Submitted by thafunkyhomosapien t3_11tr289 in massachusetts
Hoping to get a clear answer on this.
We have a 4 bedroom /2.5 bathroom house. New build in 2016.
We're planning on finishing our basement soon and are adding a half bath and a "bedroom" down there. Bedroom will not have a closet, so upon resale, I believe we won't be able to list as a 5 bedroom, but would probably want to list it as a 2 bath/2 half bath, if we did decide to sell.
My question is, will we have a permit issue regarding our septic? I can't remember if the size of a septic tank is based on # of bedrooms, or # of bathrooms in a house. I feel like I vaguely remember it being based on # of bedrooms, in which case we'd be fine because the new room downstairs doesn't necessarily need to be considered a bedroom, but I am concerned with adding the half bath.
The contractor we're using is legit, and said he takes care of all the permits, but I haven't asked him this question yet and wanted to know if I should even bring it up as a concern.
KKay62 t1_jckvetp wrote
Septic systems are sized to number of bedrooms. The closet doesn't matter, there are specific requirements for a bedroom (ventilation, exits, minimum size...) . There is bedroom count rule in Mass Title V that says if there are more than 8 rooms in the house, you have to divide the total rooms by 2 to get the bedroom count. So an 8 room house could have 3 bedrooms for septic purposes, but a 9 room house will 4, a 10 room house will have 5... Rather than denying a construction permit because an additional room will push the house over the size of the septic system, a town will often add a deed restriction stating the number of bedrooms and allow the construction.
Your town's health department should be able to help you figure out how it will work in your specific situation.