IBC Chapter 3 Questions.

[paulk]

IBC 2012 Edition Section 303 Assembly Group A

In a standard office tenant space with two conference rooms; the local building inspector wants to counts these standard office conference rooms as assembly spaces and an occupant load of 15 square foot per person. This building is not sprinkled therefore putting these space over the allowable occupant load of 30 people. I am reading 303.1.2 and the occupant load of less then 50 people and the area under 750 square feet seems to allow these standard office conference room to be a B-Classification. He is saying that these room are now classified as a B-Classification but I still need to use a occupant load of 15 square foot per person. Thus he wants to create one hour interior corridors, requiring one hour rated partitions and door assemblies.

What is the correct interpretation of this section of the code.

Also Assembly Group A-1 thru Assembly Group A-5 none of these list a conference room as an assembly space.

Should these conference rooms even be considered an Assembly use?

 

[mtlogcabin]

[A] 107.2.3 Means of egress.

The construction documents shall show in sufficient detail the location, construction, size and character of all portions of the means of egress including the path of the exit discharge to the public way in compliance with the provisions of this code. In other than occupancies in Groups R-2, R-3, and I-1, the construction documents shall designate the number of occupants to be accommodated on every floor, and in all rooms and spaces.

15 net for tables and chair is the correct number to use. However the BO can reduce the number to the actual number of occupants for each occupied space. In other words if the employees in the surrounding tenant space are the ones using the conference room and that number by itself is not large enough to require a rated corridor then the BO can reduce the number of occupants thereby reducing the corridor requirements for fire rating

1004.1.2

Exception: Where approved by the building official, the actual number of occupants for whom each occupied space, floor or building is designed, although less than those determined by calculation, shall be permitted to be used in the determination of the design occupant load.

 

[north star]

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paulk,

Welcome to The Building Codes Forum !



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[cda]

Welcome .....

 

[cda]

Depending on the business, some people consider it accessory to the occupancy, in that whoever is in the office will use the conference room.

Than there is the business that has a conference room, and a large number of outside people come in on top of their employees and occupy the conference room.

What is the total sq ft of the entire office?

what is the ocuupany load you figure for the entire office?

Do you show chairs and tables in the conference room?

what occupant load to you figure for the conference rooms???

 

[ICE]

This thread should be moved to the Commercial Building Code forum. How is it that an inspector is weighing in on this? This should have been dealt with at plan check and should go back to plan check.

 

[cda]

This thread should be moved to the Commercial Building Code forum. How is it that an inspector is weighing in on this? This should have been dealt with at plan check and should go back to plan check.

Might be one in the same

 

[tmurray]

Depending on the business, some people consider it accessory to the occupancy, in that whoever is in the office will use the conference room.Than there is the business that has a conference room, and a large number of outside people come in on top of their employees and occupy the conference room.

That's the way we do it here, it really depends on the business. We do our code review based on what the tenant's use is. We'll add a couple people to the occupant load where it is usually their own staff using it to account for a few extra people, but that's typically it.

 

[ICE]

Depending on the business, some people consider it accessory to the occupancy, in that whoever is in the office will use the conference room.Than there is the business that has a conference room, and a large number of outside people come in on top of their employees and occupy the conference room.

How is that controlled? What about the next business that calls this place home? If there are conference rooms of a size that triggers requirements....it is what it is.

 

[cda]

BO's DISCRETION, wich the code allows

Plus in this case we do not have the entire story, plus plans

 

[fatboy]

This thread should be moved to the Commercial Building Code forum. How is it that an inspector is weighing in on this? This should have been dealt with at plan check and should go back to plan check.

Done............

 

[cda]

"""Shazam"""

""" Shame, shame, shame!""

 

[JBI]

Calculating occupant load in Chapter 10 does require the OL to be based on the 'use' or 'function' of the space. The function of the conference room is for table and chair seating most if not all the time, therefore the 15 s.f. per person is a sensible approach. That's why the table is based on the use or function, not the Chapter 3 Occupancy Classification. So a 300 s.f. conference room, that could easily accommodate 20 people does not get to scrimp on the exiting for the building by giving an OL of 3.

1004.1.2 Areas without fixed seating.

The number of occupants shall be computed at the rate of one occupant per unit of area as prescribed in Table 1004.1.2. For areas without fixed seating, the occupant load shall not be less than that number determined by dividing the floor area under consideration by the occupant load factor assigned to the function of the space as set forth in Table 1004.1.2. Where an intended function is not listed in Table 1004.1.2, the building official shall establish a function based on a listed function that most nearly resembles the intended function.

 

[RLGA]

JBI is correct. Even though it may not be classified as a Group A occupancy, it is an assembly use/function, and the occupant load should be based on that load factor.

However, I have seen it allowed where the entire office space, including the conference rooms, is based on the 100 s.f. gross/occupant factor for business areas. Then the conference room egress system is based on the unconcentrated assembly factor of 15 s.f./occupant. This assumes that the conference rooms are used only by the occupants of the office; thus, the conference rooms do not add to the occupant load of the overall office space, but still must be considered individually for means of egress from those spaces. Before using this method, I would request approval from the B.O.