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01-25-2020, 08:06 PM #1
Is heat required in Bathrooms in Pennsylvania?
I have a tricky situation. We are trying to sell a home in Pennsylvania and the bathrooms do not have heat. The house has central air(HVAC) and it is impossible to reach the bathrooms with ducts(beams on the way).
Do the bathrooms need a dedicated heating outlet as per regulation?
As per FHA requirements?
As per conventional loan requirements?
As per buyer inspection guidelines?
As per appraisal requirements, will the bathrooms square footage be added to the appraisal? Is it normally added?
Both bathrooms are adequately heated because the house is insulated and the heating system is top notch. One of the bathrooms has a small portion that is on a exterior wall. The other is fully interior(Although one side of wall is adjacent to the shared wall with the neighbor)
I really appreciate your help
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01-27-2020, 09:24 PM #2
Re: Is heat required in Bathrooms in Pennsylvania?
Jack,
I am going to reply without having actually looked this up. To the best of my knowledge, homes are required to be heated, but I do not remember anything about specific rooms. It is not uncommon to see laundry areas, hallways, and other utility type areas without heater vents. I inspect existing homes that have wall heaters centrally located. These generally do not have direct heat in a bathroom, but still are considered heated. A home inspector might or might not make a note that he/she did not find heater registers in bathrooms. I cannot speak to loan requirements.
Department of Redundancy Department
Supreme Emperor of Hyperbole
http://www.FullCircleInspect.com/
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01-28-2020, 07:45 AM #3
Re: Is heat required in Bathrooms in Pennsylvania?
To add to what Gunnar said:
Not that I ever heard, but I did very few FHA loan houses.
As per conventional loan requirements?
As per buyer inspection guidelines?
As per appraisal requirements, will the bathrooms square footage be added to the appraisal? Is it normally added?
The various areas are added together to get total area (basically total area under roof), however, each type of area has a different value - living areas have a higher value than garage areas, etc.
Regarding codes, though, bathrooms are part of the living area, but are not considered habitable space, and only habitable space is required to have heat.
You said: "The house has central air(HVAC) and it is impossible to reach the bathrooms with ducts(beams on the way)." You can add heat by replacing an exhaust fan with an exhaust fan which also has a heat option (that would provide heat in a bathroom which does not have a heat supply from a central system) if you wanted to add heat to a bathroom. The "heat option" in the exhaust fan may be electric strip heat (heats the air in the bathroom, but it takes a while to heat the bathroom up that way) or heat lamp (which only heats what the heat lamp shines on, such as a person standing under the heat lamp, move to the side of the heat lamp and the person no longer feels the heat from the heat lamp).
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01-29-2020, 12:21 PM #4
Re: Is heat required in Bathrooms in Pennsylvania?
Tongue in cheek question...: How about those "old" homes that are still heated by fireplaces or the old fashioned pot bellied coal burning stoves? You old guys remember those? Have to "rotisserie" yourself in front of them to stay warm.. Just asking..
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01-29-2020, 01:45 PM #5
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03-26-2020, 11:48 AM #6
Re: Is heat required in Bathrooms in Pennsylvania?
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03-26-2020, 01:17 PM #7
Re: Is heat required in Bathrooms in Pennsylvania?
Start here: https://codes.iccsafe.org/category/I-Codes
Click on Free IRC at the IRC thumbnail.
Then go to Chapter 2 Definitions, scroll down to "Habitable Space":
The [RB] indicates that it is in the Residential Code and in the Building Code volumes.
Habitable Space. A space in a building for living, sleeping, eating or cooking. Bathrooms, toilet rooms, closets, halls, storage or utility spaces and similar areas are not considered habitable spaces.
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04-02-2020, 07:36 PM #8
Re: Is heat required in Bathrooms in Pennsylvania?
Heat is not required in a bathroom or laundry room as long as the room is not on an outside wall, if there is a conditioned space all around the room it is not required.
Dan Hagman ACI
ProSite Home Inspections
Des Moines, Iowa
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04-03-2020, 05:33 AM #9
Re: Is heat required in Bathrooms in Pennsylvania?
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