Restaurant Occupant Load

[Phil C]

Hello, Can a restaurant have two separate occupant loads? It is my understanding that the fire department makes a determination based on dinning areas and/or bars/ load factors and does not include back of house/kitchen? Then a separate occupant load including all spaces which is typically done to figure egress and determine if it can be a business use (50 or less occupants per IBC 303.1.2). Which is the crux of my issue - fire marshal says it is over 50 occupants, and a potentially separate number, building code indicates it is less?

working with 2015 ibc.

 

[steveray]

Use or OL? Two different things....

 

[Phil C]

Use or OL? Two different things....

The OL gets me to use, if it is less than 50 OL it can be B as opposed to an assembly use.

 

[steveray]

Do the dining room at 15 and the kitchen at 200...and then see what you end up with.....see 1004

 

[Tim Mailloux]

Do the dining room at 15 and the kitchen at 200...and then see what you end up with.....see 1004

do the calculation SteveRay mentioned and also count the nuber of chairs at the tables and bar (aka butts in seats) and use the higher of the two numbers

 

[Sifu]

The OL gets me to use, if it is less than 50 OL it can be B as opposed to an assembly use.

OL gets you classification (in this case), not use. OL is based on use. A B classification still has an OL ratio based on t1004.5, whatever the use is.

 

[fatboy]

steveray nails it