What are Tiny Homes/Houses. What does NYS adopted Building Codes say. What is Appendix Q?
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What is Life22?
This is My Life! It's not Easy, It's Interesting, and It's Cereal!
"Satire is not a fabric in reality, but it can exist as part of the fabric of reality." ~Kevin M. Dougherty~
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Transcript
00:00:10 Kevin
Hey, gang, it is Kevin.
00:00:12 Kevin
It.
00:00:13 Kevin
Well, I don't know how beautiful it is.
00:00:15 Kevin
It is a beautiful 6:00 AM on the dot this morning when we're recording this.
00:00:21 Kevin
So.
00:00:25 Kevin
I wanted to start out with.
00:00:28 Kevin
So I know that.
00:00:31 Kevin
I had promised I had mentioned in previous episodes that I was going to discuss tiny homes, and I saw a regular listener kind of stirring it up on the Facebooks. The book faces that I was going to be doing that this morning, so I had.
00:00:46 Kevin
To finalize my research, obviously it's a deep topic, so it's probably going to be multiple and that's probably going to be the title. This is going to be like A1 after it so that we can go over additional ones later.
00:00:59 Kevin
So yeah, and then we also have upcoming.
00:01:02 Kevin
We have delamore coming on the show on Tuesday afternoon, so that'll be up.
00:01:06 Kevin
Tuesday night we'll have.
00:01:09 Kevin
I've already been reached out to by 1 incumbent Alderman and I am going to be working out a date to get him on the show.
00:01:17 Kevin
I got to see some in person presentations by two of the three mayoral candidates last.
00:01:25 Kevin
So that was kind of kind of exciting. And then as well as the District Attorney and one of the Alderman.
00:01:35 Kevin
O yeah, we got a lot going on.
00:01:37 Kevin
And actually, after last night, I've kind of realizing that I need to.
00:01:43 Kevin
I need to finalize some of my my documentation. My research on the Allegheny River sewage discharge topic, so that will be coming up here in the near future and unbeknownst to mainstream media and social media, the the results me um.
00:02:05 Kevin
They may come to shock you.
00:02:07 Kevin
In what the findings are and what people are leading you to believe, so that is exciting news and I'm sure now you're all on the edge of your seat. But with that said, today's topic is tiny homes. So and I know this is all a moment of CONT.
00:02:22 Kevin
So in the city.
00:02:25 Kevin
I believe I have the partial, but it's over on Billington Ave. somebody.
00:02:31 Kevin
A local resident is building a home.
00:02:36 Kevin
And.
00:02:39 Kevin
The It's it's not even a tiny home, actually.
00:02:41 Kevin
That's why this all came up.
00:02:42 Kevin
Tiny homes.
00:02:43 Kevin
Well, and is if you follow local social media, you would have seen that Council President Alderman Crawford had been posting for the, I think what, like two years ago he was posting like non-stop about tiny homes like he was pushing for.
00:02:59 Kevin
Wanted them.
00:03:00 Kevin
And it may be even longer than.
00:03:02 Kevin
But the the building code hadn't actually addressed it at the time, so maybe it was longer than. No, no, he was talking about it when I was on the Council. And then after I'd stepped down, he was still talking about it. So.
00:03:12 Kevin
But it got adopted.
00:03:15 Kevin
By the New York State building.
00:03:17 Kevin
So so This is why a lot of you watch the channel, because I'm experienced in a lot of different areas.
00:03:24 Kevin
You know, I was in politics for over five years.
00:03:29 Kevin
Still, in politics, you know from the sidelines. It's not like a player on the field.
00:03:33 Kevin
So I might be more of a coach now, but I saw I've been in politics for probably over 10 years, if not more.
00:03:42 Kevin
I'm in the construction industry.
00:03:44 Kevin
In HVAC industry.
00:03:47 Kevin
Because I was on the Council and writing code law, I took code enforcement certification training.
00:03:53 Kevin
So and I keep up my my education every.
00:03:56 Kevin
My continuing education credits, so I am also not a certified code officer.
00:04:02 Kevin
I am certifiable as a code officer in order to be a code enforcement officer, you have to be selected and that be your.
00:04:12 Kevin
So code enforcement is the magistral power of a municipality, kind of like judges have magistrate power, right?
00:04:19 Kevin
It's like it's got that magisterial power aspect to it.
00:04:22 Kevin
So you have to be hired by a municipality for that purpose.
00:04:28 Kevin
And because of that, that's what gives you.
00:04:30 Kevin
That's what imbues you with the power to be a code enforcement official in order to get into one of those positions, you have to be code enforcement certified, and that is what I am.
00:04:39 Kevin
I just not.
00:04:40 Kevin
I'm not a code enforcement officer, per SE, because I am not. That is not.
00:04:44 Kevin
My that is not my my profession.
00:04:47 Kevin
So I'm I'm not selected by a municipality. Given those magisterial powers under my job title to be a code enforcement official or code enforcement officer, right?
00:04:57 Kevin
Those are those are one of the things that like you know.
00:05:01 Kevin
If I were to join the fire department or the local city, you know or be, you know, one of the local another municipality, not only and selected me to be, you know, there said hey, you know, you applied for the position.
00:05:12 Kevin
Looking for a building?
00:05:13 Kevin
Inspector or a local code official like you know that would then graduate me from just being a guy who certified to be a code officer to being an actual code officer. But because I fit because I've done my code certification every year.
00:05:29 Kevin
I'm probably more apt to answer a lot of these questions than Joe Layman. The people on Facebook.
00:05:34 Kevin
Like that.
00:05:34 Kevin
But so I've been doing my research and so it is.
00:05:39 Kevin
I find it humorous because I watch everyone of the Council meetings as well.
00:05:42 Kevin
Very, very well read in these topics.
00:05:48 Kevin
I'm sure there's a lot of people that do not like the fact that I'm well read in these topics that I've.
00:05:57 Kevin
That I.
00:05:57 Kevin
You know that I watch these videos that I, you know, that's what the transparency's about.
00:06:02 Kevin
So so I've done my research here and I've talked to local code officials over the years to get some answers.
