Oil furnace in hallway

[starkmojo]

Hi I have a question that has been bugging me and I cannot seem to find a good answer. My house had a garage I converted into 2 bedrooms and a TV room. Problem was the furnace was right by the door to the house so I just blocked it off from the other rooms making it a hallway between my living room and the new TV room (the bedrooms open off the TV room) using 5/8 fire rated drywall and a 2 hour fire rated door. The furnace is oil burning, sealed flame, air intake from outside vented through a chimney in the roof. I put CO detectors in the hallway, TV room and each bedroom, and each bedroom has a window that can be used as an egress as well as the TV room has an egress window. I wasnt worried about dealing with the city but I decided to have a woodstove installed and my homeowners insurance requires it be permitted. If the building inspector sees what I did to the garage can he call me on anything?

I could put up a wall (there is a door to the outside by furnace) and leave an ADA compliant hallway betweenn the rooms, but I am worried about making working on the furnace difficult. if I did that the furncae space would be 72"x60"

[Steven Hockstein]

Most towns in this area require that there be a garage as part of a single family home. I have heard about people being forced to convert living space back into garage space and have been fined for improper construction after performing changes like you did. You should read your local land use ordinance.

[kurt]

You're off the reservation and it's hard to know what might happen. I'd have to be fluent in Eugene OR zoning and building codes to know, which I'm not.

I'd say forget the wood stove for the time being and do a lot of homework.

[John Kogel]

Depending on whether the inspector from town is super anal or super reasonable, a whole bunch of scenarios are possible. Ask him if he has a recommendation for your furnace room.

If your woodstove installation is compliant with the regulations, I would leave everything the way it is for now. Talk to the inspector about it, and get it right with him. Then you are in the clear with your insurance people as well, everything is approved.

What about just putting up some louvered dividers to separate the furnace from the hall?

[Jim Katen]

Just walk into the building department and ask them. They might tell you that they'll wear blinders and only look at the woodstove.

If they tell you that the inspector will be obliged to bring up the illegal garage conversion, then get a retroactive permit and make it legal.

By the way, if you ever have a claim that's related to that illegal conversion, your insurance company might decline coverage.