Tiny Sleeping Space Code Issues

[mtlogcabin]

[RB] HABITABLE SPACE. A space in a building for living, sleeping, eating or cooking. Bathrooms, toilet rooms, closets, halls, storage or utility spaces and similar areas are not considered habitable spaces.

The areas that you measured in red are not sleeping areas within the sleeping room

 

[brr]

Yes, I'm saying that once you remove the barn door, if there are no other doors between the crow's nest bed and the exit door, then the downstairs+upstairs (including the crow's nest) is treated as one big habitable bedroom / studio. The downstairs exit door serves as the EERO for the sleeping area as well as the primary exit.

I have not seen your downstairs plan, so I don't know if that is the actual condition.

I daresay that perhaps the barn door could probably be replaced with a curtain and it could still be made to comply with code.

I think treating the entire space as one room is good point generally - again, I'm not sure what defines a space as a bedroom per se. With no wall/door separating the second level, then you are saying it's not a bedroom (is bedroom defined in the code?), but it can, with proper window and stair egress (which it has), be used as sleeping area. I wonder if the Crow's Nest's 5 risers will be the threshold that makes it a separate space from the Loft. It's why I wondered why you can put a ladder up to a built in bunk bed, but the Nest space is not allowed.

First floor plan - note that the owner later decided she wanted the toilet to be hidden from view from the door (childhood trauma) and the City allowed only one sink, so we put the sink outside the bathroom, but it still technically serves the bathroom... It's one of the few complaints from renters, but somehow to the City, having a sink in the living area changed it's potential use - no cooking allowed.

 

[brr]

[RB] HABITABLE SPACE. A space in a building for living, sleeping, eating or cooking. Bathrooms, toilet rooms, closets, halls, storage or utility spaces and similar areas are not considered habitable spaces.

The areas that you measured in red are not sleeping areas within the sleeping room

Do you know what in the code defines a space as a storage space?

 

[mtlogcabin]

Do you know what in the code defines a space as a storage space?

[RB] CLOSET. A small room or chamber used for storage.

It is one of those undefined code words that you will know it when you see it.

 

[Yikes]

I think treating the entire space as one room is good point generally - again, I'm not sure what defines a space as a bedroom per se. With no wall/door separating the second level, then you are saying it's not a bedroom (is bedroom defined in the code?), but it can, with proper window and stair egress (which it has), be used as sleeping area. I wonder if the Crow's Nest's 5 risers will be the threshold that makes it a separate space from the Loft. It's why I wondered why you can put a ladder up to a built in bunk bed, but the Nest space is not allowed.

First floor plan - note that the owner later decided she wanted the toilet to be hidden from view from the door (childhood trauma) and the City allowed only one sink, so we put the sink outside the bathroom, but it still technically serves the bathroom... It's one of the few complaints from renters, but somehow to the City, having a sink in the living area changed it's potential use - no cooking allowed.
View attachment 13431

"Bedroom" is not defined in the code. In California, "sleeping accommodations" is defined as "rooms intended and designed for sleeping"
"Sleeping Unit" is a term used in IBC 202 to mean rooms that have provisions for sleeping [so this could include a bedroom], and "can" [but not "must"] include provisions for living; eating; and kitchen OR sanitation facilities, but not both (not kitchen AND sanitation).
A bedroom or sleeping area within a sleeping unit is a type of habitable space which must meet minimum room dimensions and met IBC 1031 for emergency escape and rescue openings.

So, the plans you have shown us would qualify in my state as a "zero bedroom sleeping unit", where zero bedroom is like a studio apartment, but without a kitchen. If you remove the barn door, the entire facility (except for the bathroom) qualifies as a place to sleep, whether downstairs or upstairs, crow's nest, whatever. the exit doors function as the EERO, so no window EERO is needed.

If the barn door is left on, our local municipality would treat that as a unique space that is separate form the rest of the loft, and it is too small to qualify as "habitable", therefore it must be made into storage or something else that is excluded from the IBC 202 definition of "Habitable Space".

If the owner wanted to get really clever, at time of re-inspection they could remove the mattress but leave the furniture base, which already has two drawers, qualifying it as "storage".

