Stairs from parlor level to garden level
Hello All, I own a 4 family brownstone and is considering removing the stairs from the parlor level to the garden level. The garden level has it’s own entrance and exit. I want to remove the enclosed stairs all together to save some room on the garden level. Does any one know if the building…
Hello All, I own a 4 family brownstone and is considering removing the stairs from the parlor level to the garden level. The garden level has it’s own entrance and exit. I want to remove the enclosed stairs all together to save some room on the garden level. Does any one know if the building code require a staircase to the garden floor level?
sounds like other people have done this before but added an back exit from the parlor apartment to the back of the building. my parlor apartment has one egress which is the door but I have a sprinkler system in my hallway. from reading some of the docs, and sprinkler system can be counted as another egress. Technically, even though I will only have 1 door exit, the sprinkler can be counted as my second.
Do you think it’ll be a good idea to do the renovation and then file for the paper work. Or should I file for the paperwork and then do the renovation.
My understanding is that egress requirements are directly related to use and occupancy. It certainly was an issue in our multi-family, even with sprinklers throughout building and direct exits to outdoors on every floor. Smokychimp’s qualifiers are important. The Means of Egress chapter of the building code can be found at: http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dob/downloads/bldgs_code/bc27s6.pdf
GKW, I am not sure if you are referring to a basement under the ground floor, which we do not have in our house. We have a five story house, the anglo-italianate kind with a double parlor and gallery on the 2nd floor, and a very large kitchen and dining room on the first floor with a low stoop. We chose to create a rental apartment on the ground floor We did have an architect on the project, but I don’t recall him commenting on that particular issue in terms of code. Of course, it would not be difficult to put in the stairs again if we decided we wanted to keep the ground floor. We would just lose the closets. We did put a deck off our kitchen level, so we would have egress, but it was not required.. I think in a house you have egress in other places, like a roof, perhaps. The egress is not per floor, but per unit. So, I believe the egress is only an issue for the ground floor apartment. Of course, if the parlor floor is itself a separate apartment, that might be an issue.
Homey – so you gave up access to the basement?
As with homey. No, we didn’t actually remove any structural elements, jut cleared out most of the stairs, so our usual handyman did the work. Resulted in a small hall closet and a huge closet for the apartment below.
As for egress, I’d install a fire escape off your place.
AIR DISTRIBUTION garden apartment. And, as a result, we were able to create a huge amount of closet space where the stairs had been both on the ground and first floor. SInce both floors have egress. http://www.estore.silversheet.net/AIR DISTRIBUTION
Thanks for the replies! homey did you get an architect to check your design before you remove the stairs? I have a sprinkler system for my building and the parlor apartment only have 1 egress , which is the front door. But my garden apartment have two egress, one in the front and one in the back.
We did this for our garden apartment. And, as a result, we were able to create a huge amount of closet space where the stairs had been both on the ground and first floor. SInce both floors have egress to the back, it was no problem. It was a great solution for our house. Good luck
the code’s not that specific. It’s likely, from your description, that you can do this. What’s important is that every point in the building have two means of egress, so if the stair between the garden and parlor is one of those means of egress then you couldn’t. But it sounds like your stair isn’t an egress route perhaps.