House to restaurant conversion 1

[COEngineeer]

What do you guys usually do to the floor framing? The house floor is adequate for 40 psf live load but not 100 psf live load for a restaurant (pizza place). Do you have to reinforce the floor? Add beams to break the span of the joists? Add a joist right next to existing joist? Sandwich another joist next to the existing joist? What do you usually do to resist this 100psf live load?

 

[DonPhillips]

One option is to adjudicate the occupancy loads in Chapter 10 to get your floor loads down closer to 40 psf. Most A-2 occupancies do not fill up close to the minimum numbers required in Chapter 10.

Don Phillips

http://worthingtonengineering.com

 

[COEngineeer]

Chapter 10 of what? Chapter 10 is mean of egress on IBC.

 

[dik]

COE... I've sistered joists as well as introduced intermediate beams supporting the joists... Depends on the economics.

You should also investigate loading requirements and discuss this with your local building official.

Changing from a residential to a restaurant may have other code implications due to change in use and occupancy, fire ratings, exiting, spatial separation, etc.

Dik

 

[DonPhillips]

Yes, sorry, I was referring to the IBC since this is the most widely adopt bulding code in the United States.

And the discussion with the building official and the fire marshall about the adjudication is very important since you will need their support at the hearing.

Don Phillips

http://worthingtonengineering.com

 

[planitarch]

"6 ways to stiffen a bouncy floor", in Finehomebuilding Magazine Jan/07 is a great summary of design ideas for increasing the strength of existing wood frame construction. I don't recall seeing any load calculations in the article, but it's a start...

http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding/pages/fh_184_090.asp

 

[wjsd]

This may or may not apply, but I remember doing a residential to commercial conversion and we were not required to beef up the floor due to the occupancy projected to be fairly low. You may be required to put a "max. occupancy" sign up which limits the number of patrons. If this is a small mom and pop pizza place you should be able to make a good argument in favor of not adding structure. If you think a couple of soccer teams, etc. might end up in there then you might need to beef it up. Seems to me there is an existing building section of the codes for situations like this but I don't have access to them atm.

 

[DonPhillips]

That is what I was saying, wjsd, to do that, you have to adjudicate the occupancy to have it reduced.

The is an existing building section, Chapter 34 of IBC.

Don Phillips

http://worthingtonengineering.com