What do you do about a narrow hallway?
The eye does not always catch it. But when the movers tell you, time after time, that a bed or a table will not pass through and has to be lifted in by crane, or that you will always have to pay for taking it apart and putting it back together, you understand that moving any piece of furniture in this home is going to be an ordeal.
And what if you have just received a new apartment from the contractor and its hallway is narrower than the standard allows?
When we carry out a home inspection (bedek bayit) to find the defects in a new apartment, we occasionally come across one that should never have happened: a hallway that is too narrow and does not meet the standard.
We saw exactly that recently in a residential project in Jerusalem.
The standard hallway width
A hallway must be 90 cm wide. Anything narrower does not meet the standard.
The defect violates the Planning and Building Regulations, both the old and the new.
A narrow hallway (80 cm wide, for example, as we found in one inspection) means
difficulty escaping in an emergency such as a fire, trouble getting furniture through, and less comfortable everyday passage when several people use it at once.
What to demand from a contractor who built the hallway too narrow
When a hallway turns out to be too narrow, the contractor has to chip the plaster off both walls and finish them with a skim coat (a thin finishing layer), which reduces the defect by a few centimeters. If that repair is not possible, the residents must be compensated for the apartment's loss of value.
Cost of the repair (if it is possible): about ₪4,000
The engineers of Arad Bedek Bayit, led by building engineer Ron Arad, whom courts appoint as their own expert on construction defects. The company has been inspecting apartments and buildings since 2001. Engineer Ron Arad · More about the company