I have a playroom in my 3/4 finished basement that I am considering converting into a second kitchen. Does anyone know if there are any legal/building codes that would discourage this? My biggest challenge will be getting a drain for a sink run, but everything else should be fairly easy, or at least I think so anyway. I would so love to get my cake baking side job out of my kitchen. This would be an ideal location, and I would be out of my house paying rent. Any help would be appreciated. I live in VIRGINIA...not sure what the rules would be.

Call your local health department and if they would be inspecting you then they should be able to do a 'walk thru inspection' and write down all you would need to do to your basement. Also check with the local fire marshall and see if they require a commercial hood for your oven. Call your city/county for building codes.

For your plumbing if you are on sewer call the water board and see if you need a grease trap or if a grease interceptor will work. If you are on septic tank I would put one of the two on so you don't mess up your system with all the 'grease' from the icings.

HTH

I agree with tonyah. Start with the health dept. They can let you know what types of building materials are acceptable, etc. as well as what type of equipment they will require you to have. I live in IL, and to put a kitchen in my basement, they wanted me to install a 3-compartment sink, a handsink, and a mop sink, a grease trap, and all of it had to be done by a 'certified' plumber. Any electrical work that would need to be done also needed to be done by a certified electrician. Before I would have even been able to do anything, building plans would've had to be approved by the health dept and the building/zoning dept. It's such a racket! Of course, everyone has to charge you a $40-$50 fee for their 'blessing' too. grrrr... > Not trying to discourage you, but that is why I'm renting in someone else's kitchen!

Congratulations on your decision to become licensed. How excited you must be ... now you can totally go for the business! Here's a great thread for you to read:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-32550-.html

The bottom line is that licensing varies greatly from state to state and even city to city - so you have to check w/your area.

Wow...all i was thinking of doing was installing a sink, buy a stove, and already have a spare fridge...just tired of having this mess in my personal kitchen. I have someone helping me with the business liscense end of things. Well, i should know by now, that nothing in life is easy. Oh well...won't discourage me unless it is going to cost me a boat load of money, and then I might rethink it. This just seems like such a perfect idea, and I can see it in my head. I'll keep you posted! Any further advise would be appreciated!

A year ago I was in the works with a new house and commercial kitchen. It just kept going and going.We pulled out of the whole deal. I have been crunching numbers and it is going to be about $50,000 to do a kitchen. I want to have a range so I need a full hood withoout fire suppression. That alone will cost $10,000-$15,000. Now if we built I could have the return on our furnace. Yada yada yada!! I have friends over by you and they are more lax I believe. Call the Department of Agriculture--They are a great help here! Another thing here everything has to be NSF approved.

Honestly I wasn't planning the commerical kitchen route at all. I have a walkout basement that could potentially be convert to an apt. if someone else would ever buy the house and want to do that. Hence why I was just going to do a small kitchen like any other kitchen down there. Be interested to see if they will require commercial. I am a ways away from having my actual liscense. Still have a full time job elsewhere...not ready to walk from it just yet. It connects to my family room...wanted to be able to just look over, and see a smaller version of what I have upstairs basically. Crossing my fingers this will fly. I know around here people put in stoves, etc in there basements for canning, etc. Kind of my vision as well.