Yard Access from Second Story
My wife and I are purchasing a four-story brownstone with another couple (my sister and her husband). It will be configured as a double duplex – each family getting two floors. There is a backyard, which the lower duplex will have easy access to via the garden level or the parlor level deck. We are…
My wife and I are purchasing a four-story brownstone with another couple (my sister and her husband). It will be configured as a double duplex – each family getting two floors. There is a backyard, which the lower duplex will have easy access to via the garden level or the parlor level deck. We are trying to figure out how to give the upper duplex private access to the yard from the second story, but we’re not sure how this will work. We would like each duplex to be totally separate and not access the yard through the parlor floor. We are envisioning a small balcony with a staircase going down to the parlor floor deck, but it seems like this might be not be to code. Does anyone have any experience with this and/or any suggestions?
My neighbors erected a terrific second story deck some years ago. They had garden tenants, the parlor floor wasn’t appropriate for some reason and they decided to use the second floor. The owner was an architect, and he designed a rounded balcony supported by (I think) 3 long columns which enclosed a large spiral stairway.
I am sure this was extremely expensive, but it was a beautiful solution.
Hey I understand what your contractor is saying about the steep stairs but I think it can be done in the way a fire escape is constructed i.e. all solid steel with 2 turns per level.
You can design and build a 2 storey deck off the Palor and second floor and incorporated steel stairs running down one side all the way down to the yard. This will be a relatively easy solution but can cost around $30K if the deck will take up the whole width of the property…18 to 22feet. Remember the deck foundation here needs to be at least 4 to 5 feet deep given the double load from such a structure. Hope this helps and good luck.
why not just do a roof deck and forget the garden access? also, the top floor buyers should definitely be paying less!
Just get your architect to design it to meet code. If you want it to be to the lot line, then at least a portion of it will need to be non-combustible.
Thanks for your response. Here’s some more info – the contractor says that stairs from the second floor would not be to code – I’m not totally clear why at this point – and it would have to be done after closing. But he is recommending against it because he feels that stairs from the second floor down to the parlor floor deck will be quite steep, even if they are spiral stairs. We don’t necessarily agree with this assessment, and are thinking about requesting either a juliet balcony or a small deck on the second floor that we can then build stairs from down to either the parlor floor deck or the yard itself. The interior stairs is something I hadn’t thought of, but I wonder if it’s possible to do that without taking up too much space and still keeping each unit separate.
Why is it not to code? Is it because that the stairs is not permitted obstruction in open space or other reasons? I believe there are many ways to do this. If you are reconfiguring the layout, you can also consider to build an interior stairs to garden level. I have done a similar design a long time ago, it didn’t take too much space since it was not an egress stairs. I can’t really suggest much cause the information is very limited.