Deck Question - 30' Restriction
We’re renovating a brownstone and putting in a parlor floor deck with stairs to the garden. Doing it all up and up and legal, but we’re a little unsure of our architect’s code familiarity and we’d love advice. We know we have to leave 30′ of unobstructed yard behind the house, which leaves our deck…
We’re renovating a brownstone and putting in a parlor floor deck with stairs to the garden. Doing it all up and up and legal, but we’re a little unsure of our architect’s code familiarity and we’d love advice. We know we have to leave 30′ of unobstructed yard behind the house, which leaves our deck at about 10′ deep. What we’re not clear on is whether a spiral stair, that has no storage space beneath it, can penetrate the 30′ or not. As I said, insights would warrant tremendous gratitude..
From my personal experience –
You may not “need” to file with DOB but if you try to do significant other work, refinance, sell, or anything else that requires an inspection, survey, etc. and the deck is not known to DOB, you may have to try to legalize after the fact.
We coverted our one family w/o any C of O to a legal two family with a C of O and only because a prior survey showed the deck, we were grandfathered in and allowed to keep what would have been an otherwise illegal deck. We came very close to having to demolish but for the old survey.
Also, on propane, you can possess a canister, but you cant have it filled in New York City. The problem with using it on your backyard deck is its illegal to carry them through your house to get them there. We bring a crane in every few weeks to carry them over the house to the back yard. (just kidding on that last part)
You are allowed to have propane canisters in NY. The law prohibits them being filled inside NY City, so they transport full ones from outside the city and exchange them. That is ok(Home Depot and Loewe’s does it that way at least). You are just not supposed to store them inside your house. But I don’t understand what a filled canister has to do with a outside gas line….anyway
you know there is such a thing as excessive filing at the DOB. I don’t know anyone, yours truly included, who has filed at Buildings for permits for a rear deck. It may be different in a multiple dwelling or if you are doing a lot of other work, but for just an open rear deck, to barbecue on, I don’t think one needs too much bureaucratic involvement. Actually, if you went to the DOB for approval for a gas barbecue they would turn you down because you are not supposed to have gas canisters in the five boroughs.
To live succesfully in Brooklyn you gotta know when to paddle and when to coast.
you can also request a variance from the BSA…..lots of paper work involved in that one…
OP here, basking in the glory of being promoted to the main page. Thanks for the input, but I’m still confused about a couple of things. First off, our back lot is approx. 40′, which to my understanding means we can go 10′ off the house, no questions asked, leaving a 30′ yard. But can stairs off a deck that’s using this rule project into the yard, as they can with an 8′ deck?
And also, what does “no usable storage or building space mean?” If it’s just open space, does that count as usable storage space? We certainly plan on using it as such… Many thanks to all!
My understanding is that it can be as big as you want as long as you keep 22′ of your 30′ rear yard clear.
So, yes, putnam, 3 feet would be your deck.
My understanding is that it can be as big as you want as long as you keep 22′ of your 30′ rear yard clear.
So, yes, putnam, 3 feet would be your deck.
My deck is fourteen feet deep. I’m glad I built it before reading on this blog that one can only build an 8 foot deck…or how they shold be made of iron so as not to catch or spread fire.
All that talk may have discouraged me.
No, you’ve conflated some points.
Question I have is: what if yard is less than 30 feet to begin with – say, 25 feet. Can I build an 8 foot deck then? Or, following SenatorStreet, am I restricted to 30-8=22 feet from the back yard line, and thus my deck can only be 3 feet wide?