Forum Archive: Fire

Just wondering what this is all about. Photo taken this morning on Myrtle and Bedford area.

I will start a renovation and would like to expose the beams in the kitchen/dining area section of the house. Since I want to have some space for sound insulation, probably I would expose around 4 inches of the beams. Upstairs would be the bedroom area.

Is there any fire code limitations? Somebody told me that the beams can’t be exposed, that the DOB code doesn’t let you do it because of ‘fire hazards’. Any facts would be greatly appreciated.
(see attached picture for some samples of the look I would like to achieve if the DOB thinks it’s OK).

Hello everyone!

Hoping someone can point to a regulation or something to clarify when sprinklers are required.

My wife and I are looking at a 4 story (garden plus 3 stories) Brownstone. In the house we looked at, it has a sprinkler system handing down about 6 inches from the ceiling through all of the common hallways and into the top two floors’ living areas.

The unit is/was apparently classified as an SRO. We’d be using it as a 3 family (garden plus parlor, then rentals on 2nd and 3rd floor) or potentially a 4 family with each floor a seperate unit.

I’ve never seen sprinklers, at least not that out in the open, on any of the other properties that we’ve looked at.

So, my question is, is there some requirement for these that I should know about? They are really ugly. It might be possible to build some type of covering on them to make them less so, but I’d rather just remove them if it is legal. This is the only place we have seen that is/was an SRO, so I’m wondering if that had something to do with it.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

We are in the process of buying a house in Park Slope. The Engineer inspected the house today and found evidence of fire damage in the roof. The roof joists are quite heavily charred. The house has been renovated and the sellers said that they had no prior knowledge of the fire, which I find hard to believe, considering the level of charring on the joists was quite obvious. The sellers have renovated several houses in the area, so they’re not stupid. The Seller spoke to his attorney and amazingly he came up with a fire report, dating back to 1968 that the fire started in an upstairs kitchen. The Sellers are not prepared to open up the roof and repair the charred joists as they said this fire was 40 years ago and was signed off by the State. What do you think we should do? Would you ask for more money off the selling price and tackle the problem yourself? Would you get a 2nd opinion from another engineer? Would you walk away?

has anyone ever had the Fire Dept show up at their house for an inspection? my 3rd floor tenant just told me that they showed up a few weeks ago…he let them in. they made a few suggestions (keep roof hatch unlocked, fire escape step missing) and asked HIM what kind of heating system we had? huh?
then they left without leaving any paperwork or documentation for the me the owner! weird!
anyone else had this happen?

Can someone recommend a firewood supplier that is cheaper than The Woodman?

The house I am living is a 3-story house, and I found out that the whole house has no fire escape and sprinkler system. Regarding the safety of the tenants, I want to know if it’s illegal in this situation b/c there are 10 people living on the 3rd floor, 7 people living on the 2nd floor. Also, i would like to know if it’s illegal for the 3rd floor to have 10 peoples living inside (isn’t that too much?) even though the 2nd and 3rd floor have been changed into 2 SRO each?
thanks

Our 4-story pre-war co-op has tiny little balconies, but no fire escapes, for the rear apartments. Incredibly, this isn’t a code violation, but we want to make the apartments safer. Any thoughts on the detachable ladders that are out there on the market as fire escape alternatives? Thanks!

I was replacing a sprinkler head and tightened it too much. I now have a hairline crack in a “T” fitting on the wet system. Does anyone have a good person to call to fix this? and reasonable prices? Is there any way to fix this myself?