cobbeldi on mon 27 oct 97
This is a question for all of the potters with gas kilns. Do all of you
live in the country where there is usually a minimum of zoning laws?
Anyone living in the city or the suburbs with a gas kiln? We're thinking
of moving and this is a concern for me--don't want to get stuck in an area
where I could not build a gas kiln. Right now I'm living in the middle of
nowhere and could put an out-house in my front yard and no one would care!
Debra in Alabama
Cameron Harman on tue 28 oct 97
Predicting what some zoning official will do is an exercise
in futility. however, a commercially made gas kiln may come
with approvals of some of the following organizations :
American Gas Association, Underwriters Laboratories, NFPA or
various insurance underwriters.
It helps you to make your case when you compare the kiln to
a oven or home heating furnace, especially when you point
out the approval of some of the above mentioned
associations. Actually, I have always treated the kiln as a
household appliance the same as an oven or furnace and have
never asked the local authorities to get involved. However,
if you are considered to be a business, then that becomes a
different matter and you have to have an occupancy permit or
some other such excuse for a tax. You then become subject to
the whims of people who don't know a lot.
It may help to note that the building codes in a *lot* of
places base themselves of the NFPA (National Fire Prevention
Assoc.) codes. Almost any commercial gas kiln will comply
with those recommendations, just ask the manufacturer. If
they don't, you really are taking a risk with it anyway. If
they do it adds a lot to your argument that the kiln is OK.
All the kilns that I design are custom designs and most are
industrial. In industry you need to comply with the buyer's
insurance company regulations. Normally that means either
Factory Mutual Association or Industrial Risk Insurers. Both
base most of their requirements on the NFPA requirements.
these requirements have been worked out with the input of
*lots* of people and are usually quite reasonable.
Some companies do not use insurance companies that require
anything special, but the kilns are always designed to the
same safe standards, after all, why take unnecessary risks
with the health and safety of the firemen. However,
companies that design kilns for potter's use do not always
comply with the recognized safety standards .. too
expensive, they say, I'll leave you to draw you own
conclusions to fit your own situation.
For zoning applications, the kiln really should be certified
by the builder that they comply with the bulk of the safety
standards. That will help you a lot when it comes to
convincing a local official that the kiln is OK.
The insurance companies do not seem to make a distinction
between gas kilns said to be portable and those which are
not... safety is safety.
Pardon my ramblings, I hope this helps.
Cameron
--
**********************************************************
Cameron G. Harman, Jr. 215-245-4040 fax 215-638-1812
e-mail kilns@kilnman.com
Ceramic Services, Inc 1060 Park Ave. Bensalem, PA 19020
see our web site at http://www.kilnman.com
THE place for solutions to ALL your kiln and drier problems
**********************************************************
Fred Paget on wed 29 oct 97
Haw! This is a good one! I live in Mill Valley ( a close in suburb of San
Francisco) and I do have an outhouse on my front yard! (The workmen who are
earthquake rectrofitting my house put it there 2 weeks ago and there it
sits. It has not caused any comment.)
I know of two potters in town who have gas kilns -there must be more-and
they are highly regarded. Unless you create clouds of black smoke there
seems to be no objection.Of course they say that 50 percent of the people
who live in this town are artists of one kind or another and maybe we
forgive their foibles.
>This is a question for all of the potters with gas kilns. Do all of you
>live in the country where there is usually a minimum of zoning laws?
>Anyone living in the city or the suburbs with a gas kiln? We're thinking
>of moving and this is a concern for me--don't want to get stuck in an area
>where I could not build a gas kiln. Right now I'm living in the middle of
>nowhere and could put an out-house in my front yard and no one would care!
>Debra in Alabama
Fred Paget---Mill Valley,CA,USA
Never try, never win!
Jean Lehman on wed 29 oct 97
A warning about zoning regulations...
We applied for and received a "special exception" for my "in the home
business" from our zoning board. I also supplied information on the safety
of the gas kiln planned for our back yard. The zoning board was not
interested in any of that. They rejected the kiln because it was not going
to be "in" the house. According to them, an "in the home" business must be
conducted "in" the home or garage.
