We had a partially finished basement with about 6'6'' of headroom (less where the ductwork is). Unfortunately, our sewer pipe had a hole and unknowingly, we ended up with a bunch of mold and water damage. We have gotten the basement gutted down to a totally unfinished space but we do want to finish it with the insurance money soon.
Unfortunately, a few companies who have visited for quotes have told us that 7 feet is the minimum height for a finished basement. I've done some googling but cannot figure out if we could be grandfathered in (house was built in 1959). We likely do not have enough money to dig the basement floor out and make it lower (if it is even possible due to sewer pipe out to septic, water table, etc).
We had 60s-70s wood paneling before and wanted to finish it a little nicer(a media room and a kids playroom, no official bedroom) but the way I am reading the building code, I feel like I am completely out of luck and am going to be left with a totally unfinished basement due to the building code changes and a freak pipe accident.
The only thing that gives me hope (yet some confusion) is that the insurance adjuster said nothing about the low ceiling and we will be receiving a check to cover the mold removal and remodeling. Maybe it isn't up to the insurance adjuster to mention it but I am just really confused. I should probably call the town but I also don't want to put a target on our back where we could have done it without notifying them. We don't plan on selling the home but we are in our 30s so it's bound to happen and I don't want it to bite us in the ass then. It never came up when we bought the house in 2010 but maybe it was unfinished enough to not be considered finished? Not sure about the true definition of a finished basement.
Hopefully anyone from Mass (or a state with the same type of guideline) can weigh in but if anyone has any knowledge about this stuff, I'd really appreciate it.
https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2016/09/vk/53051-basement-ceiling-height.pdf - My source for building code information