Carbon monoxide alarm requirements for Minnesota, including the little details

Carbon monoxide alarms are required in just about every type of dwelling in Minnesota, and it’s been this way for several years now, but there is still a lot of confusion about this requirement.

General Requirement - This text comes directly from Minnesota Statute 299F.50:

Every single family dwelling and every dwelling unit in a multifamily dwelling must have an approved and operational carbon monoxide alarm installed within ten feet of each room lawfully used for sleeping purposes.

One and one half story houses: a carbon monoxide alarm installed on the first floor within ten feet of the stairway to the second floor does not count as being installed within ten feet of the second floor bedroom.  The second floor bedroom will generally begin at the top of the stairway, not the bottom.

What constitutes ten feet: Measure from the door of the sleeping room to the carbon monoxide alarm.  If you have to pass through a wall, floor, ceiling, or doorway with a door that can be closed, it doesn’t count.

How this law gets enforced: For the most part, it doesn’t.  Building inspection departments may notify homeowners that carbon monoxide alarms are required, but the intent of this law wasn’t to make building inspection departments enforce carbon monoxide alarms (although many still do).   The exception to this is Minneapolis and South Saint Paul; both of those cities require carbon monoxide alarms for their Truth-in-Sale of Housing programs.

Definition of “installed”: this text comes directly from the Minnesota statute:

“Installed” means that an approved carbon monoxide alarm is hard-wired into the electrical wiring, directly plugged into an electrical outlet without a switch, or, if the alarm is battery powered, attached to the wall of the dwelling.

While the official definition doesn’t mention mounting the detector on the ceiling, that’s ok too. If a carbon monoxide alarm is sitting on someone’s desk, it’s not installed.  I’ve actually had several homeowners try to convince me otherwise.

When to replace: Approximately 99.3% of the CO alarms that I come across are made by Kidde or First Alert.  Kidde CO alarms last seven years, while First Alert CO alarms last five years.  You won’t find that information published on either of their web sites though; you actually need to call them to get that info.

Where to mount carbon monoxide alarms: follow the installation instructions from the manufacturer.  In general, carbon monoxide alarms can be mounted high or low on the walls, as long as children can’t mess with them.

The CO alarm pictured above was actually hanging from a cable jack on the wall of a kid’s toy room; I’d consider that a poor location.

Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email- Home Inspections in Minnesota

    

Egress Window Requirements - A Quick Quiz

One of the most common questions I get from clients that I do Truth in Housing inspections for is about egress windows - specifically, "What's wrong with my window size?"  If you live in an older home, there's a good chance that none of your windows meet today's egress requirements.  Try this simple quiz below - which of these windows meet today's egress requirements?
A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

To properly answer this question, you would really need more information that just a photo - you would also need to know how tall and wide the window opening is, how high the window is off the floor, and how close the window is to the exterior grade.   For proper egress, windows must open at least 24" high, 20" wide, and have a net openable area of 5.7 square feet.  That's a large window!  This means that if a window only meets the minimum height and width requirements, the net openable area will only be 3.33 square feet (24x20 =  480.  480 / 144 = 3.33).  If a window opens 24" high, it would need to be 34.2" wide to meet the minimum opening requirement.   Besides the opening requirement, the window also needs to be within 44" of the floor.  Below is an excellent diagram that illustrates two different windows that both meet the minimum requirements.

Egress Window Requirements

Quiz Results
The only window that met egress requirements was the last one, F. 

• 'A' had a net openable area less that 5.7 sf.   
• 'B' was too high above the floor, had less than 5.7 sf of net openable area, and was less than 24" high.  
• 'C' was less than 5.7 sf.  
• 'D' was slightly more than 44" above the floor.

Why do some people label only a basement room with a tiny window a 'non-conforming' bedroom, while often none of the windows in the home meet egress?  It's because they don't know better.  Just for the record, there are several more requirements for a window to meet egress, and there are several ways for smaller windows to be 'conforming', but the details get... quite detailed.  Also, today's building code no longer uses the term 'egress window' - they're more broadly categorized as Emergency Escape and Rescue Openings.  As always, please feel free to email me with any specific questions.

RELATED POSTS:
Non-Conforming Bedroom?  How About 'Not A Bedroom'?
Bedrooms Don't Need Closets


Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections - Email - Twin Cities Home Inspector