Commercial Building Renovation Questions

cacwgrlc

Hi. My name is Aaron and I'm new to the site. I am a General Contractor for residential construction. My questions are on a commercial building my wife wants to buy to renovate. It was built in 1930 and has been added on to several times. It has a foundation on part of it, on the other part of it, it is just sitting on blocks. I plan to put a foundation under the part on blocks, but don't know if I need to on the part that has one. The part that has one does not have much of a crawl space. I've heard that a conventional bank won't loan on anything that does not have a min of 18" of crawl space? Is this true? The building also does not have a bathroom and I've also heard since it's a commercial building that I have to put in a handicap bathroom. Since this bathroom will just be for my wife's use (she plans on making this building a antique store), does it still need to be a handicap bathroom. I don't want to ask the local county (Oregon) these questions, as I do not want to draw attention to this building, as none of the work that has been done on it over the years has been permitted, so any help with this project would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

SalesMGR1011

If your buying this and not aware of those type of issues, to me it would be a bad investment. In our area if you were buying and changing any use of it the city would make it all brought up to code.

cacwgrlc

The building is already zoned as General Commercial, so I would not be changing the use of it per say. Would the whole building still need to be brought up to current code on everything, including things we are not changing... i.e., it doesn't now have heat and to put in a HVAC, the electrical panel needs to be increased. Would I then also have to bring the whole electrical system up to code? I know I haven't had to on old homes I've remodeled but understand commercial buildings are quite different.

SLSTech

Please see replies above - your welcome

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SLSTech

Visit the local code & zoning office - but generally yes - once you start, you will fix everything to bring it up to current codes. All areas of the country are different - they may have special waivers or requirements, which we can't really tell you about

Besides - your wife & antiques & an electrical fire does not equal a good combination

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Alabama Full Service Remodeling, Renovation, and Preservation by SLS Construction
Certified Energy Efficiency Audits, Ratings, Modeling, Verifications, & Consulting
Residential, Commercial, & Industrial Infrared Thermography Scans

cacwgrlc

Thanks for the replies. That is what I was afraid of... opening a huge can of worms. I am licensed for residental construction, but am not licensed for commercial work, which again I know has different rules and regulations. If we continue with this purchase, (which I'm thinking we may not if it opens a can of worms), I will of course go through all the proper channels. I just didn't want to put a red flag to the county on the building for the current owner's sake Good thing I didn't post the actual address on the internet, huh? .

I'm still hoping for any help I can get and any advice before I break the bad news to my wife ...

copusbuilder

I would think you could have all sorts of rules that might or might not affect you dependent on where your located. If your in California or the Northeast then walk from it

If your in the slightly less regulated areas of the country you might get away with a profit?

As mentioned, talk to the City or appropriate authorities

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AkA Richard Cranium

cacwgrlc

The building is in a small rural community in Oregon. The city hasn't been much help and the county keeps sending me back to City... The joys of living in a small town.

The place is a good price (and I'm discovering why), and I'm paying cash for it. I want to make it a loanable piece of property over time for resale purposes, and use it for my wife to do her little business in it in the meantime. As I mentioned the foundation in an area of it isn't even a foundation... the addition is sitting on blocks .

I planned to put a foundation in this area, but in meeting with a foundation contractor, he advised me to lift the whole building and put in a whole new foundation in as one area that does currently have a foundation does not have enough crawl space. Does anyone happen to know if a commercial lender will loan on a place that has inadequate crawl space? I don't want to put a whole new foundation in if I don't need to. That question probalby has to do with the local stuff as well, but as you can imagine, no lenders will even talk to me about it since I'm not looking for a loan right now.

copusbuilder

Loaning on the height of a crawl space would be an area thing. The town I live in "Crockett Texas" has a square that is 100 years or so old. All the buildings are pier ands beam (blocks) and have limited height. What works here may not work there?

But you are right, small towns are tough. They tell you what they want you to know

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AkA Richard Cranium

woodmagman

Can not go fishing without worms...oh yeh you can. Get the right information, talk to the city and fire marshalls office and see if ther is any outstanding violaitions, ask for an inspeciton and see if they will give you one.

Kgmz

Is the building empty right now?

What type of construction is the building, wood frame, concrete block, brick, etc?

Now for the bad news depending on how tough your local jusridiction is. You will have to upgrade and update almost everything.

The first killer item is, upgrading the building so it meets the current earthquake code. This means new foundations or retrofitting some type of anchors, etc. And also ties to the roof, second floor, etc.

I looked at a old interesting brick building awhile back. But once I researched everything and had a engineer look at it, I found out it would be cheaper to build a new building in the same style.

As for the bathroom, yes it has to be handicap accessible. The last time I asked the building department about this, their answer was you don't have to do it but are you going to discriminate and not hire a handicapped person if they apply for a job. So if you skirt this requirement you will be breaking another law.


And why does it not have a bathroom? Are there not sewer hookups near it, or is there a problem where it cannot have a septic system onsite. You better find out about this, because there may be a problem like I described. And if there are bad soils, high water table, etc. for a septic system. Then be prepared to spend big money on a system, something in the $40,000 to $80,000 range for a commercial building. There are a lot of problem areas in Oregon for septic systems, like the area south of Bend and all around La Pine. In fact they had a moratorium on septic systems for awhile until they found out which experimental systems would work in the area.


So research everything and you may find out why the building is cheap. And you may be better off to buy some land and build something new.

wellbuilthome

Here in NY i'm doing a remodel to a store that stands alone with its owe parking lot and dumpster enclosure . We added 1100 sf and rebuilt the rest of the building .Our bath room did not have to be handy caped accessible because we did not serve food. We did need a handy caped parking area and a ramp into the building . fire sines and emergency lites at exits. but it seemed easy once they cut me the permit . We had to hook the gutters into the storm sewer and run new 4" ductile Iron pipe into the sewer main . (big hoopla ) Ive never seen so many hard hats running around with a site plan that didn't even look like the job we where doing . WOW! I would put a deposit down with a provision that you would need approval from the town for the purpose you have in mind . That way you could drill the building inspector for info .You could go to a engineer in the town and they could get you thru the zoning ,planing board . It shouldn't be to bad for a small shop .

fireguy

If you are a GC, why don't just you buy the code books? After you study the books, and you stil have questions, you can contact the building inspector. If you wish to remain annymous, contact an attorny and have them ask the questions. Or contact another contractor to ask the questions. I have been trying to find commercial property for my business. My attorney has been doing the leg work for me. That is less expensive than me taking time from my business. And I do not have to deal with the City. It sounds as if the building inspectors do not know exactly how to deal with this matter. What part of rural Oregon? Here on the dry side, I deal with some good inspectors and some who are not. Which is not any different from a couple of jobs I did on the wet side.


Code books 503.873.1157 oboaonline.org
The Code book for existing buildings is $55.00

Bodger

I did a commercial job in Los Angeles last year. I had the toughest inspector imaginable on the whole ADA requirement package. He measured everthing. The property owner spent many, many thousands on getting up to code for handicap. And the architect was a total slug, I had to correct and correct and re-draw and stand in line down at the city until I was blue.