Making a 2nd Bedroom from Living Room
Hi all, I am hoping for some advice on a planned addition of a wall to our current 1BR co-op in BH. When we purchased the place about 1.5 years ago, it was advertised as a convertible 2BR. Currently, the 1 BR is 17′ x 14′, and the living room is 22′ x 14′. We…
Hi all,
I am hoping for some advice on a planned addition of a wall to our current 1BR co-op in BH.
When we purchased the place about 1.5 years ago, it was advertised as a convertible 2BR. Currently, the 1 BR is 17′ x 14′, and the living room is 22′ x 14′.
We would like to cut the living room from the above size to 14′ x 14′, leaving the 2nd BR around 8′ x 14′. (3 of 4 walls are there, we would only need to add one wall) The room would have a window, so I believe it would qualify as a bedroom (right?). Ceiling height is 8′. We definitely need the 2nd BR.
The questions are:
1) Should we do a solid wall (meaning bring in architect, buildings dept, etc.=higher $) or one of those temporary type walls (free standing, sliding, etc.)(not sure if we need all of the above for this and I am sure overall price is cheaper)?
2) If we did the temp wall and put it on the market, could we advertise it as a 2BR? Would we make more money if the wall was temporary or a true wall.
3) What would you do based on the space and the cost?
Thanks in advance.
Well, some buyers might prefer a 2-bedroom, and some might see the floor plan (as I see many) and say – hmmm – don’t like that wall there cutting up the nice big living room, I wish it wasn’t there – I’ll have to consider taking it down (and the expense and hassle of that.) I love those living rooms the size of yours, with space for a formal dining table, and would hesitate to move into a place where it had been cut up, especially if there wasn’t an actual separate dining room.
Some of these flooplans do look and feel cut up when you add walls. I think you preserve more possibilities for the next buyer by not making it permanent – one can buy it, as you did, as convertible.
So, don’t worry about what you need to do for selling – do what suits you best in for time you’ll live there. If you really need a 2nd bedroom, then by all means just do it.
If you just want to delinate a separate space (for office, guest room, baby’s room but you don’t intend to stay there long term), and don’t really need a second bedroom per se, then consider something more temporary that still gives you wall division.
There are nice tall room dividers that do that, and give you storage and bookshelves and/or media equipment space while doing so. There are those really temporary walls that renters put up that don’t mar the walls or ceilings and are easily taken out (check out past Times articles on companies that do this in NY if you don’t know what I’m talking about – they are essentially room dividers that function as walls, and I don’t think they are the kind of think coop boards, or the fire department, object to – as they are essentially room dividers with a door in them – though I don’t know for certain). And, if you are making a workspace, there’s clever furniture placement that delinates the space nicely letting the light and air move through, without tall room dividers. And there’s always fabric dividers.
Oh, and you can advertise however you like – there are no rules, and no requirement to be very honest in apartment descriptions.
Thank you SmokeyChimp. I suspect there is a more than likely chance they might not allow a temporary wall, thus, leaving us no choice but to make it permanent (which is fine). I will check.
Also, the living room would still have one window, so we are probably fine over there too.
Others, feel free to comment.
Oh also to the question of qualifying as a bedroom — a bedroom must have a minimum dimension of 8′ in each dimension and be at least 80 square feet total, with a window that has a glazed area minimum 10% of the square footage of the room (light and air requirement). So it seems like your described space may comply as a legal second bedroom. Your living room would need a window too with the same light and air area requirement.
Try to call twin builders I used them they did a grate job 347-645-1508
Peter
These questions might be determined for you by your coop — the coop may require you to file it. Most coops that use a management agency prefer to only approve renovation projects when they are permitted by the DoB. Remember a coop board has very little to gain from approving your project, and lots of liability if they approve your project and you are supposed to file it and don’t. This makes for a very conservative climate on the issue right now — I have seen some coops require filings for things as small as adding a closet to a bedroom.
According to DoB procedure, a permit is required whenever a wall is added to a space (or removed for that matter). You are right to suggest that this process would be more expensive because this then requires permits, filings, a stamp from an arch’t or PE.
You might think that the process is excessive and overkill. But the DoB looks on adding a wall without a permit as a serious safety issue, particularly after the firemen were killed in The Bronx three years ago when they were trapped in a building that had illegal walls blocking their escape route.