Model Home Garage Finish

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bphgravity

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When a builder plans to finish the garage of a model home to be used for office space, do all the general requirements for receptacle placement and spacing need to be met?

In most cases, the office space will be converted back into a garage if and when the model is sold. This may be several years however...
 
Bryan,

Would the builder file anything at the Inspections Dept. that the use will be

for office rather than garage? I'm thinking, probally not, in that case it would

be on record as a garage and the wiring to suit. But that is JMO.
 
bphgravity, I would not have thought that such a simple question could be so complicated.

Did they leave the garage doors in place? What I'm getting at is would it take any work other than removing carpet and desk to convert this space back into a garage.

If it looks like habitable living space, without garage door I would make them put in the correct number of receptacles for residential. Someone may buy it and leave as is . It has a CO.

If they leave the garage door then it would take other work requiring a permit to convert to living space. So it's a garage.

Just an opinion.
 
I’m not sure whether doing it one way or the other would change anything significant (in terms of cost, anyway).

If the room is an office, you put receptacles on any wall wider than two feet, and place them so that no point along a wall is more than 6 feet from a receptacle. You can do that in a garage also.

If the room is a garage, you don’t need that many receptacles, but the HO will probably want them anyway. The only difference here is that they must be GFCI protected.

The room is not a bedroom, so it doesn’t need AFCI. It is not a dining room, kitchen, living room, etc., so it doesn’t need to be included in the SA circuits.

My suggestion is that you price (and install) the job with two 20 amp circuits, with receptacles spaced as though it were an office, and with GFCI protection for all receptacles.

If you are asking about the bare minimum to comply with code, then I tend to agree with Dale, but with one slight change. I would call it an office if (1) The garage door is gone AND (2) The floor is finished (carpet or tile or whatever). I would call it a garage if the garage door is still there, or if the floor is unfinished (i.e., just concrete).
 
Is it even within zoning or building codes for it to be an "Office"?

Egress issues?

Exit signs?

Better just call it a fancy garage and move on.
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In my town, we will give out a TCO for a garage/office at a developement. We consider the office a commercial space & don't care where the receps. are placed. At the end of the project, when it's converted back to a garage, we will then check for compliance & issue a CO.
 
In my area, model homes don't really have their finish inspection until that home itself is ready to be marketed. Makes things interesting if a code cycle ticked away in the mean time. Sometimes, the "Phase 1" model home is expected to be shown for a season, and years go by instead.
 
How is the inspection made? In our area, the building would not be permitted to be occupied without a CO. I would venter to say the BD might give them a CO without changing the wiring as an office, but I do not know. We have not come across this situation.
An office room in a dwelling is treated just like any other habitable room.
Bob brought up a good point about this being an "office" and the requirements as any other office space would require.
 
I think this is a simple question to answer. What does the blue print list it as? We have this same question with basement family rooms , dens ,and studies,that look like bedrooms.I go by what its called on the plan.If the BD aproved it then thats what they say it is.
 
Generally, builders have us wire a garage used as a sales office as any other room in a house, recepticle-wise, because they need the outlets for all the office stuff. They have us add extra lights, phones, etc, then pay us again to come back whenever the time comes to convert it back to a garage. If we decide to leave the recepticles, we just put a gfci breaker on the circuit. Before they can use the model, they have to get a use-and-occupancy, so all inspections must be complete.
 
I still don't think this is such a simple question because I believe bphgravity asked this from the inspectors point of view. As an inspector if you knew that the space was to be used as an office and yet only had one receptacle would you still sign off on the job.

It may meet the minimum code requirement for a garage but would the AHJ still be required to OK it for use as an office. Most of the time there is no heat in the garage and not bathroom facilities so the house will need to be approved. The house will need a final for power.

I don't think you can answer this question based on the NEC. Each jurisdiction would have to develope thier own standards for approval.

As Iwire stated they could not be forced to allow the use of this property for commercial purposes anyway. It's zoned residential.

In most cases I think accommodations are made to allow builders to continue with business usual because the local goverments wish to keep building up thier tax base.
 
Along the same lines a Dale points out, if this property is zoned residential can a business operate out of it in the first place?

What are the rules on an Electrical, Plumbing, Heavy Equipment, Chemical Manufacturing, Fireworks Wholesaler, etc... business operating from this building?

(Ok, I know the Chemical Manufacturer and Fireworks Wholesaler was a stretch)

Roger
 
If it determined o be an 'office' than it is not a dwelling unit and almost nothing is required by the NEC as far as outlets.
 
Ok, Bob, so now we have a temp. waiver to operate a commercial business in a residential area. ( for a home office the receptacle requirement are the same as any other habitable room ).

We have just got around any receptacle requirements.

We have employees work in said office.

We just installed exit and emergency lights.

Now are we going to have to install handicap accessible bathrooms. If we did away with the garage doors do we need any ramps.

Does that one receptacle we installed need to meet ADA requirements.
 
Dale all I am pointing out is that by changing the function of this space from what is shown on the drawings opens a whole can of worms.

IMO this is one of those times where the inspector has a tough choice....blink when they see it or enforce everything to letter of the code.

This is not exactly a 'home office' like many of us have, this is an office of business with no one living in the dwelling....it is kind of in between dwelling and a non-dwelling
 
iwire said:
You will never last here, that answer is to direct.
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And I still stand by it. I don't believe this would be any differant then a home office,Its an office in a garage. It is still a garage.Here the county makes you post a $10k bond for temp meters.Gas and Electric. When it complys you get your bond money back.
 
iwire said:
This is not exactly a 'home office' like many of us have, this is an office of business with no one living in the dwelling....it is kind of in between dwelling and a non-dwelling[/COLOR]
Click to expand...

Bob I have agreed on this point from the beginning.

My point is that you can't dig the answer out of the code book. It's just not there. I wouldn't want to see this on a test.

It would be very hard to enforce the code to the letter.

In the real world things like this are always solved. A wink and a nod.

I just ran into a situation where the Zoneing law contradicted the building code. A porch need a railing. Not enough set back from the road ( existing building ). The building inspector wrote it up as pre-existing. That made everything legal. Otherwise a variance would have been needed.
 
It is common practice where I live to the the garage of a model home as a temp. sales office. The garage is framed as usual. A pony wall is built up to enclose the garage door opening. A couple of man doors will be installed in this space. An air conditioner will be installed in the ceiling, powered from the GDO receptacle. We put up some track lighting & an extra receptacle or two. I have never heard a complaint from an inspector about zoning violations.
 
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