How would you apply the rules to this situation?

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JohnE

JohnE

Senior Member
Location
Milford, MA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor, Inspector
I looked at a job yesterday in a single family dwelling where they are renovating an area to accomodate the homeowner in a wheelchair. They domo'd 2 small bedrooms and a bathroom to become one large handicapped accessible bedroom/ bathroom "suite". There will be a bathroom "area" to the left, and a bedrom "area" to the right as you enter the room. There are no dividing walls between the areas though. So If you can visualize it, the toilet, sink, and shower, are all "in" the bedroom.

There are no formal prints on the renovation.

I've already discussed things with the AHJ, but I wanted feedback from others on how they'd apply rules such as:

Would you consider these areas as 2 separate "rooms", and if not then:

1. Would you require AFI protection on everything?
2. Would you require all the "bedroom" receptacles to be 20 amp?
3. Although not NEC requirement, smokes required in bedroom, but not permitted in baths, so what do you do?

I just thought it is a somewhat unique situation, so I wanted some feedback from others.

Thanks,

John
 
IMO, a 20a gfi protected recep in the bathroom, 15a afci ckt for the bedroom including the smoke detector, which is a building code requirement. This should be compliant. However, & there is always a however in life, put the whole area on a 20a afi ckt with a gfi recep for the bath counter. Is this wishy-washy or what? Ron
 
rcarroll said:
IMO, a 20a gfi protected recep in the bathroom, 15a afci ckt for the bedroom including the smoke detector, which is a building code requirement. This should be compliant. However, & there is always a however in life, put the whole area on a 20a afi ckt with a gfi recep for the bath counter. Is this wishy-washy or what? Ron
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I am thinking the AHJ will be reasonable, but I'd run a 20A from afci for bath area and a 15A from afci for bedroom area.

If I were inspecting I would not want bath circuit supplying bedroom outlets.
 
I don't think there is any code language that will settle this for you, and I think you already knew that. My recommendation (to the AHJ) is that this be treated as though there were, in fact, a wall with a door separating the bedroom from the bathroom. Pick an appropriate line along the floor, and pretend there is a wall along that line. Then you will know what to do on each side of that line.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. The AHJ is handling it the way Charlie has described. I just wanted some other thoughts and opinions.

Welcome back Charlie, how was the trip?
 
I have done 2 of these almost exactly as you are describing. No plans, Both of these had different flooring differentating(sp?) the two. Tile in the bath area. Wood floors in the bedroom. The finished product aka final inspection, clearly left nothing to be confused.
 
77401 said:
I have done 2 of these almost exactly as you are describing. No plans, Both of these had different flooring differentating(sp?) the two. Tile in the bath area. Wood floors in the bedroom. The finished product aka final inspection, clearly left nothing to be confused.
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Seems clear to me too, if common sense is applied. It's really no different than a typical floorplan in our area which there is no separation between the living room and dining room (front to back on a Colonial floorplan). Although in that case there is a set of prints which delineate the 2 rooms.

Again, it just seemed like some issues might arise, so I wanted feedback.

Thanks again,

John
 
j_erickson said:
Welcome back Charlie, how was the trip?
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Lovely, thank you. We stayed in Newcastle Upon Tyne (where our daughter lives with her husband), Edinburgh, and London. We also visited Sunderland and York in England, Glasgow and Roslyn in Scotland. We saw 11 museums and two castles, we walked five miles a day, and she shopped until I dropped. :D

Noteworthy stops (for movie fans) included Alnwick Castle (where many Harry Potter scenes were filmed) and Roslyn Chapel (where the next-to-last scene in The DaVinci Code was filmed).

I shot 1338 photos (or at least that?s what the computer counted up, after I downloaded them all), leaving only room for 7 shots on the 4 gig of camera memory cards I brought with me. When I get finished processing the 10% or so that comprise ?the good shots,? I may post a link to the photography site where I store such things. That is, unless I receive a high enough bribe not to post that link. ;) :D
 
charlie b said:
My recommendation (to the AHJ) is that this be treated as though there were, in fact, a wall with a door separating the bedroom from the bathroom. Pick an appropriate line along the floor, and pretend there is a wall along that line.
Click to expand...

That was my thought as well.:D


I was also wondering if there was to be carpet on the bedroom side and 'not' carpet on the bath side.

Use this as the line.
 
charlie b said:
I don't think there is any code language that will settle this for you, and I think you already knew that. My recommendation (to the AHJ) is that this be treated as though there were, in fact, a wall with a door separating the bedroom from the bathroom. Pick an appropriate line along the floor, and pretend there is a wall along that line. Then you will know what to do on each side of that line.
Click to expand...

I agree completely with this method. This would be the best way to comply with the requirements.
 
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