Recliner Seating - Egress Space

[Daniel Fredrickson]

Hi all,

I figured this might be a good place to post this. We are getting ready to install a version of retrofit recliners in our theater and will be talking to an architect soon. In the meantime, I am curious if anyone else has had any experience with riser recliner retrofits? How did you address egress space for the wheelchair accessible seating areas? Can a moveable footrest occupy egress space (International Building Codes are clear on protruding objects, but I have gotten mixed answers).

I am attaching photo of a drawing that illustrates the concern, specifically in the center aisle (which contains wheelchair spaces). In this drawing, there are 44" of clearance on the wheelchair seating row with the footrests retracted, but only 24" with it up. My understanding is that we need 30" minimum. Any thoughts?

Thanks in-advance!

**edit: To clarify, the wheelchair seating row does not use recliners on risers but rather standard ones. I am asking for both anyone's experience that has installed riser-retrofit recliners, and for feedback on the egress space for any recliners.

[Gordon McLeod]

In Canada there are 2 building code the National and provincial The national as it says outlines the minimum nation wide and is the sole code in provinces that choose not to have a code (municipalities and cities can not have their own codes) The provincial code can exempt certain clauses in the national code if one shows the safety is the same. The other code than can be applied is NFPA 101 but for fire safety and egress but that one gets dicey as one most comply to all of it not just the sections one wants. So the long and short is the aisle with fixed seating the distance is approximately 14.5" from the most outward projecting back of the row in front to the most forward projecting of the back row. It also is measured in the unoccupied position if the seat automatically fold up when un occupied. If they do not automatically rise up then the distance is measured in the worst case clause both rows in occupied position. As for Wheel chair access it typically is a minimum of 34" wide getting wider the longer of distance of travel to the exit but a turning radius is also imposed that varies on the layout

[Armand Daiguillon]

We did a retrofit to stadium in an auditorium but the front half is still non stadium. Its where the two meet that you put your WC seating. That row should be wide enough to accommodate a WC getting through if other patrons have their footrests up. The regular rows are a bit vague as you said in IBC, however IBC is often irrelevant in many cases as the fire code inspectors don't care about IBC and go by their own rules. For WC row you're fine with doing as I said above if you leave enough room for a wheelchair to be able to pass with all seats fully reclined (36'').
For the non WC rows although fire code says you need "x" of space for egress but only for up to 10 seats in a row, for every seat over 10 you need an additional "x" inches of space. I do not remember the specifics. In my case we did not have quite as much space as we technically should (we had 14 seats in a row) but we left all chairs in upright positions and inspectors didn't say anything ..... the IBC standards are typically less restrictive than the fire code (NFPA) standard ...always go with what is most restrictive code wise and you'll always be ok.