00:06:11 Kevin
And so when this topic came up, one of the Alderman reached out to me to see if I could do some digging anyways, because there was a big stir.
00:06:20 Kevin
Apparently this individual has bought a place on Billington Ave. None.
00:06:26 Kevin
And it's and it's it's causing a.
00:06:28 Kevin
All the neighbors are up in arms now to give some background on the neighborhood across the street from, I believe what I I think is the parcel they're building on Google Maps hasn't updated it. So I don't have it live on the street.
00:06:39 Kevin
View of what's been going on since 2022, but construction started within, I believe the last year they've built a house on peers. If you watch the most recent Council meeting, Alderman Crawford called it stilts.
00:06:52 Kevin
Essentially you're putting sandal tubes in the ground as a footer, and just like your deck would be.
00:06:57 Kevin
You're.
00:06:59 Kevin
You know 6.
00:07:00 Kevin
Sixes or 4 by fours or depending on the size of your home, depending on the prescriptive build of it, you would then you know, attach those to the sonnel tubes, making it a permanent residence. And then you build your floor structure from there.
00:07:13 Kevin
You're building a deck.
00:07:15 Kevin
Like that's, that's what building it on, Piers.
00:07:17 Kevin
That's, I mean, that's the same design as you would see most well constructed decks.
00:07:23 Kevin
So.
00:07:25 Kevin
That said, they're building on Billington Ave. so Billington Ave. is right off of.
00:07:29 Kevin
It's kind of behind cutco area of town on the on the on the East End. And there's always been contention in that neighborhood because across the street from this lot that I'm looking at here on Billington, there's a huge field.
00:07:43 Kevin
And local like the local soccer team was working with somebody who owned the vacant lot to turn it in to a soccer field, and then all the neighbors were up.
00:07:53 Kevin
Don't want kids in this neighborhood?
00:07:54 Kevin
We don't.
00:07:55 Kevin
This I remember dealing with the Alderman at the time, and then the newest Alderman was dealing with it and it's always been a moment of contention.
00:08:01 Kevin
Don't want anything to happen with it.
00:08:03 Kevin
And that's that gets me into a rabbit hole that you guys have probably heard.
00:08:07 Kevin
Me before.
00:08:08 Kevin
Is that most people?
00:08:11 Kevin
Most people they use zoning and I hate zoning, and This is why I hate zoning, zoning, zoning like kind of subverts the American dream.
00:08:19 Kevin
So you say, oh, I don't have the money to buy the property next to me, but I want to make sure that somebody doesn't put in something I don't like next door. So I'm going to use zoning, and I'm going to petition zoning to make sure that they.
00:08:32 Kevin
Have.
00:08:35 Kevin
Crummy Reynolds houses that look different than mine.
00:08:38 Kevin
Houses that I don't like the color of houses. I don't like the shape of. They don't put in a bodega, you know, like, I don't want a 711 going next to my house.
00:08:48 Kevin
Well, guess what?
00:08:49 Kevin
This is the United States of America and in the United States of America there are property rights, and when you own a property.
00:08:55 Kevin
You don't have the right to like tell your neighbors what they can do with their property.
00:08:58 Kevin
Is give you no right to do that.
00:09:00 Kevin
It gives you the right to do whatever the hell you want with your property.
00:09:04 Kevin
Which?
00:09:05 Kevin
Which is a beautiful thing.
00:09:06 Kevin
Then people will say, well, there's restrictions on that.
00:09:08 Kevin
Blah blah blah blah.
00:09:10 Kevin
There shouldn't be though.
00:09:11 Kevin
Overtime, people have put restrictions on it because other people that should have been fighting it have been sleeping or did not know that there was a fight going on and they were losing it by essentially not showing up to court like they lost by default, which is a.
00:09:27 Kevin
Reason to keep a restriction on the books like there should be 0 restrictions. If I I had an argument with a with a realtor and I'm sure this realtor will know who it is if they're listening.
00:09:40 Kevin
They said, you know, Kevin, the reason they're zoning is so that somebody doesn't buy the house next to you or the property next to you and put in a pig farm.
00:09:49 Kevin
And my argument to that is no. If if somebody bought the house next to me or the property next to me and turned it into a pig farm, and I don't like a pig farm next to my.
00:10:00 Kevin
That's on me.
00:10:02 Kevin
For not buying the house next to mine in proximity and people.
00:10:06 Kevin
Now this is where the other argument is, and secondly it's like, yeah, it's also my fault for not thinking of putting a pig farm there first.
00:10:12 Kevin
But secondly, if you don't want a pig farm next year house, you buy the property next to your house. If you don't want a ****** rental there. If you want to change the color of the house, you buy it and become the property owner.
00:10:23 Kevin
Whatever the hell you want with that property.
00:10:25 Kevin
So by using zoning, you are subverting the government to do your will without having the financial stake in the.
00:10:31 Kevin
You're taking my taxpayer dollars to make laws to prevent me from doing something with my property or that neighbor using me as the proverbial like I'm your neighbor. If you're the one who's supposed to buy the property.
00:10:44 Kevin
And people say, well, it's but, but that puts an undue financial burden on me.
00:10:48 Kevin
It.
00:10:48 Kevin
Because your wants with that property aren't your needs. With that property, you have no needs for that property, because you don't own it when you own it. When you possess that property's title.
00:11:00 Kevin
Then you can do whatever you want with it, and then you also have financial burdens that you have to come with.
00:11:05 Kevin
There are financial responsibilities. Every issue you have in this world, every issue you have in this world is your problem because it's it's causing you to have an issue which makes it your problem.
00:11:17 Kevin
Me putting a pig farm on my property might cause you to have a problem and you should do something about it.
00:11:23 Kevin
Don't think you muscling the joint effort of our government?
00:11:28 Kevin
To tell me that I can't do something with my American freedoms. I think that you have the the capitalistic and economic ability to save your money and eventually offer me money to buy the property so that I don't.
00:11:43 Kevin
Then you can condemn my pig farm.
00:11:47 Kevin
That's what I.
00:11:48 Kevin
That's what I think that should happen, and people have this big issue that, well, no, the American dream is free.
00:11:53 Kevin
********. The American Dream is you work hard, you earn money, and then you buy things with your money and you make good decisions. And those good decisions come.
