Function of Space Occupant Load for Cafeteria grab-and-go area?

[CKoers]

We are doing a partial alteration to a 4 story office building in Ohio in 2025. On the first floor there is a cafeteria and seating area. The cafeteria is set up like what you would find in a hospital. You enter the cafeteria from an atrium on the first floor, you have several options to grab food from food stations on a tray, and then check out at the cash register and proceed to sit down in the next room at a table and eat.

I am analyzing the occupant count for the entire building and finding that we are near capacity for occupants when looking at the egress sizing for the exit doors of the building. I am counting the seating area as A-2, Assembly without fixed seats, tables and chairs 15 net.

The cafeteria food section is what doesn't fit anywhere for me. I'm currently thinking it could be 15 net just like the seating area. Or it could be 5 net, standing space. Or it could be 200 gross for kitchens? Or it could be a business area?

Any experience or thoughts on this type of area is appreciated.

 

[mtlogcabin]

I am analyzing the occupant count for the entire building and finding that we are near capacity for occupants when looking at the egress sizing for the exit doors of the building.

Could you please clarify if it is the entire occupant load of the building that is the issue or just the 1st floor OL with the cafeteria?

2021 IBC
1004.2.3
Other than for the egress components designed for convergence in accordance with Section 1005.6, the occupant load from separate stories shall not be added.

 

[CKoers]

Could you please clarify if it is the entire occupant load of the building that is the issue or just the 1st floor OL with the cafeteria?

2021 IBC
1004.2.3
Other than for the egress components designed for convergence in accordance with Section 1005.6, the occupant load from separate stories shall not be added.

I am doing the occupant load for the entire building. If what you say is true then it would help me out. I should also mention that there is a basement with mostly mechanical rooms.

So what you're saying is for the exit doors, I am only to consider the sizing for the basement, 1st floor, and 2nd floor. I can exclude sizing the exit doors for the 3rd and 4th floors?

So on the attached diagram, which I frustratingly can only find the question and not the answer, the answer for E would be 390 occupant load, and not 740?

 

[mtlogcabin]

The largest floor load is what the exit size should be. In your example 240 would be the number to use.

1005.3.1​

The capacity, in inches, of means of egress stairways shall be calculated by multiplying the occupant load served by such stairways by a means of egress capacity factor of 0.3 inch (7.6 mm) per occupant. Where stairways serve more than one story, only the occupant load of each story considered individually shall be used in calculating the required capacity of the stairways serving that story.

 

[Tim Mailloux]

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The cafeteria food section is what doesn't fit anywhere for me. I'm currently thinking it could be 15 net just like the seating area. Or it could be 5 net, standing space. Or it could be 200 gross for kitchens? Or it could be a business area?

Any experience or thoughts on this type of area is appreciated.

I have done something similar in the past, and the cafeteria area where people grabbed food and paid for it was treated as mercantile 1 per 60 gross

 

[Tim Mailloux]

The largest floor load is what the exit size should be. In your example 240 would be the number to use.

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in the posted example exit door E would need to be sized for 390 people due to converging egress, bu the stair itself would only need to be sized for 240 people

 

[CKoers]

I have done something similar in the past, and the cafeteria area where people grabbed food and paid for it was treated as mercantile 1 per 60 gross

Mercantile rings true to what I would actually place the occupancy sizing as but I was nervous to suggest this as the building itself is not M at all. And I know occupancy and function are two different things but they get conflated often. The code officially recently on a project made me add S type occupancy to a building for all of my mechanical spaces just because I noted that they were "accessory storage areas, mechanical rooms" and conflated the function with the occupancy. I also don't think they functions of spaces are defined anywhere?

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

We are doing a partial alteration to a 4 story office building in Ohio in 2025. On the first floor there is a cafeteria and seating area. The cafeteria is set up like what you would find in a hospital. You enter the cafeteria from an atrium on the first floor, you have several options to grab food from food stations on a tray, and then check out at the cash register and proceed to sit down in the next room at a table and eat.

