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Electrical service required?

Joe.B said:
Section R306 Sanitation

R306.1 Toilet Facilities

Every dwelling unit shall be provided with a water closet, lavatory, and a bathtub or shower.

R306.2 Kitchen

Each dwelling unit shall be provided with a kitchen area and every kitchen area shall be provided with a sink.

R306.3 Sewage Disposal

Plumbing fixtures shall be connected to a sanitary sewer or to an approved private sewage disposal system.

R306.4 Water Supply to Fixtures

Plumbing fixtures shall be connected to an approved water supply. Kitchen sinks, lavatories, bathtubs, showers, bidets, laundry tubs and washing machine outlets shall be provided with hot and cold water.
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While those sanitation elements would certainly be requirements for new construction, I'd argue that they would not apply to the "repair" of an existing structure that did not have them. However, as the Appendix J category of work increases (in order of stringency - repair, renovation, alteration, and reconstruction), I believe the likelihood of having to meet these sanitation elements might correspondingly increase. It is unclear to me exactly what would be the trigger.
 
bill1952 said:
Not much online. This says maybe: https://www.primalsurvivor.net/massachusetts-off-grid-laws/#:~:text=Off-grid electricity is legal,challenging to use wind power.

Find someone to call and ask, preferably someone who owns land there and has no plans to build off grid.

If it were me to I'd try to speak in person to head building department person and just ask. Find out what you can and can't do without triggering electrical service.
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Based on the referenced article one might infer that living in a tent is illegal.

Similarly if outhouses are illegal is it illegal for animals to **** in the woods since the impact on public health is similar..
 
There's enough codes out there to stop just about any construction. This is not the first thread about a cabin in the woods and why you're not permitted to fix what you own. I had a cabin in the Sierra Nevada. The Sheriff was reluctant to venture out much less a building inspector.

There is no upside to involving the Building Department with a cabin in the woods that has no MEP. The Building Department doen't care and most likely doesn't want anything to do with it. Live and let live.
 
bill1952 said:
Yes, with amendments. (but it seems only to chapter 1)


Question is, is it enforced there?
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R101.4 Referenced Codes (MA amendments 9th edition), states "referenced codes include...other codes and regulations listed in sections 101.4.1 through 101.4.12 and shall be considered part of 780 CMR to the prescribed extent of each such reference". R101.4.4 Property Maintenance, states "Reference to the International Property Maintenance Code shall be considered reference to 780 CMR and within the jurisdiction of the building official."

As I read this, the listing of IPMC within this section does not mean that every section of the IPMC is now the law in Massachusetts. Rather, the extent to which IPMC is the law in Massachusetts is governed only by specific references to the IPMC elsewhere within the building code, and only to the prescribed extent.

As the basic version of the IRC does not allow for searching, I can not readily determine to what extent the 2015 IRC (with the exception of amendments, the law in Massachusetts) directly references the IPMC.
 
bill1952 said:
It seems illegal to live in tents in some communities already.

As far as outhouses, it varies a lot between the 50 states, and probably even more within some.

Outhouses Legality by State 2023

worldpopulationreview.com
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In Massachusetts, a “privy” is defined by 310 CMR 15.002 - “A structure used for the disposal of human wastes without water transport consisting of a shelter built over an unlined pit or vault in the ground into which waste is deposited. A privy is a nonconforming system.”

Although a privy is a nonconforming system, its existence does not automatically mean that the system is “failing to protect public health and safety and the environment” nor that it must be upgraded in accordance with the timeframes of 310 CMR 15.305(1) and the standards of 310 CMR 15.404 and 15.405. Rather, a privy system shall be determined to be “failing” in accordance with the requirements of 310 CMR 15.303(1)(a)7. only if it is found that the privy “extends below
the high groundwater elevation”, or in accordance with 310 CMR 15.303(1)(b) is too close to water supplies (generally within 50 feet of a private water supply well), or water resources, or wetlands, etc.
 
Berkshire Al said:
Thank you. I think I've found what you are referring to. Massachusetts Amendments - Chapters 34 through 43: Electrical:

"For the electrical provisions of Chapters 34 through 43 of 780 CMR 51.00, see 527 CMR 12.00: Massachusetts Electrical Code (Amendments). Provisions of 527 CMR 12.00 related to work otherwise governed by 780 CMR 51.00 shall be retained if not in conflict with other sections of 780 CMR 51.00."

I'll have to find 527 CMR 12 and give it some study. Thanks again.
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I've reviewed 527 CMR 12 and purchased and reviewed the 2020 version of the NEC. I find no explicit requirement that electrical service must be provided to a building. There are plenty of standards within the NEC specifying exactly how electrical service must be routed to, and distributed within, a building, but as I read it, these standards only apply IF electrical service is provided to begin with.

I read the requirements of Appendix J similarly, i.e. that they apply only in the case where electrical service is provided to the building.
 
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