00:12:02 Kevin
By slowly allowing yourself or quickly allowing yourself, depending on how hard you are working to excavate down to the golden bricks that are the American dream.
00:12:13 Kevin
That's where it.
00:12:14 Kevin
That's where it comes into screw zoning. Screw your hoas.
00:12:18 Kevin
Your ability to tell me.
00:12:19 Kevin
Who no one can have a hostage Canary yellow in the street because we only little blue and green houses.
00:12:24 Kevin
Screw you and your color.
00:12:26 Kevin
This is America. If I want to put a single wide in my house, in my property.
00:12:31 Kevin
And then so for these people in this neighborhood, and this has always been my contention, well, the people own those houses in that neighbor. Great. They own their houses, that the, the lot, the big lot.
00:12:42 Kevin
Across the street from a lot of those houses that they want to put a sock, they wanted to put a soccer field has been up for a tax auction like 9 times and no one has ever bought it. And I'm sure if you go back far enough there.
00:12:53 Kevin
Greater times that it's gone off for auction or been for sale or whatever, and I'm sure in the current owner of it is not doing anything with it, so I'm sure you can make him an offer on it and you can do whatever you want if in.
00:13:03 Kevin
Neighborhood. And you don't want a soccer field, but you want a pig farm because what you can do it. You can do it because this is America.
00:13:09 Kevin
This is America. You can do whatever you want when you buy the property.
00:13:14 Kevin
Not all rights just come to you.
00:13:18 Kevin
They come to you because of your ownership, because of where you are. You're standing in the world, right?
00:13:23 Kevin
Standing allowed you to buy that house.
00:13:25 Kevin
The the financial capital that you decided to not spend on Coca-Cola and sugary drinks and.
00:13:31 Kevin
And video games and and and ******* subscriptions or whatever other hedonic.
00:13:36 Kevin
Vices that you went into and you wasted your money on gambling habits, drugs, whatever. If you decided not to spend it on that stuff and you saved it, and then you said, you know what?
00:13:46 Kevin
To buy that place across the street and I'm going to put up 12 tiny homes.
00:13:52 Kevin
So I can generate some income so I can buy a nicer property in a nicer neighborhood, or I can develop a nicer neighborhood I can.
00:13:59 Kevin
My other neighbors out, so they stop ******** about my home.
00:14:02 Kevin
I'm sure they just got cut out on the on the the gate of my microphone, but but yeah, no, that, that, that way you can buy out your neighbors and then they can stop ******** because they don't live there anymore, 'cause. They don't own it, they might still.
00:14:13 Kevin
There they might be your tenants now and guess what?
00:14:15 Kevin
They have no say, so when they're a tenant, they don't get to choose.
00:14:18 Kevin
Oh, I want to do this.
00:14:19 Kevin
I want to do that, yeah, with the landlord's written permission.
00:14:21 Kevin
That's that's the beauty of property ownership. You own it.
00:14:30 Kevin
So there's my rant on that.
00:14:33 Kevin
And so that is also my biggest contention with the gripe at the the the the Common Council level is that, well, we're getting complaints from the neighbors. The neighbors are all up in arms.
00:14:44 Kevin
Know they've.
00:14:44 Kevin
I've heard they went to the.
00:14:45 Kevin
Obviously I heard that because I watched the Council meeting.
00:14:51 Kevin
I I know that they've reached out to the Council. I'm guessing they reached out to the Council president.
00:14:56 Kevin
Know they've reached out to the Alderman of this ward.
00:14:59 Kevin
You know they're complaining about it and sure, you go ahead and complain.
00:15:04 Kevin
Problem is that there's nothing you can do.
00:15:06 Kevin
They're they're the local code office has stated that they are not violating any minimum safety standards, right?
00:15:14 Kevin
That is what the building code is for.
00:15:16 Kevin
The the.
00:15:18 Kevin
The building code.
00:15:20 Kevin
Is adopted by almost all states, if not all states, and it is there is one organization called the ICC. The International Code Council.
00:15:30 Kevin
And what they do is they compile building codes to meet safety standards.
00:15:36 Kevin
And they have all these different things, and there's different books and tomes that make their way through the building code.
00:15:42 Kevin
And so there's the international building.
00:15:44 Kevin
The IBC there is the international or there's the International residential code, which is the IRC they have.
00:15:51 Kevin
They have the the.
00:15:54 Kevin
Ipmc, which is the international.
00:15:58 Kevin
Property maintenance code they have the.
00:16:04 Kevin
I FGC the inner the international fuel gas code, so many different code books relating to different topics and they kind of overlap a little bit and that's what makes it very complicated. But.
00:16:16 Kevin
Every state adopts the ICC and then like New York State, they have appendices and these appendices that are attached to every single, you know, to certain areas where the state itself wanted to make adoptive changes to the code.
00:16:32 Kevin
And rewrite them.
00:16:33 Kevin
They're in there.
00:16:34 Kevin
So once you find the section of code, then you check to see if there's an appendix for that particular code, and if it references the section to make any edits, and then you're going to go off of the updated edits.
00:16:47 Kevin
And if you buy a New York State, you know.
00:16:52 Kevin
And then you, yeah, the commercial building code and residential building code and then you have just the.
00:16:58 Kevin
Anyways, so you're going to go off of these. So like, if you're going to the IBC and you see a section, if you bought 1 specifically for New York State, it's going to, it's going to have.
00:17:07 Kevin
Can have in them highlights and like lines through them and strike out and see.
00:17:12 Kevin
Appendix such and such, and they might even.
00:17:15 Kevin
Depending on the version you have, they might even throw it in there. That section of the code that tells you what the change is.
00:17:21 Kevin
This is for and I know they.
00:17:22 Kevin
They have the main ones that I can name off top my head in New York State.
00:17:28 Kevin
Besides the part I'm about to read, you is the.
00:17:33 Kevin
In New York State, they they have an appendix like related to children's campgrounds like summer camps, and they have one related to pools like those are the two like big ones that are popping in the top of my head, they have a lot of you know like.
00:17:46 Kevin
Are like New York State had something to say about.