I am analyzing the occupant count for the entire building and finding that we are near capacity for occupants when looking at the egress sizing for the exit doors of the building. I am counting the seating area as A-2, Assembly without fixed seats, tables and chairs 15 net.

...

Any experience or thoughts on this type of area is appreciated.

For the customer side of the food service area, I would use 1 person per 5 square feet.

Based on what I regularly see in the cafeteria at the VA hospital I go to, that's conservative.

 

[Tim Mailloux]

not a definition, but this is from the IBC code commentary addition.

Table 1004.5 establishes minimum occupant densities based on the function or actual use of the space (not group classification).

 

[mtlogcabin]

in the posted example exit door E would need to be sized for 390 people due to converging egress,

You are correct

1005.6​

Where the means of egress from stories above and below converge at an intermediate level, the capacity of the means of egress from the point of convergence shall be not less than the largest minimum width or the sum of the required capacities for the stairways or ramps serving the two adjacent stories, whichever is larger.

 

[CKoers]

For the customer side of the food service area, I would use 1 person per 5 square feet.

Based on what I regularly see in the cafeteria at the VA hospital I go to, that;'s conservative.

I could see this number used as well but it is so wildly different than the other suggestion for Mercantile 60/sf. I've also been recommended from a coworker here to use the same number as the seating area at 15. Honestly all these suggestions sounds plausible.

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

I am doing the occupant load for the entire building. If what you say is true then it would help me out. I should also mention that there is a basement with mostly mechanical rooms.

So what you're saying is for the exit doors, I am only to consider the sizing for the basement, 1st floor, and 2nd floor. I can exclude sizing the exit doors for the 3rd and 4th floors?

So on the attached diagram, which I frustratingly can only find the question and not the answer, the answer for E would be 390 occupant load, and not 740?

I don't understand this question. The exit doors on the fourth floor are the doors INTO the stairs on the fourth floor.

The exit doors on the third floor are the doors INTO the stairs on the third floor.

The exit doors on the second floor are the doors INTO the stairs on the second floor.

The exit doors on the basement floor are the doors INTO the stairs on the basement floor.

The doors OUT of the stairs at grade/first floor level are exit discharge doors. They don't have to accommodate the total occupant load of the entire building. They have to accommodate the occupancy load of the largest floor they serve, or the combined occupant loads of two converging floors. Basically, either the first fllor OR the second floor plus the basement, since the second floor and the basement paths of egress travel converge at the first floor. Based on your diagram, that's 240 plus 150 -- the stair discharge door needs to accommodate 390 people.

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

Mercantile rings true to what I would actually place the occupancy sizing as but I was nervous to suggest this as the building itself is not M at all. And I know occupancy and function are two different things but they get conflated often. The code officially recently on a project made me add S type occupancy to a building for all of my mechanical spaces just because I noted that they were "accessory storage areas, mechanical rooms" and conflated the function with the occupancy. I also don't think they functions of spaces are defined anywhere?

Mercantile makes no sense at all. Mercantile occupancy densities are based on a store, with rows of shelves displaying goods and aisles in between the rows or shelves. The service are of a cafeteria is not a mercantile occupancy. It's an assembly occupancy.

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

I could see this number used as well but it is so wildly different than the other suggestion for Mercantile 60/sf. I've also been recommended from a coworker here to use the same number as the seating area at 15. Honestly all these suggestions sounds plausible.

I respectfully disagree that these alternate suggestions sound plausible.

The 15 sf/person ration obviously doesn't work, because you don't have table and chairs taking up space where people can stand.

Mercantile doesn't make sense because you don't have rows of merchandise shelving taking up potentially 50% of the floor space.

What makes sense is to deal with what happens -- people crowd behind the counters and at the registers. At peak times, you can barely squeeze through the space. I regularly eat in the cafeteria at my local VA hospital -- that's where I get virtually all my health care, and (unfortunately) I'm there more often than I'd like. I see it on a regular basis.

 

[mtlogcabin]

What is the square footage of the cafeteria area?