Skip to content
Cali-Graf Help Open Cali-Graf

Choose fire setback rules: California, City of LA or custom

In Fire setbacks, pick the rules for the home — California code (CRC R329.6), City of Los Angeles (LAFD) or your own widths. Cali-Graf picks LAFD for homes in the City of LA and California code elsewhere.

The width of each setback depends on who reviews the plans. Cali-Graf starts from the rules for the home’s city, and you can change them for any job.

Change the rules

  1. Open Fire setbacks

    In the roof editor, pick Panels (N). Fire setbacks is on the right, under the panel card.

  2. Pick the rules

    Choose in Rules: California (CRC R329.6), City of LA (LAFD) or Custom. The table below shows the width in inches for each edge type.

  3. Set the details

    Tick Home has fire sprinklers if it has them. To use your own widths, type them in the table — the rules switch to Custom, starting from the values you had.

What each set of rules does

RulesSetbacks
California (CRC R329.6)18″ on each side of the ridge while solar covers up to 33% of the roof (66% with fire sprinklers), 36″ above that. No setback at hips, valleys, eaves and rakes; 36″ pathways are checked separately.
City of LA (LAFD)From LAFD’s form for homes (Req. 96): 3 ft along rakes — pathways on both sides of every face with solar — 18″ from hips and valleys, and panels at least 3 ft from the ridge.
CustomYour own widths for ridge, hip and valley, rake, eave and around obstacles, 0 to 120 inches.

Roof coverage under California code

With California rules you’ll see Solar covers more than 33% of the roof (66% with sprinklers). Once panels are placed, Cali-Graf ticks it by itself from the panel area; before that you can tick it by hand. When it’s ticked, the ridge setback is 36″.

What you seeWhat to do
Setback must be between 0 and 120 inchesType a width in inches from 0 to 120.

Was this helpful?

Updated