We built this in 2017 and it passed planning review and inspection in MA. Working with the architect at the time and looking at code to confirm, it needed to be at least 7ft in the shortest direction (it is exactly) and 70sqft (it’s more like 80) and there was no requirement for a closet.
I live/work in a fairly rural area where there are 7 towns with the biggest having a population of ~10k and the smallest ~2k and they all have varying requirements. I’ve had conversations with the single code enforcement officer or director in each of them and we all agree how aggravating it is that the requirements vary from town to town. Three of these towns butt right up next to each other so the code requirements can vary from one side of the street to the next!
Contrary to what I would expect, the biggest town, and the county seat, has by far the fewest regulations on homes of them all.
Anyway, of the two which enforce anything about bedroom dimensions it’s 9′ for smallest allowable dimension. I think only one of them requires closets, but I can’t recall for sure.
Your parenthetical requirement reminded me of two things:
I think more people should be thinking about resale when building/remodeling their home. You never know what the future holds!
Since we rent out houses as well, I always aim for HUD compliance. HUD requires closets in bedrooms. While HUD doesn’t require 10x10, I know the three people at HUD who handle the surrounding 3 counties worth of HUD voucher recipients and they all strongly recommend it and steer clients towards such properties. (though currently they’re hurting for properties, so they’re more likely to not turn their nose up at <10′ dimensions)
Interestingly, and ridiculously, this bedroom would not pass city code where I live for two reasons:
7ft dimension
No built-in closet.
We built this in 2017 and it passed planning review and inspection in MA. Working with the architect at the time and looking at code to confirm, it needed to be at least 7ft in the shortest direction (it is exactly) and 70sqft (it’s more like 80) and there was no requirement for a closet.
Are you sure about 1 and 2?
Yeah, I flip houses fairly often and it’s something I have to be aware of when remodeling stuff.
I’m sure it’s different in different areas.
What’s the minimum horizontal dimension where you live?
(There are also a lot of things which are not a good choice if you are flipping because buyers will not like them, but are not literally illegal)
I live/work in a fairly rural area where there are 7 towns with the biggest having a population of ~10k and the smallest ~2k and they all have varying requirements. I’ve had conversations with the single code enforcement officer or director in each of them and we all agree how aggravating it is that the requirements vary from town to town. Three of these towns butt right up next to each other so the code requirements can vary from one side of the street to the next!
Contrary to what I would expect, the biggest town, and the county seat, has by far the fewest regulations on homes of them all.
Anyway, of the two which enforce anything about bedroom dimensions it’s 9′ for smallest allowable dimension. I think only one of them requires closets, but I can’t recall for sure.
Your parenthetical requirement reminded me of two things:
I think more people should be thinking about resale when building/remodeling their home. You never know what the future holds!
Since we rent out houses as well, I always aim for HUD compliance. HUD requires closets in bedrooms. While HUD doesn’t require 10x10, I know the three people at HUD who handle the surrounding 3 counties worth of HUD voucher recipients and they all strongly recommend it and steer clients towards such properties. (though currently they’re hurting for properties, so they’re more likely to not turn their nose up at <10′ dimensions)