No window bedroom

Whoa, that is a crazy layout BlackSpider.

In WA it's also illegal to have a room without windows. We wanted our theatre room to be built with no windows, but it was impossible, so ended up getting the smallest cheapest ones available that we plan to board up / block out once we complete that room.
 
Personally I couldn't think of anything worse than a bedroom without windows. We have a plasma in our room and geeze it heats up a fair bit. Summer without a breeze in a room would be unbearable I think.
 
Jas, the Building Code of Australia requires bedrooms to have at least ventilation equal to 10% of the floor area and light (glazing) equal to 20%. I think that skylights would give an unsatisfactory feel to the room.

You will need approval from ACTPLA to put in a window otherwise, when you sell, it will show up on the Building Report (which you will have to provide) as being unauthriosed work and give any potential buyer an "in" to chisel the price.
You are probably not selling at present but I thought I;d giveyou the "full version".....

Also, people dont often realise but unauthorised building work is not insured and is not insurable unless approved....just a thought
 
Jas, the Building Code of Australia requires bedrooms to have at least ventilation equal to 10% of the floor area and light (glazing) equal to 20%. I think that skylights would give an unsatisfactory feel to the room.

You will need approval from ACTPLA to put in a window otherwise, when you sell, it will show up on the Building Report (which you will have to provide) as being unauthriosed work and give any potential buyer an "in" to chisel the price.
You are probably not selling at present but I thought I;d giveyou the "full version".....

Also, people dont often realise but unauthorised building work is not insured and is not insurable unless approved....just a thought

Hey great points, in particular the last one... food for thought!

Jas, you could always call it a theatre room and put a roof skylight in :)

Or...have you considered making an opening in a wall (preferably one that faces onto a living or other bedroom) and putting plantation shutters in to close it up or leave it open, for ventilation? I've also seen this in homes and it looks good and also still allows for adjoining room windows to pass some air into the room.

Legally can't be called a bedroom but when you go to sell, buyers can make up their own mind, depending on how you furnish it.
 
Jas, the Building Code of Australia requires bedrooms to have at least ventilation equal to 10% of the floor area and light (glazing) equal to 20%.

Really, is the glazing requirement that high?
A high percentage of dwellings would fail this rule in my opinion.

So a bedroom of 12sqm floor area would need a window/s an area of 2.4sqm?
So if it had a window 1.8m wide x 1.2m high, it would fail?
 
u can get a big 52 inch tv each side with screensaver of what ever view u want, mountains snowy, ocean, highrise appartment etc :D
 
Really, is the glazing requirement that high?
A high percentage of dwellings would fail this rule in my opinion.
So my old PPoR lounge should have 5sqm of window. Mmmkay. It has somewhat less than 2, less again because there is a window aircon in one of the windows, and because windows let in a lot of cold air the remainder of one window is barricaded up with very heavy curtains.

Which leaves the small window, about 40cmx90cm (its above a boarded-up door, about 3 metres off the ground), which is enough to light the entire room so you don't need to switch the light on until dusk.

My old PPoR sitting room has no window at all, just a door with glass panels. Mind you the house dates back to 1876 and was never designed to be a house, its been retrofitted, but still ...

Who makes these silly building requirements? They must make new houses absolutely suck to have such a high proportion of glazing in winter ... brrrrrrr.
 
i recently inspected a house in Downer (Canberra) and it had been renovated rather strangely. Basically, they got the ex-govvie house and gutted it and then built a complete new house all around so that it filled the whole block. They ended up with the walls of the house being on the boundary of the property and therefore the walls also became the fences. This was most strange. Basically it was a McMansion house filling up the 480 sq metre block.

Anyway, it had 4 or 5 bedrooms, 3 with ensuites, 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms which all lead out to the enclosed pool. Anyway, only one bedroom, the master, had windows on the side walls. The other bedrooms only had skylights (which didn't open). I immediately questioned the lack of the windows to the agent and he said it was ok. But for me personally, no way could i stay in a room with no windows.

I was once travelling in Taiwan and i was booked into a hotel and i went and checked my room and it had no windows - only an AC. So i changed rooms as i couldn't stay in that room and strangely enough, the guy at the reception said a lot of Westerners request to change from that room but the Asians don't. It may be a cultural thing.

