IBC 2015 - Table 1107.6.1.1

[Joshua E.]

Apologies if this has been answered before, but I couldn't find it if it has.

I am looking into how many Accessible units need to be provided in a college dormitory, and I want to make sure that I'm looking at the correct line in Table 1107.6.1.1.

For determining the number of Units, I need to find out how many Sleeping Units there are. It appears that I only count actual bedrooms for this table, not common rooms or other areas. What about when two people share a room? Is that still just one Sleeping Unit, or would I count that as two separate Units?

Thanks

 

[RLGA]

Refer to the definition of a sleeping unit in Chapter 2. "A room or space in which people sleep..."

Thus, a 2-bed dorm room is a single sleeping unit.

With that said, the current trend of college dorms is not to provide multiple sleeping units with community showers and restrooms and a resident lounge. Many of these are really dwelling units (i.e., apartments) in which each unit includes multiple sleeping rooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, a common living area, and possibly a laundry room. If this is the situation, then you only count the dwelling unit and not each sleeping room within a dwelling unit.

 

[Joshua E.]

Refer to the definition of a sleeping unit in Chapter 2. "A room or space in which people sleep..."

Thus, a 2-bed dorm room is a single sleeping unit.

With that said, the current trend of college dorms is not to provide multiple sleeping units with community showers and restrooms and a resident lounge. Many of these are really dwelling units (i.e., apartments) in which each unit includes multiple sleeping rooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, a common living area, and possibly a laundry room. If this is the situation, then you only count the dwelling unit and not each sleeping room within a dwelling unit.

Thanks.

I did consult the definition, but the description of "room or space" left me a bit confused. How does the Code define a space? I didn't know if two separate beds in a room could be counted as separate "spaces." Sometimes I overthink things a bit though...

 

[ADAguy]

Difference between "specific and general" use spaces? Beds are "elements" within the space, you could conceivably have 2 bunk beds equaling 4 persons in a bedroom "space".

 

[Joshua E.]

This makes sense, but it seems like institutions/designers could use this to get away with cramming multiple people into rooms and not providing enough accessible units, no?

 

[ADAguy]

Accessible units would still have to be provided on a % basis of total building occupants.

 

[Joshua E.]

Well, I thought that Table 1107.6.1.1 used units (e.g., sleeping units) to determine quantities of Accessible units for R-2 occupancies, no?