00:17:49 Kevin
But when you look at building codes and they look at things like that, engineers will look at cause a lot of engineers will also be code certified.
00:17:54 Kevin
Because they have to know it in order to engineer your home.
00:17:57 Kevin
They have to do. They have to do compaction studies and soil samples and like depending on where you're building in the United States or in the globe, they're going to have.
00:18:07 Kevin
And these codes are all based on like other standards put together by like the the international.
00:18:15 Kevin
I'm drawing a blank on like one of them, but like you, you just you you have maybe a company who is the industry standard on iron making or you have a?
00:18:26 Kevin
Iron manufacturers, not like union workers, but like a union, like a group, a coalition of iron manufacturers that will come together for an iron manufacturing code, stating you like well, in order for this steel to qualify for this strength rating, it has to meet these standards and those.
00:18:42 Kevin
What manufacturers will base it off of, and that's what's built into the building code. Grating of lumber is in the building code so that you know that you're not buying an inferior lumber, and there are certain universal stamps they put on stuff.
00:18:55 Kevin
Are very like they seem like, you know, like, wow, I didn't realize.
00:18:59 Kevin
Know most people don't realize they put this much time and effort.
00:19:03 Kevin
And when you start your code in a short, it's code enforcement training in New York State.
00:19:08 Kevin
I remember the guy and I think he's retired now, but he was from the Department of State.
00:19:13 Kevin
Who handles the code enforcement?
00:19:15 Kevin
And he was the trainer for our district. And I think he did a lot of other trainings throughout the state. But he had come in and the first portion of the training is going under the International Fire Safety Code.
00:19:25 Kevin
The IFC.
00:19:28 Kevin
And so when he's going over those, those are protecting your home. And that's where the codes really came in.
00:19:33 Kevin
And so while I'm a small government guy and I don't think that the government should be managing all these other things, I understand where they came from, when they're putting this together.
00:19:40 Kevin
Don't want you just going out in the woods and chopping down a Cherry Tree and being like this should work.
00:19:46 Kevin
Or they don't want you going out.
00:19:49 Kevin
And and buying inferior. Whatever. There's a lot of landlords in the area that will just go on like Etsy.
00:19:56 Kevin
Well, they'll go on Timu and they'll buy fire, smoke detectors and they don't work.
00:20:01 Kevin
Don't even have an UL listing. The UL is the underwriters limited.
00:20:05 Kevin
Or yeah, yeah.
00:20:06 Kevin
Underwriter listing. Anyways, they're they're a group of people that are underwriters.
00:20:10 Kevin
Insurance companies have underwriters, and they're essentially those are guys that are doing the research. Guys and gals are doing the research.
00:20:16 Kevin
Make sure and prevent you from doing something like this.
00:20:21 Kevin
Meets certain standards.
00:20:22 Kevin
The UL listing is a very.
00:20:26 Kevin
The UL is is is one of those code standards and they're they're a group of people that are going in there, making sure it meets certain minimum standards so that you don't use a timu smoke detector and it doesn't function like there are ones that you can buy.
00:20:40 Kevin
Timu that are like fake security cameras, they just have a blinking red light so that you know that the battery is operating the light, but it doesn't actually work as a smoke detector. It just is a white medallion.
00:20:52 Kevin
That gets mounted to the ceiling with a bracket or the wall with a bracket, and it has a blinking light and it says this should not be used in. You know it's like this is a toy. This is for like when kids Playhouse and they want to put.
00:21:03 Kevin
Smoke detectors in like this is like it says right on there to cover their.
00:21:08 Kevin
So they don't get sued because you bought something damontimu and there are actual landlords in this area who have been criticized for using them.
00:21:17 Kevin
For good.
00:21:18 Kevin
You you're giving it's worse than not having one. If you didn't have a smoke detector, you'd be like, oh, I don't have a smoke.
00:21:24 Kevin
So.
00:21:25 Kevin
Better be more diligent about smelling for smoke, looking for signs of smoke, looking for fire, being more cautious of fire.
00:21:33 Kevin
Rather than saying, oh, that thing's going to protect me and it's not, it's make believe. Like that is way worse. Putting something that doesn't function or that is.
00:21:41 Kevin
That is falsely not going to function is worse than not having the device 'cause at least you if you know what to look for. You're recognizing you don't have the device.
00:21:49 Kevin
Obviously the code requires that there is no grandfather ship to not having smoke and carbon monoxide detectors because.
00:21:56 Kevin
They're a safety hazard.
00:21:56 Kevin
There is safety hazard to not have one in functioning order.
00:22:01 Kevin
Another rabbit.
00:22:02 Kevin
Sorry, so in New York State.
00:22:06 Kevin
Do you have Appendix H or no? No. I keep saying Appendix H Appendix H is for signs 'cause. I typed it in earlier appendix.
00:22:19 Kevin
Appendix Q.
00:22:20 Kevin
Appendix Q is adopted in 2020 with the 2020 building codes are always behind on building codes.
00:22:25 Kevin
So right now we're currently following the 2020 building code New York State adopted the 2020 Census. They want to vet it.
00:22:31 Kevin
Want to make their.
00:22:32 Kevin
They're going to make additions every year, so we went from like the 2016 building code.
00:22:37 Kevin
And we went right up through and just started adopting the 2020 and we adopted the 2020 I believe in like 20.
00:22:48 Kevin
The residential building.
00:22:50 Kevin
Let's think it even says it. It was adopted by in New York State.
00:22:58 Kevin
2019 so they must have already vetted it and a lot of times the drafts are releasing before they actually adopt A code.
00:23:06 Kevin
So we adopted the 2020 building code.
00:23:09 Kevin
And that included New York State's Appendix Q, which addressed tiny homes, which was a concern at the time. People have been talking about tiny homes since, like 20/16/2018. They started getting bigger.
00:23:21 Kevin
And 2019. And then so says here September 27th of 2019.
00:23:26 Kevin
And became with became law within the 2020 code cycle.
00:23:31 Kevin
And then obviously it takes smaller municipalities once the state adopts it and then it allows the individual municipalities to adopt it. And so until we adopt it, we're operating off the previous building code.
