What is a Secondary Suite Basement? Basic Building Code Requirements?

hello welcome to the channel in this video we are going to talk about secondary suite so it's also called legal suite or in-law suite so it is a self-contained dwelling that is a part of a house this is usually built with the existing single dwelling unit or this can be also built with the new build house so this video will be helpful to you if you're buying a new house and you want to make sure that your basement will meet the secondary suite guidelines down the road in future if you want to build it or you're already living in a house and you're planning to build your secondary suite and you want to know if your house has all the minimum requirements for the secondary suite so i've already mentioned the definition of secondary suite now we will be talking about the basic and the code requirements that you need to have in the house to get your permit and the inspection pass for your secondary suite so in the requirements first i will talk about the minimum requirement of unfinished basement so you can see it or you can calculate it without being your basement finished so these will be the basic before starting requirement of your basement and then i will talk about the requirements that you must have when your basement is finished so the first basic requirement is to have a direct exit to the outside so this means there should be a separate entrance door that directly leads the basement occupant to the outside in case of wire now the second requirement is the ceiling height so it is 1.95 meter or 78 inches of height for unfinished basement and now the third requirement is that the each bedroom space must have one minimum window and it must be of unabstracted size not less than 0.35 meters square or 543 inch square and the minimum dimension that it must have is 15 inches so now as mentioned for the measurements of the basement window that must be in your bedroom so the opening so that means the slider part so if this one opens completely and the open portion that goes out should not be less than 543 inches square okay and then the minimum dimensions for the window either the top or the sideway that opens should be 15 inches i measured the window so from top to bottom this window is 26.5 inches and from this side to this it's 24 inches so now if i calculate it it goes to 636 square inches so we meet the guideline in that way and then also as per the other guideline it's the opening should not be less than 15 inches so in that case this side is 24 this is 26.5 inches so we meet that guideline as well and now we will talk about the window bell guideline from the outside so now the second code is that the window that's the opening here and that point and the window well that axis should be minimum 30 inches so when i measure it i'll show you so it is set at 30.5 inches so you're safe to go then there's another scenario sometime it happens that there is a cantilever above the window so we will discuss that as well so now there's another example here if you see on the fixed side of the window there's a cantilever but if that cantilever was on this side where the slider opens then it won't pass the inspection right so if you see now that the x is that where a person or a occupant need to come out it's completely open so you will be safe with this kind of uh code i mean sorry this kind of window and sorry yeah he just wanted to say hi now if you see this window it's completely covered by the cantilever so if the window well was normal here it won't pass the inspection so now the window well is extended so i will measure it and tell you how long it is so this window well is 58 inches so that means now after the cantilever there is enough space for us to pass the code and inspection so now the three things we just discussed that's the outside door ceiling height and the window in your bedroom are the minimum requirements that you must look for before starting your basement or before applying for the permit of your basement and now we will discuss for more that you will need to add in your secondary suite and i will explain those as well so now the first one will be your mechanical room so mechanical room is where there is furnace whole water tank that can cause a possible fire in case of any malfunctioning must be properly sealed and covered with half inch drywall and if there's any place where you can't put drywall like if there's any duct going on and you finish the drywall but there's still a space you must uh seal it with fire rated spray foam or fire rated insulation to make the mechanical room properly sealed and also the door leading to your mechanical room area or mechanical space must be 32 inches wide then doors in the smoke tight barrier areas such as mechanical room or any mechanical space and also between the house and the basement must be made up of solid core wood 45 mm which is a fire rated door and then also it should be self-closing and sealed around with a weatherstrip as mentioned in the definition that secondary suite is self-contained so that also mean that the secondary suite must have its own independent heating and ventilation system so now for that one the ind the heating system can be anything homeowner can uh can explore their options to minimize the coast but the control for that heating system must be in the secondary suite and it can be controlled by the occupant and then for the ventilation system it is to minimize the contaminants in the basement air so especially if there's any uh fumes like radon fumes and then cigarettes and all those stuff so it must be quickly ventilated so that occupant can control its own uh ventilation system then also a secondary suite must have interconnected smoke and carbon monoxide alarm and that should be interconnected between the basement unit and the main house so just in case if there's a fire on the main floor sorry i mean in the main house or the basement then all the occupants of the house are alarmed and then they can exit the property as soon as possible and there is also a code for sound transmission between the main building which is the main house and then the secondary suite so it has to be uh separated so that the noise transfer is minimized so there are multiple criterias so it can be either engineer stamped acoustic design that will follow the minimum of astc 47 rating or it can be finished with another method that can have a minimum rating of stc 50 and then the the least or the simplest way is to follow which is called a prescriptive method uh and then it then you have to use a batch which is a sound uh absorbing material so bad insulation so you have to uh fill it between the joists space and then put the resilient channels on the joists on the bottom of the joists and then put the drywall on the top so what this will do is this will minimize the noise being transferred but make sure that during this process the air return joises or the air return vents are not not blocked by the uh bad insulation so there's also a requirement to have three car parking on your driveway and the garage so as you see house number one the garage is double car garage and two cars can fit inside and one car can fit on the driveway but on the on the other side house two there is only single cargo rod so one car can fit inside the garage one on the driveway so this house will not qualify to get the permits for secondary suite now at the end we will talk about the benefits of secondary suite so it's great benefit for homeowners tenants and even your community or you can say your city homeowners are building secondary suite ads as an extra income which can help them with their mortgage so it raised the property value so now also if you're reselling the house a buyer will prefer a house with finished secondary suite so they can rent it right away or they can also use it for their extended family for tenants or the community it's really optioned as a affordable housing so they are getting all the um benefits of a house like kitchen washroom all the appliances everything but at a lower cost also as secondary suite comes with benefit there's also a disadvantage but if you overall look at it it won't be so when you when you build a secondary suite your value of the property goes up plus there's an additional a property tax on your house because there's a second household now and then also your uh coast for uh garbage collection will go up because there's a second address or the second household as well but this gets covered with the rent from your basement and then you can settle it out but i just wanted to mention that in this video hope all the information provided in this video will help you to plan for your future secondary suite so uh if you like the information please like the video and consider subscribing to the channel thank you you

Channel: HowTo

Views: 8,022

Keywords: secondary suite, secondary suites, legal basement requirements, what is secondary suite, secondary suites peterborough, building code, basement suite renovation, secondary suite fire separate done, explain secondary suite, legal secondary suite, secondary suite septic system approvals, septic system approval for secondary suites, in-law suite, Basic requirements for secondary suite, things to know for secondary suite, things to know for legal suite, window size, fire code

Id: jpjFgSIqtxY

Length: 10min 59sec (659 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 07 2021