Basement Egress Window

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Adding a Basement egress window can transform your basement into a warm, inviting space, along with adding a little light. Having an egress window installed, will expand your home's living area and bring new life to the underappreciated basement. Basement egress windows are essential for your protection and safety as well. Basement egress windows have changed over the years.

Basement egress windows open up lot's of opportunities. An egress window can bring light, fresh air and an escape route to a gloomy area.

Egress windows are vital for the safety of your family. You can turn your basement into a bright, comfortable office, family room or bedroom filled with natural light and at the same time ensuring the safety of your family with a reliable emergency exit. Egress Windows add light, ventilation, value, and an escape route. Egress windows are installed to meet the State of Michigan's egress code to create a legal bedroom. Although smoke detectors are excellent warning devices, they are useless without a means of escape from your home.

Egress windows are also required to have minimum opening dimensions. The minimum open space width is 20-inches; the minimum height is 24 inches. Egress windows must be put in any basement bedroom or living area.

Basements with habitable space and every sleeping room shall have at least one operable emergency escape and rescue window or exterior door opening for emergency escape and rescue. Where openings are provided as a means of escape and rescue, they shall have a sill height of not more than 44 inches (1118mm) above the floor. Basement bedrooms, however, require an egress window for a means of escape, and give firefighters direct basement access in the event of a fire. The escape windows are simple to install, and the emergency latch is quick and easy to open.

Bars, grills, screens or other obstructions placed over egress windows shall be releasable or removable from the inside without the use of a key or tool. Egress windows are an important part of any home safety strategy. Having windows that are the right size, that work easily in an emergency, and are properly placed and installed, will strengthen the safety of your home.

Basements and every sleeping room should have at least one operable emergency egress opening in addition to the interior doorway. The only exception would be a small basement (not exceeding a total floor area of 200 square feet or 18.58 square meters) used only to house mechanical equipment. Basement windows used to be tiny spaces that allowed a slight amount of light into the basement. New safety codes are making the old windows a thing of the past.

Egress means a way out or exit, so a basement egress window is an exit or means of escape generally in case of fire. Basement windows used to be tiny spaces that allowed a slight amount of light into the basement. New safety codes are making the old windows a thing of the past. Egress windows must be put in any basement bedroom or living area.

Claiming that a basement bedroom is an office or study on the plans and then using it as a bedroom once you've received building approval no longer works. Any basement living space that is large enough to be used as a bedroom and has a closet, no matter what it is labeled as, must have an egress window. Other basement living spaces must also have two escape routes including an egress window. This requirement could be fulfilled by putting one in a bedroom that joins a living space in most cases.

Usually installing egress windows is a pretty straightforward installation process that can be done in one day. First the area in front of the window needs to be dug out enough to put the window in. Digging a hole next to the foundation at least 6 inches deeper than the bottom of the window is helpful. You need to have room for an adult to emerge from the window so approximately a 48 inch square area should be cleared out.