Egress route

[Marc]

Today's house has DIY written every which way you turn. It has a small bedroom with only one door and that door opens to the master bedroom. Can't even take a piss or get a drink of water without going thru the master bedroom.

Any applicable cites? I can't find anything.

How many years in this gig before I've seen it all?

Marc

[mjr6550]

May not be relevant, but I don't believe that FHA counts a room as a bedroom when you have to go though another bedroom to access it.

[Rob Amaral]

You will never see it all man.. never... !

-Toilet installed 'in the hall' (twice)

-Well (deep, lined with stone) 'in the kitchen' (1700's)

-1950's bomb shelter (sloped tube roughly 15' deep to in-ground 'submarine' like unit that held about 10 people.

.... . etc..

[kurt]

They're called tandem BR's around here. I recall some time way in the past where an egress path can't be through another room. It's got to be in a hallway or similar exit path.

No, it never stops.

[Jim Baird]

BR is supposed to have an egress window, opening min. 22" wide 24" high, 5.7 SF, or a door to outside. What you describe sounds to me like a walk in closet.

[gtblum]

I did a house with two doors for one bathroom. So what? The only way to the back bedroom was through the bathroom.

Not a good idea to be the last one up.

[Steven Hockstein]

Look at IRC 2009 (current residential code for our state)

Section 303 Habitable Rooms.

Section 304 Minimum Room Areas.

Section 310 Emergency Escape and Rescue Openings. (last sentence of R310.1 states that the opening from the sleeping room must open directly ....etc...)

[John Kogel]

BR is supposed to have an egress window, opening min. 22" wide 24" high, 5.7 SF, or a door to outside. What you describe sounds to me like a walk in closet.

Right. Somebody's put a bed in the closet is how I describe that. Then I watch for a reaction, ethics exam. []

[Tom Raymond]

I worked on a house that had 3 bedrooms on the ground floor. Go through bed 1 to get to bed 2, and through bed 2 to get to bed 3.

[Marc]

BR is supposed to have an egress window, opening min. 22" wide 24" high, 5.7 SF, or a door to outside. What you describe sounds to me like a walk in closet.

It has a window.

Marc

[Marc]

I did a house with two doors for one bathroom. So what? The only way to the back bedroom was through the bathroom.

Not a good idea to be the last one up.

The bathroom has one door and opens to the living room.

Marc

[Jim Baird]

BR is supposed to have an egress window, opening min. 22" wide 24" high, 5.7 SF, or a door to outside. What you describe sounds to me like a walk in closet.

It has a window.

Marc

I have also seen more than one closet with a window in it!

[Marc]

BR is supposed to have an egress window, opening min. 22" wide 24" high, 5.7 SF, or a door to outside. What you describe sounds to me like a walk in closet.

It has a window.

Marc

I have also seen more than one closet with a window in it!

I guess it's possible it was previously a large closet. That would downgrade it from 2 Bed/1 Bath to 1 Bed/1 Bath. It had a full size bed, chest o' drawers, other furniture. No closet. It's an addition done a couple decades ago. Original house was 1Bed/1Bath about 80 yrs old. Out in the boonies.

Marc

[Steven Hockstein]

Access into the room does not dictate if it is a legal sleeping room. The current code does not care if you have to go through a bedroom to access another bedroom. It may be poor design and a difficult social situation but the code does not determine that.

Aside from the requirements for habitable space, egress is the issue and the ability to get out in the event of a fire (or have a fireman enter into the room for a rescue).

The same logic applies to a basement sleeping room (bedroom). You may have to go through the kitchen to get to the basement door, down the basement stairs, and then through the basement recreation room to enter into the sleeping room. As long as the room meets the requirements for a safe and habitable space, and the room has the required egress, it is considered a legal sleeping room.