Assembly with Fixed seating (small church)

[VAC]

Help!
I started to work with a small church who will be renovating their sanctuary. A facelift - paint, new carpet, new light fixtures and pews
No other alterations beyond the sanctuary either.

The current setup is 10 pews on each side of the main aisle.
The main aisle is 5' wide on on the dot.
The side aisles are 28"
That gives them an OL of 140 (based on the size of their pews 10'6" in length- @18" of seating length per person IBC 1004.6)

They want the new pews to be the same size and layout.
However
The pew vendor is saying they need to be smaller because the aisles and aisles accessways need to increase in width.
I'm applying IBC 1029.6 without smoke protection and I'm not seeing what he's seeing.
Level floor. No sprinklers. (Total SQ FT for the sanctuary is 1,149)

So my questions are:
1) Am I looking at the correct section of the code to determine occupant load and egress capacity for fixed seating
2) Is there any other way to calculate the OL. I want to make sure I don't miss a part of the code I am not familiar with.

I haven't done too many churches, and the last one was 17 years ago and there was plenty of capacity as it was a full reno, so I'm a little 'rusty' in the church layout/design area.
I would really appreciate any insight you can share.

Thanks!

 

[Jay Smith]

There are minimum widths in 1029.9 that are greater than the result of the egress calculation.

 

[VAC]

There are minimum widths in 1029.9 that are greater than the result of the egress calculation.

Yes! Thank you! I suspected I was missing another section. Just didn't read down far enough.

 

[bill1952]

I'm not sure it isn't OK. The center aisle is more than minimum and sufficient for entire occupant load, over double I think. If there is egress at both front and back, the side aisles are not even required. There could be something I can't see but think you should be fine. Also I wouldn't expect changing the seating to finishes to require the change.

For 40 years I worked on design and planning of assembly spaces, and involved deeply in code development for assembly seating, and the seating manufactures and contractors were never reliable as sources for code.

 

[e hilton]

Ask the pew vendor to cite code section.

 

[VAC]

I'm not sure it isn't OK. The center aisle is more than minimum and sufficient for entire occupant load, over double I think. If there is egress at both front and back, the side aisles are not even required. There could be something I can't see but think you should be fine. Also I wouldn't expect changing the seating to finishes to require the change.

For 40 years I worked on design and planning of assembly spaces, and involved deeply in code development for assembly seating, and the seating manufactures and contractors were never reliable as sources for code.

That's what I thought at first, but since I don't have as much experience with fixed assembly seating, I wasn't sure I was looking in all the right (code) places.
I agree about the vendors. They are only as good as their sales person when it comes to accuracy. Thank you! Appreciate it.

 

[VAC]

I'm not sure it isn't OK. The center aisle is more than minimum and sufficient for entire occupant load, over double I think. If there is egress at both front and back, the side aisles are not even required. There could be something I can't see but think you should be fine. Also I wouldn't expect changing the seating to finishes to require the change.

For 40 years I worked on design and planning of assembly spaces, and involved deeply in code development for assembly seating, and the seating manufactures and contractors were never reliable as sources for code.

BTW, the sanctuary has another 2 exits besides the main (5'-0") exit. They are located on the opposite wall and lead to FR halls/corridors.