Mr Softy
Silver Member
House in question -
single family built under MA 7th Edition (based on 2003 IRC). basement ceiling height amended to allow 6-8 for habitable basements.
basement built is one large room with a ceiling height of 6-10 finish floor to finish ceiling. but.
there's a duct trunk line running down the center of the room which reduces the ceiling height to 6-0 under the soffitted duct (soffit is approximately 4' wide).
it has always been our interpretation that this disqualifies the entire basement space as habitable, as the projection is larger than that allowed by the exception (4").
it is the builders interpretation that the basement is still habitable, but that one does not include the space under the duct in the sq footage calculation for finshed space.
IRC commentary grants this measurement in the room dimension section, but then seems to disallow it in the ceiling height section.
anyone else come across this?
single family built under MA 7th Edition (based on 2003 IRC). basement ceiling height amended to allow 6-8 for habitable basements.
basement built is one large room with a ceiling height of 6-10 finish floor to finish ceiling. but.
there's a duct trunk line running down the center of the room which reduces the ceiling height to 6-0 under the soffitted duct (soffit is approximately 4' wide).
it has always been our interpretation that this disqualifies the entire basement space as habitable, as the projection is larger than that allowed by the exception (4").
it is the builders interpretation that the basement is still habitable, but that one does not include the space under the duct in the sq footage calculation for finshed space.
IRC commentary grants this measurement in the room dimension section, but then seems to disallow it in the ceiling height section.
anyone else come across this?