00:23:42 Kevin
And so municipalities are typically always doing that because there could be funding constraints like New York State's not going to give you this for your code office or give you this for whatever because the department you haven't adopted.
00:23:54 Kevin
Newestly adopted New York State building code and in order to do in order to enforce the building code, your code enforcement officers have to take tests and do trainings on the updates to the actual code, which can be built in and applied toward their continuing education credits.
00:24:09 Kevin
There's a lot of information I'm throwing at you, and that's why these are great for you to be able to download and watch over and over again.
00:24:15 Kevin
That's why we post.
00:24:16 Kevin
That's why these are not live and one and done, just like old school legacy media.
00:24:22 Kevin
We can.
00:24:23 Kevin
These podcasts I can do them. I can have them out.
00:24:25 Kevin
If you have questions, you can always message us in the comments below.
00:24:29 Kevin
I can try to find my best. I can try to find the best information for you.
00:24:34 Kevin
Probably better at it than just asking.
00:24:36 Kevin
Other like every time I see somebody on Facebook that's like, oh, this isn't legal and then somebody else put some kind of legalese out there and says, well, this under this and then other people are, you know, actual lawyers are on there, like, well, that doesn't apply then.
00:24:48 Kevin
You have lawyers arguing with other lawyers and saying, well, that doesn't apply either.
00:24:51 Kevin
It depends on what state you're in, and so there's a lot of conjecture.
00:24:55 Kevin
Depends on the specifics of the situation.
00:25:00 Kevin
So Appendix Q applies to tiny homes, and it also specifies so it gives you restriction it it releases restrictions saying that, you know, if you're trying to build a tiny home, we're tailoring this to the tiny homes.
00:25:15 Kevin
On foundations and they're specifying on foundations because real property has to be fixed to the.
00:25:21 Kevin
So if you have an RV and you park it on a property, it's not a home. If you take it off its axles and set it on blocks, it is considered.
00:25:31 Kevin
Depending on the municipality, but for the most part, the rule of thumb is if it's not, if it's just like a trailer sitting on blocks, it's technically still personal property, the same as the RV with the wheels on it.
00:25:42 Kevin
But once you like hurricane, strap it to the ground.
00:25:46 Kevin
It's a.
00:25:46 Kevin
To the ground. It is part of the real property.
00:25:50 Kevin
And then there's also a bunch of rules about moving.
00:25:52 Kevin
So once they've been there for so long and they become real property and you try to move.
00:25:56 Kevin
Them they're, you know, they're not personal property.
00:26:00 Kevin
So you moving them wherever they land, wherever you wheel them to, to whether it's the trailer, next, the trailer lot next to it or not. It has to actually come up to current building code.
00:26:10 Kevin
And so you would have to have the original stamp plans and find out what you know or whatever design under the manufacturing, HUD code, HUD standards.
00:26:19 Kevin
There are FEMA.
00:26:20 Kevin
There's so much to these codes, but and that's why I was saying like I've done as much research as I can and.
00:26:25 Kevin
Gonna have to break this into multiple parts.
00:26:27 Kevin
26 minutes in.
00:26:28 Kevin
To this, and I've barely I've I've like addressed, like constitutional rights.
00:26:37 Kevin
You know, my take on zoning?
00:26:40
So.
00:26:44 Kevin
See, you hear the birds cheeping out there.
00:26:46 Kevin
It must be a beautiful morning.
00:26:48 Kevin
Must be.
00:26:50 Kevin
Dario Dario, who commented yesterday and said it's not a beautiful morning because it's raining. Or two mornings ago and said it was raining. I say I mentioned this in the comments.
00:27:00 Kevin
Is in the eye of the beholder, my friend.
00:27:04 Kevin
So specifically.
00:27:07 Kevin
The IRC 2018 with state specific tweaks. The 400 square foot limit for a tiny house refers to the floor area, so 400 square feet.
00:27:18 Kevin
So that's like a 40 by 10, a 20 by 20.
00:27:23 Kevin
However, you break down the square footage as long as you have a minimum.
00:27:28 Kevin
And that excludes that's excluding the LOFT section.
00:27:32 Kevin
There's also provisions in Appendix Q that move.
00:27:39 Kevin
Interior.
00:27:43 Kevin
Interior ceiling heights. So for example.
00:27:49 Kevin
Provided that they meet.
00:27:52 Kevin
Without counting towards the CAP providing the Appendix Q the height is excess.
00:28:00 Kevin
Height and access requirements, minimum ceiling height of 6.8 feet. I thought they said that there was a limit on it.
00:28:08 Kevin
Mechanical spaces. They allow you to.
00:28:10 Kevin
Let's see.
00:28:11 Kevin
They aren't included unless they're finished.
00:28:13 Kevin
So crawl spaces and addicts conditioned versus unconditioned spaces. This is what a lot of people are going to find funny.
00:28:22 Kevin
So Appendix Q does not distinguish between conditioned and.
00:28:29 Kevin
Unconditioned space.
00:28:30 Kevin
Space means that it's climate controlled.
00:28:32 Kevin
That means it's got a heat.
00:28:33 Kevin
It's got a potential cooling source if you're down South and you have those types of requirements.
00:28:40 Kevin
There up. You know the rule of thumb.
00:28:46 Kevin
Ah.
00:28:51 Kevin
Let's see here.
00:28:56 Kevin
Why is it?
00:28:59 Kevin
So.
00:29:08 Kevin
So conditioned space.
00:29:11 Kevin
Habitual habitable space in conditioned space of the same well you your habitable space has to be conditioned, OK?
00:29:19 Kevin
So habitable space is bedroom living room, and if you start adding other family room dining room, those those are considered, you know, living rooms.
00:29:28 Kevin
Right, so bedrooms and living rooms are required to be conditioned space, which means that they have to maintain during certain portions of the year they have to have a heat source that can maintain 68°.
00:29:39 Kevin
So usually it's September 15th to like March 15th is like the window in which it has to span to for the the cold, the cold blue. You know, the blue sector of the the season and it has and your heating source has to be capable, so if you.
00:29:55 Kevin
Like a furnace.
00:29:56 Kevin
Undersized.
00:29:57 Kevin
And it only heats part of the.
