Live Loads

[dbryant]

I am designing an addition to a church under BOCA '96. It is to be multi-purpose with offices, classrooms, and corridors. What live loads would you recommend? Would you design the whole thing for 80 psf (corridors) so that it can be reconfigured any way for the future?

 

[Taro]

I typically use the corridor live load over the entire floor plate for spec office buildings so the floor plan can be reconfigured. For an addition to an existing church building, the owner/tenant is probably on board during the design process and should be consulted first. They may or may not wish to pay for a slightly more conservative design in order to have future flexibility.