Access through bedroom

[Jerry Simon]

Few days ago, saw a house where you had to go through a bedroom to get to the basement door. Wrote it up as odd at best. Old vacation house up on the Fox river, and as all around these parts know, that's pretty darn innocuous for the area.

Next day, did a house where you had to go through the finished basement's bedroom to get to the laundry room, same laundry room containing a closet for the water heater & furnace. Okay...

We're not on the IRC around here...local codes rule. But what do the national codes say about such cases? And, aside from being unusual and stupid, what problems might such layouts pose?

As always, thanks for any insight.

[Richard Moore]

It looks like all we are talking about is inconvenient layouts...and only then if the bedrooms are normally occupied. I don't think there would be anything in the national codes that would cover either case...as long as there are no other safety or habitability issues.

I had a new 3-story townhouse a little while back that had a small guest bedroom on the upper floor along with the master suite. The other guest bedroom and the only guest bathroom was on the lowest floor, with living/kitchen/powder room on the second. For anyone in that upper guest bedroom to take a shower, they either had to go through the master bedroom to get to that bathroom, or traipse down 2 floors to the lower level. We all agreed it was a "odd" design, but it fit their use as a older couple planning on using the room as an office.

Most buyers will already be aware of inconvenient layouts, but I do still think it's good to point them out and/or discuss tarring and feathering the architect. Just not really a reportable "repair" item.

[charlieb]

The appraisal should identify the layouts as functionally obsolescent. This is not to say I would not mention it as I worked with the client.