New York City Building Codes Regarding Temporary Walls
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PAGE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION AND IS NOT INTENDED TO BE THE ACTUAL CODES ESTABLISHED BY THE NYC BUILDING DEPT. OR NYC FIRE DEPT. For more specific details and for the actual codes, please contact those agencies directly or your building management company.
Over the past two years, New York City has been monitoring the pressurized wall situation in New York much more closely then in the past. It is in part due to the deaths of some firefighters who were trapped in a Bronx fire due to an illegal subdivision of an apartment. Although this division was not created by the use of pressurized walls and was not built by any of New York's wall companies, the wall companies have had to bare some of the burden as have many New Yorker's looking to safely add a room to their apartment with a pressurized wall.
When looking for a new apartment with the plans of adding an extra room, you should keep several things in mind before signing a lease.
Ask your landlord or building management, not your broker or leasing agent, what if any temporary walls are allowed in your building. Some buildings that no longer allow pressurized walls should allow you to have a bookshelf wall installed or a partition that meets some of the strict New York City codes. Bookshelf walls should almost always be allowed as they are considered furniture and are free standing so no building codes apply to them.
So what are these codes all about?:
For starts, they are very complicated and somewhat vague and many of them date back to the 70s and 80s but here are some ideas of what the codes are.
Room Size and layout: If a room is to be used as a bedroom, it must be "at least" 80+sf in size for example, an 8ft x 10ft room. The room should include at least one window and it cannot have a locking door if the fire escape from the apartment is in that room.
There must be a common living space big enough to accommodate the number of individuals living in the apartment. In other words, you cannot take a 250sf living room and subdivide it into two bedrooms of 100sf each leaving only a tiny 50sf common living space. You also cannot block the only windows in a common space with a floor to ceiling wall.
The height of a partition, must stop at least 1-foot from the ceiling, so if your ceilings are 8ft, the height of the partition cannot be more then 7ft. The partition can be free-standing ( ie. bookshelf walls) and cannot be attached to existing walls or floor.
There are literally hundreds of codes and the purpose of this page was not intended to educate you on all of the codes but only to explain why some buildings are no longer allowing pressurized walls.
As one of New York's top wall companies and as a company that takes pride in being progressive, we have come up with a variety of options to standard pressurized walls and are working very closely with many building managers to provide a service to tenants that is safe, affordable, looks good and that does not violate any codes.
If you have any additional questions, feel free to email us regarding the options to Pressurized Walls and we will be happy to work closely with you and your building management in providing a service that makes everyone happy.
Over 1,000+ Green-friendly walls built since 2007