00:29:59 Kevin
Building, you know, it doesn't heat the condition space to like more than 66°.
00:30:04 Kevin
It doesn't meet the code and you have to replace it with a. You know a unit or find some sort of auxiliary heating that could additionally raise the temperature.
00:30:13 Kevin
So there are different ways that the code tries to achieve compliance.
00:30:16 Kevin
They're not really trying to go out there and reprimand people.
00:30:19 Kevin
It's their job to achieve compliance, so always keep that in mind.
00:30:24 Kevin
There are some, you know, there are some municipalities, some code officers, that get a little overzealous.
00:30:28 Kevin
They they go on a power trip and they get a very emotional they want to, you know, this is, this is my right.
00:30:34 Kevin
Is my.
00:30:34 Kevin
And they they don't actually have.
00:30:36 Kevin
They their goal is to achieve a compliance and so if they can negotiate with you with a slow roll out.
00:30:41 Kevin
Of meeting.
00:30:42 Kevin
At least they're they're attempting to achieve compliance with you 'cause. It's not their job to to to **** in your Cheerios.
00:30:50 Kevin
While some, like I said, some of them might think it's their job to **** in Cheerios, it's not their job.
00:30:55 Kevin
It's their job to achieve.
00:30:57 Kevin
So you have a 400 square foot house and I asked.
00:31:01 Kevin
Here, where's the breakdown?
00:31:03 Kevin
Because I've spoken with our local code enforcement office and you have a minimum condition space requirement of 70 square feet.
00:31:14 Kevin
So.
00:31:18 Kevin
70 square feet now bedrooms and living room are conditioned or habitable space.
00:31:22 Kevin
Have to have conditioned habitable space of 70 square feet.
00:31:27 Kevin
So technically, if you have a small little house with like you know.
00:31:32 Kevin
A living room bedroom and I believe they can actually be intertwined into one room.
00:31:40 Kevin
That area has to be conditioned space.
00:31:43 Kevin
Which here's the caveat. If you live up in our area, you want to have the bathroom and the the kitchen condition space so your pipes don't freeze.
00:31:51 Kevin
But other than smaller, more restrictive codes, there is no requirement for that.
00:31:57 Kevin
You can actually take like an old porch on a like you can build a porch on the House or a little room off to the side that has your bathroom and kitchen in it because.
00:32:07 Kevin
Let's see here, living room.
00:32:10 Kevin
Bedroom, not habitable space towards certain per the Irc's definition under R2O.
00:32:20 Kevin
Kitchens are for food prep and bathrooms are for.
00:32:23 Kevin
Neither. Neither of them require heating or cooling unless locally mandated.
00:32:27 Kevin
So going into another little caveat here, when the state adopts a code and then the and the city has, your municipality has like 30 days from the adoption of the code to reject a code. If it is like stricter.
00:32:45 Kevin
Right. So you can reject individual codes.
00:32:47 Kevin
Yeah. And say, like, listen, no, we we allow eight inches for our grass, right. And the code is going from six to four or that, you know, if the codes currently at six and we're at 6:00 because we never argued with it.
00:32:58 Kevin
They have 30 days. Once the code is being adopted by the state to actually like write the Department of State that's actually in the.
00:33:06 Kevin
That's.
00:33:07 Kevin
They teach you that in code training I've had conversations with the city attorney about that while I was in Alderman.
00:33:13 Kevin
We've discussed it multiple times.
00:33:15 Kevin
He had our disagreements with it, but that's that's what they teach you in the classes.
00:33:21 Kevin
Which is taught by the Department of State, and so they say, you know, if you want to resend it and keep the less strict rule, you have to argue with us within a certain time period.
00:33:28 Kevin
If you.
00:33:29 Kevin
Don't you automatically go into the stricter policy, which would be the the states?
00:33:33 Kevin
You could always go stricter than the code, so if if you find out something and you're like, oh man, the code says this, it's already been here for so long, right?
00:33:41 Kevin
And you say, well, well, we don't want 4 inches of grass height, we want 2 inches.
00:33:45 Kevin
We want a really like hammer down on people well under the property maintenance code and the the grass heights and to to mitigate ticks and everything.
00:33:53 Kevin
You have a high tick content and keeping the grass 2 inches.
00:33:56 Kevin
Or under, you know, drops your tick rate by like 85%.
00:34:00 Kevin
That would make sense for you to be more stricter.
00:34:02 Kevin
You're putting more onus on your constituents. Obviously, as an elected official, you have to talk to these people 1st and get a, you know, try to do some polling, try to do your due diligence. But.
00:34:12 Kevin
And then you have to advertise it in the whole 9 that you're putting in a stricter code change, and then when you submit it, you can submit you can.
00:34:18 Kevin
Notify the state and Department of State, which is what you're supposed to do, that you are making a stricter code change.
00:34:23 Kevin
Then you adopt it into your local code.
00:34:26 Kevin
At which point you can have stricter ratings on the code.
00:34:31 Kevin
With only in being a housing community, with only in being a place where people deem that we don't have enough housing to accommodate people, I would see no reason why.
00:34:41 Kevin
Make things stricter. We should have more people building houses in the city.
00:34:46 Kevin
And this is like a really like as much as people don't like the way this thing looks, and we'll get an on site visit here soon. Obviously we can stand from the public right away and view into people's property view on to people's properties and so.
00:34:59 Kevin
Going to be able to get an on site field trip here with the Life 22 studios maybe as soon as this weekend when they be exciting folks.
00:35:06 Kevin
Going on a field trip.
00:35:07 Kevin
So when I need everybody to do in the comment section below, I need to make sure.
00:35:11 Kevin
Did I have your parents permission to take y'all on a field trip?
00:35:15 Kevin
Isn't that exciting? That's.
00:35:16 Kevin
So comment section write us an.
00:35:18 Kevin
Just let us know that your parents say it's OK for you to watch life 22 go on a field trip.
00:35:23 Kevin
I'm excited to see how many people actually do something similar.
00:35:30 Kevin
So, so yeah, technically you don't have to condition the space for your bathroom or your kitchen.
00:35:36 Kevin
So like it could be -10° outside in your bathroom, in your kitchen.