Since open burning IS allowed in our area, I am sure I could have had my
outdoor gas kiln, if I had just kept my mouth shut and done it in a couple
of years.
When dealing with zoning regulations, make sure you understand what they
mean and what information is wanted. Don't give them more than they want,
or it could backfire (no pun intended).
Jean
---------------------->
Jean Lehman, in Lancaster, PA
j_lehman@acad.FandM.EDU (that's an _underscore_ not a hyphen)
http://www.art-craftpa.com/lehman.html
Check out the 1997 Strictly Functional Pottery National at:
http://www.art-craftpa.com/art-craftpa.html
Mark D. Sweany on thu 30 oct 97
I'm in the planning stages of building a gas kiln in my back yard. I've
already decided that, should any of my neighbors ask about it, I will
tell them that it's a barbeque and smoker. Let someone try and prove
it's not.
I guess I should add that I'm just a hobbiest so this storey would be a
lot mere believable than it would if I was running a business out of the
house.
----
Mark Sweany
m_pswean@primenet.com
Richard Aerni on thu 30 oct 97
I've seen a lot of good advice come out about this so far. I went
through this nightmare as well when my partner Mike Frasca and I bought
and attempted to renovate several inner city buildings into studio and
dwelling space. I won't go through all the particulars here, but there
is an article that appeared in the Dec 1980 Studio Potter Magazine that
chronicles the experience. We were able to get the Cincinnati City
Council to pass a notwithstanding ordinance on our behalf, and also
worked with the Depts of Zoning and Planning to develop a new zoning
category that would cover mixed use occupancy in high density urban
areas. If you get hold of someone with vision (read: someone who just
doesn't sit behind a desk and fill out forms) on your side, you will be
in a far better position.
Dealing with the Building Dept about our exterior gas kiln was another
matter entirely. There it was a case of grinding the b**tards down, as
we went through two years of red tape before finally securing our
permit--the only one granted in the city's history to a non-commercial,
UL rated kiln. Essentially, we just built it and dared them to shut us
down. It got down to the fact that we were one of the few people putting
money into the area, and it meant a hell of a lot more to us to have that
kiln than it did to the Building Dept to shut it down. We did file
plans, had the EPA measure the buoyant plume of the kiln exhaust, take
pollution readings, etc, and also got letters of recommendation from
experts (Univ. Profs of Ceramics) attesting to the general harmless
nature of the enterprise. Eventually, in order to close out paperwork on
our case, they gave us the permit. I would second John Baymore's advice
NOT to allow the kiln to be labelled a "High Heat Appliance".
Essentially this is a furnace that fires at temps over 2000 degrees
Fahrenheit. Getting into this category will lead you into a whole rat's
nest of building code problems, as that is the same category in which you
will find brick works, steel mills, etc. This requires floors, walls,
and levels of fire separation in your building that are essentially
impossible to retrofit into an existing building. If you have to only
tell one fib in your life, namely that you fire to only 1900 degrees, it
might be the time to do it.
The one truly ludicrous element in our travail was the incredible
determination of the Historic Conservation Dept to make sure that our
kiln had an "historic facade and construction", in order to fit into the
surrounding historic neighborhood.
Good luck,
Richard Aerni
Bloomfield, NY
Bob Hanlin on thu 30 oct 97
Debra in 'Bama
I have lived and worked in the city for 30 years. I asked once about
zoning for making and selling pottery (a one man installation). Well, it
seemed that there wasn't a lot of difference between me and the local GM
plant. So I took another tack. I asked about building a "hobby kiln" in
my back yard. No problem. The gas company set a separate meter (after the
city inspector checked the plumbing for leaks). I've been firing this
"hobby" kiln for quite a while now.
At 08:25 AM 10/27/97 EST, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>This is a question for all of the potters with gas kilns. Do all of you
>live in the country where there is usually a minimum of zoning laws?
>Anyone living in the city or the suburbs with a gas kiln? We're thinking
>of moving and this is a concern for me--don't want to get stuck in an area
>where I could not build a gas kiln. Right now I'm living in the middle of
>nowhere and could put an out-house in my front yard and no one would care!
>Debra in Alabama
>
>
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