New basement ceiling height rule from the DOB
Anybody seen this?
“Reduces the required 8ft basement clearance height for two-family homes to 7ft to increase affordable housing opportunities.”
Seems like you could now raise the floor of your cellar to turn it into basement and get it over 50% aboveground. Right?
https://rew-online.com/nyc-pushes-through-massive-overhaul-of-construction-codes/
chemosphere
in General Discussion 3 years and 7 months ago
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9 replies
Lurker | 3 years and 7 months ago
@cate great point—they still have to deal with occupancy. Would it be too much to ask to lower the regulations around 3 family so they aren’t so onerous….. 😉
chemosphere | 3 years and 7 months ago
ahah, I see, I was mistaken about them being mostly 8 ft, they are mostly 7 feet. So yeah that would seem to make 1000s of them into legal space. So they could be duplexed as bedrooms (or even kitchen?) and part the of the 1st floor apartment above or made into a garden apartment and the top two floors could be duplexed. Wonder if the former requires a new C of O and whether that is going to trigger sprinklers.
cate | 3 years and 7 months ago
Lurker, are all the basements you describe more than 50 percent above grade from the curb? If so, terrific, then yes, if they meet a few other minor requirements, they have just been transformed into legal living space. ‘Course, the number of units still have to meet the house’s occupancy.
shahnandersen
in General Discussion 3 years and 7 months ago
@chemosphere. No that is not the typical 2 story + basement/cellar level configuration. I was pointing out that raising the cellar level’s floor 1 foot (raising the midpoint 6 inches) would in most cases not be enough to convert an existing cellar into a legal basement. And that’s even assuming that the cellar has full 8 foot high ceilings which is not that common.
Lurker | 3 years and 7 months ago
This is huge, and directly affects every home in our hood in south Brooklyn . They’re all 2 floor row houses with basement, no cellar. Basement is 7-7.5′ ceilings and window is about half that. Should allow for all the people already living in those spaces to have them legalized while ensuring potentially safer conditions going forward with renovations and so forth.
stevecym | 3 years and 7 months ago
Jane: As determined from where the curb sits. Without considering that, some may attempt to misconstrue a garden level entry that is level to the immediate surrounding grade but below the curb at the street as the first floor and not a basement. We have that here as our basement opens to a community driveway and if you enter through the back of the house, one might think it is the first floor. The first floor is what is at the top of the steps out front.
I think it is realitors who invented the term “garden” level and garden apartment because they found it difficult marketing houses where bedrooms are really in what is legally the basement.
So back to chemosphere, most brownstones seem to have the first floor or “parlor” floor at the top of the steps and one or two floors above that. Below is the garden level basement which in days past was where the staff worked and where the kitchen might have been, even with a small bedroom for a cook (in the big homes) or a dining room in the two story plus basement and cellar in the smaller homes. Even the doors in th ese under the stoop entrances are of lower quality as that is the servant’s and worker’s entry. Below the garden level basement is the cellar where today we often find a boiler and washer and dryer and some storage. So the 2 floor house plus cellar you mention often becomes 4 floors counting the cellar, basement and two floors above.
Guest User | 3 years and 7 months ago
@chemosphere the way DOB defines the cellar and basement are not interchangeable. Cellars are usually completely below grade and a basement is considered 50% above grade.
chemosphere | 3 years and 7 months ago
Isn’t that the typical arrangement for a 2 floor + cellar circa 1900 brick Brooklyn 2 fam row house?
shahnandersen
in General Discussion 3 years and 7 months ago
It is very unlikely that one has a cellar that currently has eight foot ceilings and also has 3.5 feet of the cellar space above legal grade. In that extraordinary case, what you suggest is probably possible.