BEFORE THE ARCHITECT – HOME DESIGNING BACKGROUND – UNIQUE HOME DESIGNING ARTICLES

SLEEPING AREA HOME SAFETY 

By Before The Architect  Copyright 2005-2009 Before The Architect

So now, let's see if I've got this right.  We're to stop using pressure-treated lumber for the more environmentally friendly polyvinyl chloride and truck tire mash?  Well, at least we'll be seeing more 6s and 8s in Southern Yellow Pine.  Sometimes I think I'm the butt end of a cosmic confusion, that this isn't the planet for which I was intended.  That somewhere way, way out there a table is set each day for a meals uneaten and a bed is prepared each night and not slept in.  That in the great beyond there's an old man who looks sort of like me, and he's sitting on a park bench wondering why so very much makes so very little sense.  Before The Architect

INTRODUCTION

HOME DESIGN SAFETY - SLEEPING AREA (that's you and I talking), or SLEEP AREA (that's code talking) SAFETY

1)     Each sleeping, or sleep, area

     whether

       designated or

ii)      proposed or

iii)    potential

b)      shall have not less than 2 ways for an occupant to egress

c)       1 of which shall be a window 

       not less than 5.7 square feet OPENABLE surface area on upper floors

ii)      not less than 5.0 square feet openable surface area on ground-level floor

iii)    openable width shall not be less than 20 linear inches

iv)    openable height shall not be less than 24 linear inches

v)      with sill top of face not greater than 44 linear inches over finish floor level (or over finish grade level)

Comment:  Please be aware that each building authority having jurisdiction can adjust these metrics at will and at least one has.

vi)    with not less than the 5.7 square feet area shall be reduced to 5.0 square feet

d)      if a window’s openable area is lockable

       then the locking mechanism shall be operable from the interior

(1)   without tools or keys and

(2)   be clearly identifiable

e)      if the window’s openable area is obstructed by window guards, security bars, grilles, or grates

       then these obstructions shall be releasable to completely clear the openable surface

(1)  without use of tools or keys and

(2)  the release mechanisms shall be maintained operable and the window shall be maintained openable

f)       with access –

       directly to the emergency exit and

ii)      not through another space

Comment:  Herewith, access not through another space can create truly difficult design moments whereat there’s no apparent design-way out.  For example and particularly, consider a newborn just home.  Where shall the little one sleep?  Possibly, there’ll be a nursery already laid out….in a closet….with one door and no egress window, likely no window at all.  The only firm resolution to which AG and The Missus have come is behavioral – sleep the baby with the parents in the early days, use the nursery for late-hour attendance to the little one’s needs.  This example is the only one the AG and The Missus have encountered so far that could not be resolved with appropriate and reasonable alternative design.

g)     with the outside area beyond the exit

       measuring from the window sill’s top of face and

ii)     measuring on the horizontal

iii)   shall not be less than the window’s width and

iv)   shall not be less than 4 linear feet in depth

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