00:35:42 Kevin
Do I have to be?
00:35:43 Kevin
Do I have to be heated to 60°?
00:35:44 Kevin
There's no like minimum has to be heated to 40° and less specified.
00:35:47 Kevin
Your local municipality so.
00:35:49 Kevin
You take an old house, a little single family farmhouse, whatever like or single room farmhouse. And you call that your condition.
00:35:56 Kevin
You heat it, you put a small little mechanical room in to heat the place, and whether it's a boiler or furnace, whatever mini split now because it's New York State, you put a mini split in.
00:36:05 Kevin
Capable of going down to pulling out air source, you know air sourcing from our coldest temperatures. I'd still put like a resistive baseboard heat. If you're going to stick with electric.
00:36:15 Kevin
As a backup, which isn't.
00:36:17 Kevin
Comparatively, it's more expensive on your electric bill than it is on your the install.
00:36:23 Kevin
So you go in and you do that. OK, great.
00:36:25 Kevin
You're meeting current. You know, if you just like.
00:36:28 Kevin
Boxed in the sun porch. Right. Like an.
00:36:31 Kevin
Like an old front porch or a rear, you know, side porch or whatever that somebody may have already partially screened.
00:36:37 Kevin
You box it in it's it's on an overhang over the side of the house.
00:36:42 Kevin
You know, it's on, it's on peers.
00:36:46 Kevin
You.
00:36:46 Kevin
You can put a bathroom in a kitchen in there, unheated.
00:36:48 Kevin
Obviously you're going to have some maintenance nightmares, like when it gets that cold out, it's going to have pipes freeze when you go to take a poop in the middle of the night, like your butt's going to be cold because that toilet ain't going to be cond.
00:36:58 Kevin
So those, but those are luxuries, see, because the code is going to minimum.
00:37:03 Kevin
Safety and health standards.
00:37:04 Kevin
And it's also it's to protect people from fires. Like I said, when you're watching these code trainings, when you're in these code classes and they they show you like little little like boarding schools and kids are going up like candles, like, I'm not going to lie like it.
00:37:19 Kevin
To my.
00:37:20 Kevin
I'm sitting in a room full of firefighters and guys want to be code enforcement officers.
00:37:24 Kevin
And I'm shedding a few tears just like those.
00:37:26 Kevin
Like it's it's brutal to see like footage, photos or just the horrendous things and they happen to a lot of schools.
00:37:32 Kevin
Why you can't?
00:37:34 Kevin
Build. You know, wood structures over three stories when you hit a third story of the sprinkler, the whole building there are there are compliance measures in the code saying, well, if you want to build wood, you can only go 4 storeys and then.
00:37:49 Kevin
Grasp it straws here, so don't quote me on.
00:37:51 Kevin
You can go a certain amount of stories, but once you're above 3, you're the third story and it's not.
00:37:57 Kevin
You must sprinkler it. If you do any work on there to bring something up to code, you have to now sprinkler the whole building and it's like sprinkling. A building is very expensive.
00:38:06 Kevin
If you don't, if your building isn't worth that, then it might not be worth your project and so.
00:38:13 Kevin
But those are little caveats that people don't really understand.
00:38:16 Kevin
That you don't have to condition your bathroom or.
00:38:21
Your.
00:38:21 Kevin
Or you don't have to condition your bathroom or your.
00:38:33 Kevin
Yeah, you don't have to.
00:38:34 Kevin
You don't have to condition your bathroom or your kitchen.
00:38:39 Kevin
So and I want to do a little more diving here because it's almost like a tiny home is a house under 400 square feet. And I think that maybe I'm misreading this.
00:38:47 Kevin
I will get more clarity on this.
00:38:50 Kevin
The 400 square feet limit for a tiny home, so a tiny home is under 400 and 400 square feet OK.
00:38:57 Kevin
That makes.
00:38:59 Kevin
So a standard home is 400 square foot minimum and this would allow you the exemption to be under 400 square feet.
00:39:08 Kevin
And so.
00:39:11 Kevin
But this provision, and this is where I went and when I dove in a little bit, right.
00:39:15 Kevin
Here's an example.
00:39:16 Kevin
70 square feet of condition for the main floor for the living room.
00:39:20 Kevin
Square feet conditioned main floor.
00:39:25 Kevin
For the bedroom, 50 square feet for the kitchen.
00:39:30 Kevin
30 square feet for the.
00:39:31 Kevin
Unconditioned, total square footage, 220 square.
00:39:34 Kevin
So there's that's that's if the bedroom is on the main floor or 150 feet if you're squeezing it into the attic.
00:39:42 Kevin
Or loft for the bedroom and conditioning the space.
00:39:46 Kevin
Either fits in the 100 and the 400 square foot rule.
00:39:49 Kevin
So then I took it a step further and said, well, what if we decide to?
00:39:58 Kevin
Can we allow for additional units?
00:40:00 Kevin
Like what if you took that measurement right and got your 220 square feet and multiplied it by?
00:40:05 Kevin
Can you build a a building that's under that and that's. And the reason I ask this question was because I was off on my interpretation of it.
00:40:14 Kevin
So the Appendix Q only applies to single family dwellings. So.
00:40:25 Kevin
At which point you would have to go refer to.
00:40:31 Kevin
Because I and I even specify that I'm going to use a proper.
00:40:35 Kevin
Let's see here, we're going to use proper fire separations because once you have separate units, you have to have proper fire separations.
00:40:43 Kevin
Are things called firewalls fire barriers?
00:40:44 Kevin
You have to do special fire rated materials so that one apartment can you know your goal is not to make it fireproof but fire retardant and so this way you're in your slowing the burn.
00:40:56 Kevin
So if one apartments on fire it it, you're reducing the risk of the fire spreading quickly and so it allows firefighters more time based on certain areas, right?
00:41:04 Kevin
You want fire rated ceiling ceilings, so you want to make sure that you have like 5/8 inch drywall.
00:41:10 Kevin
Sometimes the code requires you to double up the the drywall.
00:41:14 Kevin
Now you need 2 layers crisscrossed in a different pattern.
00:41:18 Kevin
To create a fire separation and you have to like just do a rough coat on the seams just so.
