ABSTRACT
Part 1 of BS6399:1984 specifies ten types of occupancy upon which the imposed loadings that must be considered are based. There are three types of residential property, namely self-contained dwellings, buildings such as boarding or guest houses, and hotels or motels. The remaining types are institutional or educational premises, public assembly buildings, offices, retail premises, industrial buildings, warehouses and similar stores and structures supporting vehicles. The weights of large commercial vehicles are such that suspended floors for garages catering for them would have to be designed to withstand loads comparable with those specified for highway bridges in order to allow for the possibility of the garage being occupied by loaded vehicles. The primary dead or permanent load of a reinforced concrete structure is the weight of the structural members, of finishes on walls, floors, ceilings, stairs and elsewhere, of brickwork, masonry, steelwork, partitions, fixed tanks and other permanent construction supported by the structural members.
