Paul and everyone else,
It seems to me that it is more about how the space is going to be used then whether it has a door or not.
A few years ago NJ DCA issued a FTO (Formal Technical Opinion) regarding the use of museums and science centers and other spaces not originally intended to be used as bedrooms for use by groups like the Boy Scouts for overnight "camp outs". They decided that such buildings could be used for no more than 8 days per year for "sleep over" trips unless the spaces meets all of the requirements of spaces designed for sleeping, i.e. egress windows, smoke detectors, etc.
Our Troop was told we couldn't spread sleeping bags out on the dining hall floor of our own local council's camp for a winter camp-out because it had been used too many times already that year. So, it seems that they decided that the bedroom use was an acceptable incidental use as long as it was only used that way occasionally.
I wonder if my local code official would cite me a violation if he knew I often take power naps at my desk in the afternoon. Clearly Code Officials often overstep their authority by interpreting the code instead of merely enforcing it. If there's a question about interpretation, you should speak to DCA.
You could design a room as attic storage without doors, egress windows, smoke detectors, etc. and it would be perfectly fine, until you use it as a room to sleep in. So it is not about the configuration of the room so much as it is about how you use the room. But once you do use a room not designed as a bedroom to sleep in, you are in violation of your certificate of occupancy. Unenforceable in reality, but a violation nonetheless.
Things are rarely a problem, until they become a problem. I wrote an expert report involving a wrongful death lawsuit because a home owner rented out an illegal basement apartment that required a key to exit (dead-bolted door) and a man died of smoke inhalation when a fire he lit from an unattended cigarette got out of control. There were no windows that qualified as emergency escape and no smoke detectors. The bulkhead door to the exterior and an interior door that led to the first floor apartment were both dead-bolted and the occupant was too drunk to find a key. The space would have been perfectly acceptable as storage, just not as a bedroom. So maybe the legal definition you are looking for is not in any legislation or regulation but rather could be found in applicable case law.
As a practicing architect, not just someone who writes liability reports all day long, I would not opt to go the route of trying to avoid calling a room a bedroom in order to save a few dollars for any client. Of course, owners often do whatever they want once the C. of O. is obtained.
In any case, it seems ridiculous that they would ask you to remove an emergency escape sized window as if having a smaller window would prevent you from using a space to sleep. I don't see the logic in making a room less safe in order to avoid it looking like a bedroom. Those windows are there to allow fire fighters to more easily get into your house while wearing breathing apparatus, not so you can jump out (although you could if you want to).
We need to remember that the only thing our license protects is our right to be sued. It's really the only thing that separates us from those without a license; our ability to take on the responsibility for assuring the health, safety and welfare of the occupants of the buildings we design for human habitation.
How you turn that into a value proposition, rather than just another unnecessary expense for a reluctant owner is your personal business decision. I think I've been pretty successful at that.
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David Del Vecchio AIA
Architect
David Del Vecchio, Architect, LLC
Cranford NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-18-2012 07:38
From: Paul Kiss
Subject: Bedroom: is there a legal definition?
We just went through this in Margate, NJ. In this case if there is no closet and no door it's not a bedroom. We've run into this many times over the years and the answer seems to be up to the local official, as it varys from town to town. We've asked the DCA (the agency that oversees codes in NJ), and ICC and there is no formal definition.
No door and no closet seems to be the most common way, but in one case we had to reduce a window so it did not meet egress(!)
Hope this helps...
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Paul Kiss AIA
Principal
Olivieri, Shousky & Kiss, P.A
Pennington NJ
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-17-2012 14:56
From: Michael Malinowski
Subject: Bedroom: is there a legal definition?
This message has been cross posted to the following Discussion Forums: Codes and Standards and Housing Knowledge Community .
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Is anyone aware of a definition of 'bedroom' in federal or some national based regulation? I'm trying to determine if a loft sleeping mezzanine can be counted as a 'bedroom' in an publicly subsidized affordable housing project.
I know there are many definitions of bedroom related to septic system demand (varies a lot by jurisdiction), and some definitions along similar lines which reference closets and egress windows in local zoning ordinances and ccr's. Egress windows and closets are not required in the building code for 'sleeping mezzanines'. The building code has minimum dimensions for a bedroom ... but it does not define the term as requiring a 'door' to distinguish it from a 'studio unit' as far as I can tell.
Thanks for any leads.
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Michael Malinowski AIA
AIA Director - California Region
Applied Architecture, Inc.
Sacramento CA
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