Our Community in Fairfax County, Virginia

In the spring of 2002, inadequate emergency exits from a townhouse basement in Fairfax County caused a fatality during a fire emergency.  In the same year, an entire family perished in a basement in Montgomery County, Md. due to a similar problem.  In an effort to address this growing problem, on 1 October 2004, a new residential building code will go into effect throughout Virginia.  The code change, which was included in the 2000 Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code, will have a significant impact on homeowners who plan to finish a basement to create additional living space.

The plans for all finished basement projects in non-sprinklered homes submitted on or after1 October 2004, must now identify an emergency escape window or door from the basement to the outside.  This new requirement will save lives during fire emergencies when the main means of exit from a basement cannot be used.

With affordable housing at a minimum, and with the population of Fairfax County continuing to grow, fire safety in finished basements is a priority.  There are a number of options that can be used to meet this new building code requirement for an alternative exit from a finished basement:

• Escape window or door opening directly to the outside, such as in a walk-out basement.


• Escape window or door opening into a window well or areaway.


• Door opening to a bulkhead enclosure (swing-open steel basement doors).

Many unfinished basements may already have an emergency escape window or door.  However, if a basement lacks any of these options, one must be provided by cutting a new opening into an existing foundation wall and by constructing a window well or areaway.

Specific requirements and additional information can be found in the publication, "Finished Basements and the Fairfax County Typical Finished Basement Details," which can be found online.

For more information or to request a printed copy of the publication, contact Brian Foley with the Building Plan Review and Permits Division, Department of Public Works and Environmental Service, at 703-222-0114, TTY 711, or via e-mail at bprmail@fairfaxcounty.gov.

Want to dig out a basement under your house?  Fine.  Want to add a bathroom or kitchen in your basement?  That's okay.  Want to convert your garage to a studio apartment?  Sounds great.  Want to do these things without a Fairfax County building permit that corresponds to the work being done?  BAD IDEA!

Like other communities, Westlawn has its share of homeowners who have made or are making major improvements to their home without getting a county building permit for the work being done either by themselves or by a contractor.  The results are unsafe structures that are at risk of collapsing, exploding, or catching fire.  For example:

• Some people have dug into the earth and built walls for basements or garages out of cinder blocks that were not filled with steel and reinforced concrete.  Such walls look sturdy, but over the years, they would not be able to resist the incredible pressure of the soil, which could lead to the entire house collapsing.


• One resident just outside the Westlawn neighborhood had their gas cut off in the middle of December by the gas company.  The residents had noticed a gas leak and had called the gas company to fix it.  When the repairmen arrived, they found that the homeowner had extended the gas line into a converted garage without a building permit, and the house was at risk of exploding.

Fairfax County has created and fine-tuned its building code based on a vast amount of data and experience.  You may not know why your new deck has to have bolts of a certain size placed no more than a certain number of inches apart, but the county does.  They've seen the collapsed decks and the injured people resulting from decks that were not built as sturdy as the building code requires.

If you are having a contractor perform a major renovation of your home, insist on getting a copy of the Fairfax County building permit before the work begins.  Check to make sure that the permit applies to your property and that it describes all the work that is being done.  Although no longer required by law, it is a good idea to display your building permit in a front window of your house while the work is being done.  Otherwise, neighbors who mistakenly suspect that the work is being done without a permit may contact the county and use up valuable county resources to verify that a permit exists and that it covers the work being done.

Most importantly, never finish paying for the work until you have a signed and dated document from a county building inspector that certifies that the work was done correctly.

It's never too late to get a building permit.  You should apply for one, even if the work was completed years ago.  Maybe the inspector will find:

• A simple mistake in your basement kitchen that is slowly poisoning your family with carbon monoxide.


• Faulty plumbing in your basement bathroom that could lead to a flooded basement, damaging walls and shorting out electrical circuits that could lead to a fire.


• An improper extension to a gas line that could lead to a leak and an explosion.


• Inadequately reinforced basement walls that could crack and render your house uninhabitable.


• A deck that was not properly bolted onto the house.

What Can Neighbors Do

If work is being done on a house anywhere in Mason District and you suspect that the homeowner does not have a building permit, your first step is to call Supervisor Gross' office at 703-256-7717.  Her staff will check a database to see if that address has an active building permit.  If there is a permit and you are still concerned, her office will check with county building code officials to get the details of the permit.  In a few cases, homeowners have received a permit for a simple modification and then proceeded to make a much more extensive modification, which is against the law.

If the work that you see being done does not match up with a valid Fairfax County building permit, Supervisor Gross will request that a building inspector visit the worksite.  It doesn't matter if the work is being done only on weekends when county offices are closed.  Inspectors can visit a worksite anytime to check on the work that has been done.  If they see that a permit is required, most homeowners will comply.  For the handful of others, the county has a legal mechanism that takes a while, but almost always gets the homeowner to comply.

The most common reason that do-it-yourself homeowners do not get a building permit is ignorance of the law, not a premeditated attempt to violate the law.  Most of us living in Westlawn grew up in another country, another state, or another county, which all have different requirements for when you need a building permit.  While it is irritating to think that your neighbor is trying to get away with something, they most likely are simply trying to improve their home.