The point I was trying to make is that while your water heater ventilation plan may be kosher for the water heater itself, it is woefully inadequate for the studio. My water heater is very similar to yours, but it's in the garage that will remain garage when I'm done with my project.koberlin1 wrote:It sounds as though I should look for a similar description of garage water installtion codes for San Diego as your Camarillo link earlier... I believe in the description you sent me there were ventillation guidelines for ducted water heaters. I believe my heater has no ducted intake air source...it just pulls air in from a general opening at the pilot light area..
That's correct. (Well, almost -- I'm planning to get a "cooling only" unit. I'll heat with a space heater when needed, and I suspect that will be close to never, given how well insulated the space will be.) That was the "aha!" that my climate control requirements and my ventilation requirements were separate, and as such, they could be addressed with separate systems. Prior to that I was so focused on finding an air conditioning system that could give me fresh air -- once I separated the two, I was home free.Your Fantech's sole purpose is to feed fresh air into the studio and move old air out yes? The actual heating and cooling is done with your split unit?
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "would have to suffice for building to code." Code is a pass-fail test. You can't be partially to code. You either are or you aren't -- and without building department inspections, you have no way of proving that you are to code. In order to get those inspections, you need a permit. In order to get a permit, you need plans approved by the city. In order to get plans approved by the city, your plans have to be drawn to demonstrate that code will be met. Merely having professionals doing the work does not guarantee that their work will be code compliant. (One could make the argument that having municipal inspections doesn't guarantee it either -- I agree, but then the city is on the hook for that.)My reasoning for starting without building permits was as follows: due to time constraints (as currently I have no studio to do my work in), as well as budget contraints (as you point out) I decided that working with a professional studio designer, contractor, HVAC installer, and electrician, avoiding any self installation work, would have to suffice for building to code.
I think you owe it to yourself to explore the situation with your local building department. You should be able to visit them and get answers to your questions. You might be able to remain nameless and addressless in your research. If you come across as someone who jumped the gun, realizes that you have made a grave mistake, and truly wants to do things above board, you may find a sympathetic ear with advice on how to make your project legal -- although, depending on what you have done so far, you may have to undo or redo some things. I honestly don't know.SO, in your opinion, and me being about 85% finished, and me losing some sleep over it, is it worth me approaching the city for a permit or is that totally unrealistic?
You may ultimately learn that what you are doing is illegal and can't be made legal. If that's the case, then you're pretty much screwed.
You will then have to live with the consequences, which may be as minor as raised eyebrowse when reselling your home, or as major as punitive fines from either the city or the HOA or both, and possibly an order to demolish everything -- not to mention possible safety issues that could put lives in danger.CC&Rs, and sometimes cities, generally prohibit full-on garage conversions because garages that can store no vehicles can put a burden on steet parking or common parking areas. It's quite understandable, really. I have lived in a place where garages were used almost exclusively for storage and all the cars were parked outside. It was not pleasant.
Bottom line, you may be trying to do this project in the wrong house.
Contrary to popular (mis)belief, we can't do anything we want in/to our homes just because we own them. My wife an I literally sought out a house in our area that had enough garage space for me to do our project -- and even then I was lucky, because I had not done the preliminary research to confirm that it was even legal beforehand. Fortunately for me, it was -- albeit with limitations that made compliance a challenge on numerous issues that I have detailed in my thread.You have my sympathies, sir... The reason I started that thread is because I really wanted to help people avoid the mess you're in right now. I'm sorry you didn't discover it prior to starting construction.
