Occupancies, Article 518

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Cliff Blumenthal

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Can someone define/clarify occupancies? Example: A building has 5 tenant spaces. Each space has 100 or more occupancy. If one of these spaces has 2 or more rooms and each room has less than 100 occupancy then does this space fall under Article 518 of 100 or more occupancies? Or, does the Article apply to the entire building regardless of individual tenants?
 
You need to closely peruse the wording of 518.1. In general an office building with more than 100 people does not fall under Article 518. Welcome to the forum.
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
Do retail spaces fall under the purview of Art 518?
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They could but I have yet to see one that did.

If the local Meglomart decides to host large sales shows and builds an area for doing so then that area certainly could be under 518.
 
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Ciff have you read 518.1?

In general, office and retail buildings are not 'Assembly occupancies' regardless of the number of people that will be in the space.

Take a look at the examples listed in 518.2(A)

Think of any large office building, that has 1000s of people in it at any given time, but the building is not entirely an Assembly occupancy. There are likely areas inside such a large building that are 'Assembly occupancies' If there is a conference room that holds more then 100 people then that specific conference room would be an Assembly occupancy.
 
Pierre C Belarge said:
Okay, I agree that the retail stores do not fall under Art 518 (in general).

Why?
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Lack of chairs? :grin:




I really don't know, but it appears that is has to do with how tight you expect to pack the humans in the room.

I also notice that they removed 'mercantile' from the list of examples.
 
My understanding of why retail is not classified in Art 518 is that those stores are not considered to be where people go to gather together, food stores are the same.


I went food shopping earlier today...the place was packed. I cannot imagine what it would be like trying to get out of there in a hurry with panicing people and such tight spaces.
 
To me this is a dumb rule to begin with. A assembly room with 99 people is permitted to have AC cable but with 100 people it needs MC or another wiring method. What makes 99 less dangerous than 100?
 
infinity said:
To me this is a dumb rule to begin with. A assembly room with 99 people is permitted to have AC cable but with 100 people it needs MC or another wiring method. What makes 99 less dangerous than 100?
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Well I think NY says 50.


But I don't understand why either number is dumb. A number had to be chosen, I would not want all the rules of assemble occupancies applying to every two stall bathroom.
 
iwire said:
Well I think NY says 50.


But I don't understand why either number is dumb. A number had to be chosen, I would not want all the rules of assemble occupancies applying to every two stall bathroom.
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But what makes a room with more than 100 people less safe with AC cable? If AC cable is inherently unsafe than it should be banned outright.
 
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