Charlie:
Anita in Westchase. She says, “I’d like to add a bedroom window.” She wants to know are there any legal requirements on how far away the house is from the fence before a window can be added?
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Tom:
Not from a fence. The fence would not be the issue. You have a couple of things. One is egress in a bedroom. You have to have a certain amount of opening in that window, and whoever you buy your window from should be able to coach you on this. In case there’s a fire, you’re able to get out. That’s the first thing. The second thing is if it’s towards a setback, and it’s not allowed in either your homeowners’ association, usually not the city. Usually, it’s the homeowners’ association that says you can’t have them, but that’s pretty rare. I would say no, there’s not much problem there. It’s the egress that’s the big deal.
Charlie:
She may want to think about the view too.
Tom:
The fence. Sometimes you want some natural light.
Charlie:
That’s true.
Tom:
Some nice blinds, a little natural light.
Charlie:
There are other options for that, right? You could always put one of those tube things in.
Tom:
You can do solar tubes, you can sun tubes. I tell you, in a bedroom it’s not a good idea because you can’t turn them off when you want to sleep in.
Charlie:
That’s true. Actually, they have the thing now where they have the diaphragm that closes on them and shuts the light off.
Tom:
Charlie is doing his homework.
Charlie:
Yeah.