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July 27, 2009
Creating Habitable Cellar?
I have an accepted offer on a loft space, ground floor in a 15 unit renovated building. There is a cellar beneath the unit. The ceiling heights on the first floor are 12 ft. and around 6 ft. in the cellar. I am wondering (prematurely, I am sure a contractor during inspection can tell me) if I can raise the floor/cellar ceiling and use the cellar as habitable space. Not to rent out, just to have 2nd bedroom, bathroom and office. I was also thinking of knocking out part of the floor altogether to bring light down there from above. Anyway my question is will this be counted as sellable square footage if I ever resell? (ceiling will be around 8+feet in cellar, but no direct window light or exit).
Comments
why not dig down to acheive the higher ceiling height? instead of raising your floor?
we have a usable cellar and it is not counted as sellable square footage. sorry.
Posted by: bkny at July 27, 2009 1:55 PM
That's a major job & there are many ways it could go. So many issues to deal w/ -board permission, dob, etc. - it's a bit of a broad topic to respond to.
Posted by: Arkady at July 27, 2009 1:56 PM
This would be a lot easier to accomplish if you owned the building outright versus what I suspect is a condo ownership structure. Raising your existing floor would create a lot of problems (i.e. you would most likely have to entirely redo your electrical and plumbing).
Posted by: pHdesign at July 27, 2009 2:17 PM
I cannot imagine a situation in which a condo association woudl allow this -- the potenial harm to the rest of the structure is too great.
Posted by: BH76 at July 27, 2009 4:07 PM
bottom line is that dob req you to have 35% sunlight to be habitable
Posted by: bblamchops at July 27, 2009 7:50 PM
there is no way that you can create a legal habitable space in these circumstances..you would be creating an illegal space.. no way the dob would approve it, so you would be putting yourself in the path of litigation by anyone buying the space from you..
Posted by: eman1234 at July 27, 2009 8:57 PM
hmmm. hard to believe it would be illegal. Wouldn't it just be a cellar with a high ceiling?
Posted by: cottontop at July 27, 2009 10:21 PM
The easiest way is to dig out the cellar floor. Will the condo association allow this?? It will never become legallly habitable space nor could you sell it as such but you could certainly use it.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at July 28, 2009 8:19 AM
There's a difference between habitable and usable space. No matter how deep you make the cellar, it will never qualify as habitable—i.e., the room could never be used as a legal bedroom, but might qualify for use as an office or recreation room. No guarantee that either the condo association or the DOB will approve raising ceiling/floor, or excavating cellar. Either way, engineering, approval and construction will be expensive propositions. For basic cellar/basement info, see: http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/owners/illegal-conversions.shtml
Posted by: vinca at July 28, 2009 9:16 AM
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