After 11 years on Mission Street, pioneering hackerspace Noisebridge is officially hunting for a new home.

The decision comes after a director’s hearing with the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection on Tuesday, March 3, that shut down “any woodworking, soldering, laser cutting or other ‘hot work’” inside the iconic hackerspace — which constitutes “almost everything that happens at Noisebridge beyond writing code,” according to Noisebridge treasurer Tyler Maran.

Since 2017, the hackerspace has been the subject of a city complaint over building updates made without proper permitting and heavy equipment operation without the necessary sprinkler system. At the hearing this week, the owner of 2169 Mission St., where Noisebridge occupies the entire third floor, was advised that the space needs to suspend use of any tools that wouldn’t be permitted inside a standard residence, Noisebridge members said.

To resume those operations, the building would need upgrades including sprinklers installed on the lower floors, where the current tenant is a produce market.

“Landlord doesn’t want to make the necessary changes. I agree with him. The sprinklers is only the beginning,” Noisebridge regular and board member Ruth Grace Wong wrote in an email to The Chronicle, adding that making the necessary updates could be very expensive. “Not worth staying at this point.”

Founded in 2009, Noisebridge is a creative hub run entirely by volunteers and funded by donations. About 1,000 people visit every week, and it’s open to anyone who rings the doorbell on a deceptively nondescript metal gate.

“It’s an iconic part of S.F. tech culture. It’s something that I think inspired a trend all around the world that this is how to cultivate a culture where people can be creative and do things just for the fun of it,” said John Backus, a regular user. “I’ve now visited a bunch of hackerspaces, but I haven’t seen any that are better than Noisebridge.”

Up two flights of rainbow-painted stairs, the space is stocked with toys and tools: a mini recording studio complete with guitars and keyboards, gaming set-ups with VR goggles, industrial sewing machines, 3D printers, metal mills, a book-scanning device donated by the Internet Archive, a CNC cutting machine, a laser cutter and a ceramic kiln. All have been free for the public to use.

After the Tuesday hearing, much of that equipment is now off-limits. The basic sewing machine is fine. The massive laser cutter? Not so much.

In the week before the hearing, Noisebridge put out a call to its community asking for funding to help cover the cost of required updates or a relocation. In response to a tweet about the situation, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken sent Noisebridge a surprise donation of $150,000 in bitcoin.

That money will now go toward helping the hackerspace find a new home. “It gives us so much more freedom to find a space that’s not quite what Noisebridge needs, and to build it out — adding walls, ADA access, etc,” Wong wrote, referencing the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Leaving the current space — where years of art, invention and inside jokes are visible in a mural of Nikola Tesla, a built-from-scratch bartending robot and a tiny couch affixed to one wall — will be bittersweet. But after a series of rent hikes and maintenance issues, treasurer Maran said, a move has “seemed inevitable for many of us.” Already, representatives from Noisebridge have been visiting potential spaces, and Maran said they hope to decide on one next week and move within about 60 days.

“We have had stay-or-go conversations for years; the sprinkler system was just the bit that overloaded the buffer,” Maran said. “The community is tired of the uncertainty and unsuitability. We are excited about finding a space that will accommodate our growing and diverse creative uses.”

For now, Noisebridge remains open. It’s hosting a comedy show this Saturday to help raise money for the move, and its upcoming SF Stupid Sh*t That No One Needs and Terrible Ideas Hackathon 7 (March 28) will continue as planned as probably the last large event at Noisebridge’s longtime home. The heavier equipment will be taped off and participants will be limited to tools such as the aforementioned sewing machines, 3D printers and computers. If that poses a creative challenge for the Noisebridge community, well, in some ways, that’s what the hackerspace is all about.

Sarah Feldberg is the San Francisco Chronicle Culture Desk editor. Email: sarah.feldberg@sfchronicle.com