Bedroom?

[Steve Schuck]

Can a bedroom open to the garage. I have a home that had a large laundry room. The owners split the area, put in a closet and now have a laundry room and a bedroom. The bedroom area has a door to the garage. Can this be considered a bedroom. Thank you for your input.

 

[JRS at OBX]

In general the room needs to be accessible to the main part of the house without going through unfinished or unheated area. If you have to walk through the garage to get from the bedroom to the kitchen or a bathroom I wouldn't count it as a bedroom.

 

[BarbaraNJ]

Steve:

The answer is .......It Depends.

In New Jersey, the Uniform Code throughout the State prohibits a room from being called/classified a bedroom if there is a door leading to a garage.

That having been said, if the home was built like that Before the Code prohibited it, it is permitted to remain unless there are modifications to the room, at which time it has to be brought "up to code".

You need to check the Building Code in your state (if any), since there were modifications made according to your inspection and the owner information. Also, my question would be : Was the work (reduction in laundry room size) done with the proper permits ???

If bedroom-to-garage is illegal in your state, it would have been caught by the building inspector at that time.

Just FYI, I am a NJ State licensed building inspector as well as an appraiser;
comes in handy when appraisals drop off (like now!!)

 

[Mztk1]

If it is supported in the market as a bedroom yes. I had an area I appraised, a retirement community, where a third bedroom in one particular model also had the escape door through the garage. The market viewed it has a third bedroom and it competed equally with other three bedrooms while houses in the market with just two bedroom sold for less.

But if you cannot support it, and if there is no measurable effect for the extra bedroom, I wouldn't knock myself out over it. I'd just call it a den that has the potential to be used as the added bedroom, and show at least one sale with a similar bedroom count and state there is no market preference.

 

[Ted Martin]

Does it have a window?

 

[Kevin A. Spellman]

If the floor levels are the same with the garage and the finish room, this is a safety issue. Typically garage floors are two-four inches below grade. The purpose of the garage floor to be lower is to allow the products of combustion from a vehicle to descend to the floor and go out through the garage door. If the finish living area is level with the garage floor, fumes can penetrate the living area.