Finished Basements in Langhorne, PA

Dombrowski Home Improvements finishes basements for Langhorne, PA homeowners. Most Langhorne addresses fall under Middletown Township, and we file through the Middletown Township Department of Building and Zoning at 3 Municipal Way. PA HIC No. 212858.

Middletown Township publishes an actual finished basement checklist

Very few Pennsylvania townships do this. Middletown publishes a Requirements for Finished Basements document that tells you exactly what the plans have to show before the department will review them:

A floor plan showing all electrical outlets, switches, lights and smoke alarms. A floor plan showing all walls and partition locations. Fire stopping detail for perimeter walls, and insulation details. For any plumbing work, an ejector pump with equipment specs and a piping isometric, plus access panel locations for shutoffs. Egress window specs or Bilco door specs and locations. An indication on the plans of how the area is heated and cooled per the mechanical code. If the heater room is being enclosed, an indication of how make-up air will be achieved. And the intended use identified for each area.

Three of those trip up more Langhorne basements than anything else. Enclosing the utility area without a make-up air plan. Adding a basement bathroom or wet bar without accounting for the ejector pit. And drawing the perimeter walls without a fire stopping detail.

Note that Middletown accepts a Bilco-type exterior basement door as an egress path in its own words, not only a window.

What does a Middletown Township basement permit cost?

From Middletown Township's fee schedule, effective January 13, 2026, a finished basement is an alteration.

Residential alterations, repairs and other structures are charged at 1.5 percent of the cost of the job, with a $150 minimum fee. Add a non-refundable $30 application fee, a $4.50 PA UCC fee, and plan review at 20 percent of the total permit fee.

Middletown issues separate electrical, plumbing and mechanical permit applications, each with its own $30 application fee and $4.50 PA UCC fee. The minimum total is $100 for each of electrical, plumbing and mechanical. Plumbing fixtures are $45 each. An ejector or sump pump under 2 horsepower is $55.

Re-inspections are charged at $60 for the first, $85 for the second, $105 for the third and $145 for each additional one.

We confirm the current figures with the township when we file.

Start without a permit and your fees double

Middletown Township's fee schedule states that any work requiring a permit started before the issuance of a permit will be subject to all associative permit fees being doubled. That applies across building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing and zoning.

Who inspects, and how much notice they need

Middletown Township employs its own building code official and building inspector rather than contracting inspections to an outside agency. The township's published process states that the person responsible for the construction project must request each inspection 24 to 48 hours in advance, and that each major phase of construction must be inspected by the Building Inspector.

That is different from Langhorne Borough, which uses Keystone Municipal Services, a third-party agency, by appointment. Which brings us to the thing most Langhorne homeowners get wrong.

"Langhorne" is three different governments

A Langhorne mailing address does not tell you who issues your permit. Middletown Township covers by far the largest share of Langhorne addresses. Langhorne Borough is a separate municipality of about 1,643 people covering roughly half a square mile, reachable at 215-757-3768, open Monday through Thursday 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with inspections by Keystone Municipal Services. Langhorne Manor Borough is separate again.

If you Google "Langhorne building permit" you will most likely land on the Borough's site when you actually need Middletown Township at 215-750-3800. We confirm your municipality before we file anything.

Langhorne housing stock

Middletown Township received William Levitt's second Levittown. Twelve developments were built in the township, most containing hundreds of homes, and the population grew more than 440 percent during the 1950s. Housing here runs from those 1950s builds through to contemporary construction, and the Parkland neighborhood in particular has homes from every decade of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Basements in a 1950s Levitt-era house and basements in a 2005 build are different projects. We walk the space before we quote.

Ceiling height and egress

Pennsylvania's Uniform Construction Code is based on the 2021 International Residential Code, effective January 1, 2026.

IRC Section R305 requires at least a 7 foot ceiling in habitable space and hallways, at least 6 feet 8 inches in bathrooms, toilet rooms and laundry rooms, and allows beams, girders, ducts and other obstructions to project down to within 6 feet 4 inches of the finished floor.

IRC Section R310 requires an emergency escape and rescue opening in basements, habitable attics and every sleeping room, with the main exception being a mechanical-equipment-only basement no larger than 200 square feet.

One caution worth stating plainly. Middletown's finished basement handout still lists the 2015 code cycle, while the township's own building regulations page lists the 2021 series. We confirm the operative edition with the department on every job rather than assuming.