The need to revise the definition of “work area” from 2012 to 2015 was because the definition had undefined terms in the definition (“reconfigured space” was not defined, so how could one define a work area?) which led to confusion and inconsistent applications of what a “work area” was. 

So, the 2015 VEBC deleted “reconfigured space” in the work area defintion and replaced those terms with the “involving walls” language - mainly because the term "wall" was defined in Chapter 2 of the IBC.

However, the 2015 version of the definition for "wall" added “(for Chapter 21)” to the definition that did not exist in the 2012 edition (or previous editions for that matter). IBC Chapter 21 is for masonry walls only.  So, could someone say the work area definition only applies when masonry walls are involved, and when masonry is NOT involved (e.g., wood studs, steel studs, plastic, etc.), anything goes? 

Our intent (as a participant of the VBCOA Rehab Code Committee and instructor of the Virginia Existing  Building Code for the Code Academy) was when we crafted the new "work area" definition by using a defined term (wall), we thought we were making things easier to interpret and thus be more consistent in its application.  However, we were not aware (we had used the 2012 version of "wall") that ICC had added “(for Chapter 21)” in the definition which will most likely lead us back to a confusing definition for "work area."

Therefore, I am asking the BHCD to revise the IBC Chapter 2 defintion of "WALL" back to the previous versions (2012 and before) by deleting "(for Chapter 21)" from the "WALL" definition.

Thank you for your consideration.