In our city, I recently overheard someone arguing with the code enforcement official who cited them for using their garage for habitation without a change in occupancy permit (the neighbor complained). The homeowner asked what evidence he had to claim it was used for sleeping.
Inspector: I saw a bed in there.
Homeowner: That's where I store my extra mattress.
Inspector: The bed had sheets on it.
Homeowner: To keep the dust off. Did you see anyone sleeping there?
Inspector: No.

In the end, the Inspector changed the citation to failure to maintain access to the two covered parking spaces required by the city. The homeowner had installed a shed on the driveway in front of the garage door.

 

[brr]

Yes, I find the minimum room dimension requirement is not well-phrased. If the phrase "in ANY dimension" is taken literally, no bedroom that is shaped like the one below could ever be allowed because it is noncompliant in at least 4 dimensions:

View attachment 13430

I've never been pressed to interpret this before, but, I would imagine it's a 7' diameter circle - that would eliminate any extra conditional language, such as measured perpendicular to...

This reminds me of designing winder stairs - the 9" requirement (Oregon IRC) on the 12" walk line makes for some awkward and potentially hazardous stairs in some configurations. I've never parsed exactly how that 9" is to be measured by an inspector in the field (and never has a stair failed in field inspection), but a comfortable walking stair is hard to achieve following the 12" walk line exactly - it makes some treads too skinny.

This diagram illustrates a non-code compliant layout type that I used for over a decade until I started getting plan review fails. It made it super easy for the carpenter/stair maker to layout the stair and created a very comfortable foot placement on all treads:

 

[brr]

"Bedroom" is not defined in the code. In California, "sleeping accommodations" is defined as "rooms intended and designed for sleeping"
"Sleeping Unit" is a term used in IBC 202 to mean rooms that have provisions for sleeping [so this could include a bedroom], and "can" [but not "must"] include provisions for living; eating; and kitchen OR sanitation facilities, but not both (not kitchen AND sanitation).
A bedroom or sleeping area within a sleeping unit is a type of habitable space which must meet minimum room dimensions and met IBC 1031 for emergency escape and rescue openings.

So, the plans you have shown us would qualify in my state as a "zero bedroom sleeping unit", where zero bedroom is like a studio apartment, but without a kitchen. If you remove the barn door, the entire facility (except for the bathroom) qualifies as a place to sleep, whether downstairs or upstairs, crow's nest, whatever. the exit doors function as the EERO, so no window EERO is needed.

If the barn door is left on, our local municipality would treat that as a unique space that is separate form the rest of the loft, and it is too small to qualify as "habitable", therefore it must be made into storage or something else that is excluded form the IBC 202 definition of "Habitable Space".

If the owner wanted to get really clever, at time of re-inspection they could remove the mattress but leave the furniture base, which already has two drawers, qualifying it as "storage".

In our city, I recently overheard someone arguing with the code enforcement official who cited them for using their garage for habitation without a change in occupancy permit (the neighbor complained). The homeowner asked what evidence he had to claim it was used for sleeping.
Inspector: I saw a bed in there.
Homeowner: That's where I store my extra mattress.
Inspector: The bed had sheets on it.
Homeowner: To keep the dust off. Did you see anyone sleeping there?
Inspector: No.

In the end, the Owner changed the citation to failure to maintain access to the two covered parking spaces required by the city. The homeowner had installed a shed on the driveway in front of the garage door.

Thank you Yikes. I think you've assessed the situation very well (from your own AHJ point of view) and what you are saying makes sense. I've already advised the Owner to take off the door and let the chips fall where they may at inspection. I'll add that he should also remove the mattress.

Interestingly, when I saw the space just before the original build's final inspection, both beds did not have mattresses - I know because we took pictures. Perhaps, therefor, for the inspector, there was no bedroom evidence, just large storage furniture. But I suspect that the inspector may not have looked at the plans at the final to note the "Loft" label, and, like everyone else involved with the project, always assumed that the space was a sleeping area with the same logic you've applied and, with the absence of the sliding door, evaluated it as such.

 

[Yikes]

Thank you Yikes. I think you've assessed the situation very well (from your own AHJ point of view) and what you are saying makes sense.

Full disclosure, I am not an AHJ, I am a private architect. But I have provided assistance to AHJs on some of these issues, and have been under city contract for providing design and occasional code advice, which is why I have also heard the behind-the-scenes discussions at building departments about how these issues have been enforced.

 

[steveray]

Aren't there some new provisions for "sleeping lofts"? Seattle 2018