Egress and Basement Windows

Egress is the one window topic where the requirement comes first and taste comes second. A bedroom needs an opening a person can get out of, and that a firefighter in gear can get in through, without tools or a key. In a basement that usually means a window larger than whatever the builder put there, plus a well outside deep enough to matter and a ladder if it is deep enough to need one.

Your city or county building department sets the actual dimensions and does the inspection, so the first honest thing any contractor should tell you is that they will pull a permit and build to what your jurisdiction requires. We match Wasatch Front homeowners with crews who do this work regularly, which means they own the saw, they have backfilled a well before, and they have met the inspector more than once.

What an egress project involves

• Bedroom egress compliance. Any sleeping room needs a compliant opening, and basements are where this comes up most. Your building department sets the numbers and signs off on the finished result.
• Enlarging an existing opening. Sometimes the hole is close and only needs to grow. That still means cutting a foundation wall, which is concrete work with a window at the end of it.
• Cutting a new opening. A saw, a great deal of dust, a lintel or header over the top, and a hole in your basement wall that was not there this morning. Not a job for improvising.
• Window wells and drainage. The well holds back dirt and gives you room to climb. Where the water in it goes is the part people skip, and then it is a bathtub outside a bedroom.
• Well covers and ladders. Depth decides whether a ladder or steps are required. A cover keeps out rain, snow, leaves, and the neighborhood cat, and it has to open from inside the well.
• Permit and inspection. This work gets permitted and inspected. A contractor who offers to skip that is offering to hand you the problem later, usually on the day you sell the house.

How a basement cut-in goes

1. Confirm what your jurisdiction requires. Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, and Weber counties each have their own building departments and inspectors. The requirement is not folklore; it comes from the office that issues the permit.
2. Locate the opening and find what is in the way. Utilities, sprinkler lines, a gas meter, a deck, a driveway, a neighbor's fence. Where the well can physically go often decides where the window ends up.
3. Cut, brace, and set the unit. Concrete comes out, the opening gets its header or lintel, the window is set and sealed, and the debris leaves in a truck. Expect noise, dust, and a loud day.
4. Set the well, backfill, and drain it. The well is anchored, dirt goes back and gets compacted, and drainage is handled before anyone calls it finished. Then the inspector comes out and looks at all of it.

What it costs

This one is less about the window and more about the wall. What moves it: whether you are enlarging an existing opening or cutting a new one; how thick the foundation is and what it is made of; how deep the well has to be and whether that depth triggers a ladder or steps; how equipment reaches that side of the house, through a gate or past a driveway or across a finished yard; whether drainage ties into something existing or has to be created; and how much interior framing, insulation, and drywall gets cut out and put back. Permit fees are their own line.

Questions people ask