barring the total collapse of the structure, which is highly unlikely.
But if this is an inside corridor system, you may be out of luck. So, the rule of thumb is that the older you are, the lower you should be, simply because running down from the 20 floor for a younger person would take the same time as going down the stairs for older person from the 8th floor.
It can be made a science. If they tell you the this fire wall is designed to protect you for 1 hour, figure that you have about 10-15 minutes as you never know about the fire within seconds, and it takes time to leave the unit, and there would be other people slowing you down significantly…
The calculation is based on the integrity of the system, i.e. that no door gets busted and the smoke and fire get into the stairway… Prepare for the worst. So, if you can easily run down from the 22nd floor, then fine, buy on the 22nd floor.
The better rule is measuring the same 10 -15 min going up to your floor.
But why? Running down the stairs and going up is not the same.
True, but when fire happens, you would deal with smoke and low visibility, and other people trying to escape and causing a stampede. So, time-wise it would be pretty similar.
Never heard any agent talking about it.
Never ever.
Image by Barry Lewis via Flickr.com
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Jon Zolsky is a broker/owner of Daytona Condo Realty. Call 386-405-4408 or email me.
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