00:41:23 Kevin
So it creates that barrier and the seams aren't all lined up either.
00:41:27 Kevin
And so it slows the fire rate down and there's a whole process on doing that.
00:41:31 Kevin
Ensure that you have one apartment. Doesn't burn the apartment above it, and the fire department has plenty of time to get in there. Put out the fire and then you can make repairs. Depending on the the extensity of the extensiveness of the damage.
00:41:45 Kevin
To to correct the unit and bring it back up to code.
00:41:49 Kevin
So yeah, and then so fire separations, we would move to the international, the the residential code.
00:42:00 Kevin
And for multi unit buildings which is the R2 minimum size, at which point?
00:42:07 Kevin
R2 minimum.
00:42:09 Kevin
They talk about ceiling heights being 7 feet instead of 4.6.
00:42:14 Kevin
So much square footage for.
00:42:16 Kevin
They're allocating stuff and so you could take a home that is like 500 square feet, right? And put 220 square feet into each unit and you can build A2 structure. You know, A2 family, essentially tiny home.
00:42:31 Kevin
And I say essentially tiny home because they're not a tiny home.
00:42:34 Kevin
There I have to be under 400 square feet to be a tiny home, and it only applies to a single unit dwelling, and that is one of the the the issues of contention here.
00:42:45 Kevin
So if this person who's building something, that's like, I think it's 300 square, 70 square feet, so.
00:42:51 Kevin
It or it's it's over 370 square feet.
00:42:54 Kevin
Over 400 square feet.
00:42:56 Kevin
Know it's.
00:42:57 Kevin
What is considered a tiny?
00:42:58 Kevin
So it's, but it meets the minimum code standards.
00:43:01 Kevin
Minimum code standards does not mean that it looks nice.
00:43:04 Kevin
Property Maintenance code allows it to be, you know, like they don't want you to use, you know, leave it like raw OSB oriented strand.
00:43:12 Kevin
They don't want you to have all the chips and everything exposed. It has to have a protective membrane on it, and it also depends on manufacturers specifications. So if the manufacturer says like, you know this tyvek's coating or tyvex is a brand, but you've seen the PL.
00:43:27 Kevin
Mil.
00:43:27 Kevin
Whatever breathable coating that goes on that creates a vapor barrier, it they'll tell you in the instructions in the manufacturer's description of the product.
00:43:37 Kevin
That this product does not apply to.
00:43:42 Kevin
Like when you're using this product, you are using it.
00:43:47 Kevin
As not to be exposed to the elements for so long, right?
00:43:51 Kevin
And so in that it's not just a warranty thing, it is a the building code will say or check the manufacturer specifications, cause manufacturers also have to reference the building code and all of the different.
00:44:04 Kevin
You know, schools of thought and all the different people that are in the building code so.
00:44:09 Kevin
It's just one of those.
00:44:11 Kevin
It's it's kind of an exciting little caveat to have.
00:44:16 Kevin
So you know, so that you're not going to have somebody leaving this house house wrapped if they're still in construction, there's an open.
00:44:22 Kevin
I mean, you can get the code office to be like, hey, man, you're taking like five years to do this. Now this is your primary residence.
00:44:27 Kevin
A lot more exemptions for you.
00:44:30 Kevin
Like you can build the house without electricity.
00:44:32 Kevin
And that's to comply with people that, you know, maybe have different religious exemptions. You know, like the Amish, they don't have, you know, but they're still residents of New York State.
00:44:41 Kevin
Still allowed to vote at.
00:44:42 Kevin
Same same thing you can build or if you have a hunting camp.
00:44:46 Kevin
It's a seasonal structure. You don't have to have electricity because you might be in the middle of the woods and you can get by with a propane heater, a propane furnace, something that you know like, but you can't pipe in electricity out there, but you don't want to.
00:45:00 Kevin
A.
00:45:00 Kevin
It's a hunting.
00:45:01 Kevin
You scare all the deer away. Like, what are you thinking?
00:45:03 Kevin
You can.
00:45:04 Kevin
So temporary structures, things like that or your primary residence because of maybe certain religious accommodations or for whatever reason.
00:45:11 Kevin
And because of the religious exemptions of others, you don't have to have.
00:45:16 Kevin
So if you're like, I just want to be a minimalist, I don't want screw electricity, you know I can.
00:45:21 Kevin
I can use a wood wood cook stove outside.
00:45:24 Kevin
I can use a propane grill. I can.
00:45:27 Kevin
Suffice with my you know, to sustain my family without electricity.
00:45:31 Kevin
Microwaves, if that's your philosophy, go for it.
00:45:34 Kevin
So we're going to try to get wrap this up because we're on here for 45 minutes today and I just want to let you know that we will be doing more dives into tiny homes and smaller buildings because it actually has piqued my excitement and.
00:45:49 Kevin
I would love to invest in my community by doing this, because I think that I could. I could get some good ROI on this and if you'd like to know what ROI is and if you don't already know, well, I suggest you Google it.
00:46:01 Kevin
But I'm sure we'll have more on the channel. We're looking at adding.
00:46:05 Kevin
Additional playlists on the channel that you can go dive into for finance, for investing, for return on investing. We're looking at growing the channel in multitude of different ways we're going to be one stop shop for all of your your different needs and maybe you come down these.
00:46:21 Kevin
Me down these rabbit holes on some of my pet projects and so this one has turned into a.
00:46:26 Kevin
The owner of this property has really piqued my interest and I would love to get him on the.
00:46:30 Kevin
I think it be very interesting to get him on the show and ask him some questions about, like the stuff he's dealing with from local municipalities.
00:46:36 Kevin
Hear that? The Code Office is working well with him because he's in compliance.
00:46:41 Kevin
But how does that stand from a political standpoint? As most of you can see on Facebook, people are up in arms.
00:46:47 Kevin
Oh well. But with that said guys, we'll see you next time on life 20.
00:46:51 Kevin
Don't forget to like subscribe and your permission slips are due before this weekend, so get your parents to sign sending your permission slips to the comment section or to my e-mail.
00:47:03 Kevin
At life22studios@gmail.com, see you guys next time.
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