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Forum Categories BOMA 2010 - Office Buildings Question

Secondary Restroom Area Allocation

JOHN KUCZURA: SDI, LLC; April 2, 2015

Where there are two sets of restrooms on an office floor as required by code for occupant load, may one of those restrooms be allocated to Occupant Area or are both restrooms required to be allocated to Floor Service Area?

Also, if a secondary restroom on such a floor is written into the tenant lease as a tenant improvement and completely under the tenant control, design and maintenance and is built out well beyond code requirements for occupancy load, i.e. showers, locker rooms, etc., is that portion of the restroom area beyond code requirements allowable as Occupant Area rather than Floor Service Area?

Thanks,
John.

David Fingret: Extreme Measures Inc.; April 2, 2015

This is another very good question that the BOMA Floor Measurement Committee is currently in the process of answering. It will be a Best Practices article in the near future.

To answer the first paragraph of your question - the restrooms should be allocated as Floor Service and Amenity Area.

The second paragraph of your question however is an issue that is not adequately considered in the BOMA 2010 Standard.

If a tenant on a multi-occupant floor has exclusive use, control and enjoyment of their own restroom(s), it is a reasonable approach to allocate the restroom(s) directly to the tenant as Occupant Area. If a common use restroom also exists on the multi-occupant floor, it should remain Floor Service Area or Building Service Area as it normally would and therefore proportionately allocated to all occupants on the floor or in the building.