[SML] Bonding seats in California

[dale]

We ran into the same issue at a tent music festival this summer in maine.  Six hours before opening to the public the inspectors surprised us with that requirement.       It was postponed by us pointing out that we had been using folded chairs without doing this for 15 years and the inspectors hadn't mentioned this new requirement in any of the numerous planning meetings before the festival.    
So I'm looking for a solution to this also.   Folding chairs on grass surfaces under tents.  The complication for us is that a major part of our strike strategy for the big tents is that we ask the audience members at the end of the show to pick up their chairs and carry them over to the piles outside the tent.  
So we need a solution that will allow ordinary audience members to be able to pick up the chairs and carry them off to the stacks outside the tents.  
The inspector wanted them all tie-wrapped together, which doesn't work for us.   Another local outdoor venue runs aircraft cable along each row through the chairs and staked at each end.    I'm wondering if threading some ordinary rope through and just tying it to the end chairs wound be sufficient.   
Dale


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-------- Original message --------
From: Bill Conner via Stagecraft <stagecraft at theatrical.net> 
Date: 9/30/16  08:36  (GMT-05:00) 
To: Stagecraft Mailing List <stagecraft at theatrical.net> 
Cc: Bill Conner <billconnerastc at gmail.com> 
Subject: Re: [SML] Bonding seats in California 

So the 2015 IBC - which I believe CA adopts with amendments - says:

1029.14 Seat stability. In a building, room or space used for
assembly purposes, the seats shall be securely fastened to the
floor.
Exceptions:
1. In a building, room or space used for assembly purposes
or portions thereof without ramped or tiered
floors for seating and with 200 or fewer seats, the
seats shall not be required to be fastened to the floor.
2. In a building, room or space used for assembly purposes
or portions thereof without ramped or tiered
floors for seating, the seats shall not be required to
be fastened to the floor.
3. In a building, room or space used for assembly purposes
or portions thereof without ramped or tiered
floors for seating and with greater than 200 seats, the
seats shall be fastened together in groups of not less
than three or the seats shall be securely fastened to
the floor.
4. In a building, room or space used for assembly purposes
where flexibility of the seating arrangement is
an integral part of the design and function of the
space and seating is on tiered levels, not more than
200 seats shall not be required to be fastened to the
floor. Plans showing seating, tiers and aisles shall be
submitted for approval.
5. Groups of seats within a building, room or space
used for assembly purposes separated from other
seating by railings, guards, partial height walls or
similar barriers with level floors and having not
more than 14 seats per group shall not be required to
be fastened to the floor.
6. Seats intended for musicians or other performers
and separated by railings, guards, partial height
walls or similar barriers shall not be required to be
fastened to the floor.

Exception 4 may cover you for the IBC.  Do keep in mind codes and
standards are minimums for safety, not a guide for good design.  If
someone is injured when they fall off the portable risers, it is
likely to cost the building owner more than the cost of 200 chairs.

-- 
Bill Conner Fellow of the ASTC

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