Michael.L
Registered User
Apologies in advance for the long post. But I wanted to provide as much information as possible so we hopefully get some accurate responses.
We are planning to open a small donut & coffee shop in Boulder County, Colorado. The space we're planning to occupy has 1,091 total leasable space. The majority of our customers will be take-out, but we will provide a small number of non-fixed tables & chairs, and window-counter seating, for our customers who wish to dine-in; the estimated number of total seats will be ~14.
This space is located in a 1970's building that houses a bowling alley, and this space has two 36" doors: one that opens directly into the parking lot, and one that opens into the bowling alley lobby. The space has been vacant for over a decade (landlord has been using it for storage) but it was previously occupied by a frozen yogurt shop. It has only one small restroom (8'-8" x 2'-11") located in the back corner of the space, and it's clear from the partition walls that it was a staff-only restroom. Since the frozen yogurt shop shared common hours with the bowling alley, their customers were able to use the bowling alley restrooms. Our business, however, will open in the very early morning, several hours before the bowling alley opens. Therefore, it appears we will need to provide some number of restroom facilities for our customers.
Based on preliminary plans, our space will be divided up roughly as follows:
Referring to Table 1004.1.2 of the IBC on occupancy loads, it would appear that the customer area will be categorized as "Unconcentrated Assembly Without Fixed Seats" (15 net) and the food prep area will be categorized as "Commerical Kitchens" (200 gross). Since part of the space will be calculated as net and part as gross, I'm not sure how to assign and calculate the other areas. I suspect the storage room & janitorial closet would be counted as "Accessory storage areas" (300 gross), and the small office as "Business Areas" (100 gross). But what about the restroom(s) and any hallway area? Are they counted as part of "Kitchen" gross or not counted as part of "Assembly" net? If counted, what numbers do I use? Also, since we are a counter service restaurant, the reality is that some customers will be standing to order and receive their food. Does that mean we have to count some of our customer area into "Standing Space" (5 net)? If so, how do we make the division between "Standing" and "Unconcentrated (tables & chairs)"? Finally, if we were to place a couple of tables outside the shop, how would that impact OL for restroom calculations?
(Also, note that the only two egress doors are located in the customer area; there is no backdoor in the kitchen. I don't think this impacts restrooms, but will impact total allowable occupancy for exiting purposes.)
Another point I'm not sure about is, are the spaces occupied by interior partition walls and permanent fixtures (e.g., the customer service counter) counted in the square footage for OL calculations?
Based on my basic understanding of how these OL's are calculated (and assuming I don't have to count any of the customer area as "Standing Space"), we would have the following:
Is the result for each area is rounded up to an integer number? Or are the OL's for each area first summed and then rounded up? In any case, I'm probably looking at an OL of approximately 19.
Now about the restrooms. Ideally, we'd like to just enlarge the existing bathroom to make it a single unisex ADA-compliant restroom for both staff and customers. But I've come across conflicting information about the OL number for going from one to two restrooms. For example, the following are quotes from some different sources:
From: Restroom Requirements for Restaurants
From the same article above:
From: Restaurants, Bars, Bakeries and Occupant Loads
From: Code of Colorado Regulations (CCR) 1010-2: Colorado Retail Food Establishments
Also from CCR 1010-2:
The last two sections from the CCR beg the question: What about establishments with a seating capacity greater than 15, but fewer than 20?
So, a quick call to the local city planning office yielded a general nod towards the "you must have two restrooms if >15 occupants," although the guy wouldn't really give me a firm answer and told me it's up to my architect to figure out the occupancy load and code requirements.
Basically, I'm hoping to avoid building two ADA-compliant restrooms in our already small potential space. Not only would that add significantly to our build-out costs, but they would consume a large chunk of our square footage. Ideally, we can just expand the existing restroom to make it ADA and call it good. But if the requirement is >15 total OL (and it really doesn't seem possible for us to get below that), can we designate the existing small bathroom for staff only, and just add one public unisex ADA bathroom for our customers?
Of course, we will be hiring an architect and engineer prior to construction. But I'm trying to get as many ducks in a row ahead of time, in part because I need to know if this space will work for us before committing a chunk of our budget to designing for it.
Thank you for reading!
We are planning to open a small donut & coffee shop in Boulder County, Colorado. The space we're planning to occupy has 1,091 total leasable space. The majority of our customers will be take-out, but we will provide a small number of non-fixed tables & chairs, and window-counter seating, for our customers who wish to dine-in; the estimated number of total seats will be ~14.