Back to the house in Downer, can you imagine raising children, which become teenagers, and having them living in rooms with no windows - ie no fresh air etc?

I am still puzzled as to how this house plan got approved by ACTPLA. A number of things stick to my mind about this house - it covered at least 80% of the block; the walls of the house were on the boundary line (which i thought was impossible in areas of suburban Canberra); and as already mentioned, just about all the bedrooms had no windows - and finally, it was a renovation that was done way over the top. Someone was trying to build an executive townhouse type of thing in suburban Canberra and they spent a lot of money on it and it was over done...

Anyway, the house got sold for 450k so someone liked it....

BTW - is anyone else like me and spends a lot of Saturdays just checking out open houses?

g


Wow, that Downer house does sound strange. ACTPLA requires at least 3m setback from one boundary and 1.5m from the other. The larger setback is required by ACTEW for their machines to get to the rear of the block as, for those of you not familiar with Canberra, in the older areas such as Downer, the electricity service runs through the rear of blocks, not along the street. The single res site coverage of 80% sounds a lot too.

Unlike NSW, in Canberra, people do construct stuff and get retrospective approval (please dont try this in NSW) but I think the construction you mentioned is a stretch and someone must have given approval (maybe after a long lunch):)

I'm checking with a building surveyor where I used to work about the 10% and 20% BCA requirements mentioned earlier in this thread and I'll get back to you.
 
arghhh !!! I goofed big time...you can see I dont design much anymore :eek:

the Building Surveyor just told me "Light is 10% of floor area and ventilation is 5%".

argh !!!! sorry. hehe, I trained under the old Uniform Building Regulations in Victoria and the requirements seemed to be larger than they are these days.

arghh!!!! embarassed much !!!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek: maybe I need to stick to town planning !!!!!
 
arghhh !!! I goofed big time...you can see I dont design much anymore :eek:

the Building Surveyor just told me "Light is 10% of floor area and ventilation is 5%".

argh !!!! sorry. hehe, I trained under the old Uniform Building Regulations in Victoria and the requirements seemed to be larger than they are these days.

arghh!!!! embarassed much !!!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek: maybe I need to stick to town planning !!!!!

i've done an extra bedroom in my apartment in melbourne. i made a 120sqm apartment with 2 bedrooms and added one in an L shape lounge. i got a fogged window and cavity sliding door. approved and inspected by council with no issues with my buildling surveyor. The room can fit a double bed with a small table. i basically jumped my value by 100k

and that 10 % light 5% is correct.
 
The place for sale in the next street to me with NO windows in any of the bedrooms worries me ... if they can't legally call it a bedroom, how is it advertised as a 2br house? The house only has one window, in the kitchen. The other rooms (including lounge and bathroom) are windowless.

Or is this a state-by-state thing?
 
A friend owns a huge 4 bedroom Queenslander - only one bedroom has an external window. The other 3 have french doors to what were originally open verandahs but have been enclosed. It passed all inspections when purchased around 8 or 9 years ago.
Marg
 
Builders don't necessary know building codes all that well especially if it's to do planning aspects. Call up local authority to ask them. Or ask your Architect/ Building Surveyor who may be able to help you.

In Victoria, the habitable room with natural light/ ventilation rule only applies to building classes other than single dwelling (class 1a), ie hospitals, aged care, etc.
 
info

The info Savanah put up is correct for a type 1 and type 1a class building.
The BCA has different requiremets based on what class the building is.

You can also borrow light from another room which has the windows, which is where the french doors should pass muster, as they allow natural light into the room

Natural lighting to a room in a Class 1 building may come through a glazed panel or
opening from an adjoining room (including an enclosed verandah) if—
(i)
the glazed panel or opening has an area of not less than 10% of the floor area of
the room to which it provides light; and
(ii)
the adjoining room has windows with an aggregate light transmitting area of not
less than 10% of the combined floor areas of both rooms; and
(iii)
the areas specified in (i) and (ii) may be reduced as appropriate if direct natural
light is provided from another source.

Remember though that you also have ventilation requirements

hope this helps

Adrien Mamet
www.mametconstructions.com.au
 
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