This space is located in a 1970's building that houses a bowling alley, and this space has two 36" doors: one that opens directly into the parking lot, and one that opens into the bowling alley lobby. The space has been vacant for over a decade (landlord has been using it for storage) but it was previously occupied by a frozen yogurt shop. It has only one small restroom (8'-8" x 2'-11") located in the back corner of the space, and it's clear from the partition walls that it was a staff-only restroom. Since the frozen yogurt shop shared common hours with the bowling alley, their customers were able to use the bowling alley restrooms. Our business, however, will open in the very early morning, several hours before the bowling alley opens. Therefore, it appears we will need to provide some number of restroom facilities for our customers.
Based on preliminary plans, our space will be divided up roughly as follows:
Kitchen & food preparation: 50% (540 SF)
Customer ordering & dining: 35% (380 SF)
Other (office, storage, restrooms, janitorial, etc.): 15% (165 SF)
Customer ordering & dining: 35% (380 SF)
Other (office, storage, restrooms, janitorial, etc.): 15% (165 SF)
Referring to Table 1004.1.2 of the IBC on occupancy loads, it would appear that the customer area will be categorized as "Unconcentrated Assembly Without Fixed Seats" (15 net) and the food prep area will be categorized as "Commerical Kitchens" (200 gross). Since part of the space will be calculated as net and part as gross, I'm not sure how to assign and calculate the other areas. I suspect the storage room & janitorial closet would be counted as "Accessory storage areas" (300 gross), and the small office as "Business Areas" (100 gross). But what about the restroom(s) and any hallway area? Are they counted as part of "Kitchen" gross or not counted as part of "Assembly" net? If counted, what numbers do I use? Also, since we are a counter service restaurant, the reality is that some customers will be standing to order and receive their food. Does that mean we have to count some of our customer area into "Standing Space" (5 net)? If so, how do we make the division between "Standing" and "Unconcentrated (tables & chairs)"? Finally, if we were to place a couple of tables outside the shop, how would that impact OL for restroom calculations?
(Also, note that the only two egress doors are located in the customer area; there is no backdoor in the kitchen. I don't think this impacts restrooms, but will impact total allowable occupancy for exiting purposes.)
Another point I'm not sure about is, are the spaces occupied by interior partition walls and permanent fixtures (e.g., the customer service counter) counted in the square footage for OL calculations?
Based on my basic understanding of how these OL's are calculated (and assuming I don't have to count any of the customer area as "Standing Space"), we would have the following:
Kitchen OL: 2.7
Customer OL: 15
Office/Storage OL: 0.5
Bathroom/hallway: ???
Customer OL: 15
Office/Storage OL: 0.5
Bathroom/hallway: ???
Is the result for each area is rounded up to an integer number? Or are the OL's for each area first summed and then rounded up? In any case, I'm probably looking at an OL of approximately 19.
Now about the restrooms. Ideally, we'd like to just enlarge the existing bathroom to make it a single unisex ADA-compliant restroom for both staff and customers. But I've come across conflicting information about the OL number for going from one to two restrooms. For example, the following are quotes from some different sources:
From: Restroom Requirements for Restaurants
From the same article above:
From: Restaurants, Bars, Bakeries and Occupant Loads
From: Code of Colorado Regulations (CCR) 1010-2: Colorado Retail Food Establishments
Also from CCR 1010-2:
The last two sections from the CCR beg the question: What about establishments with a seating capacity greater than 15, but fewer than 20?
So, a quick call to the local city planning office yielded a general nod towards the "you must have two restrooms if >15 occupants," although the guy wouldn't really give me a firm answer and told me it's up to my architect to figure out the occupancy load and code requirements.
Basically, I'm hoping to avoid building two ADA-compliant restrooms in our already small potential space. Not only would that add significantly to our build-out costs, but they would consume a large chunk of our square footage. Ideally, we can just expand the existing restroom to make it ADA and call it good. But if the requirement is >15 total OL (and it really doesn't seem possible for us to get below that), can we designate the existing small bathroom for staff only, and just add one public unisex ADA bathroom for our customers?
Of course, we will be hiring an architect and engineer prior to construction. But I'm trying to get as many ducks in a row ahead of time, in part because I need to know if this space will work for us before committing a chunk of our budget to designing for it.
Thank you for reading!
