Since moving into our Retro Ranch Reno we’ve been VERY busy. I already shared our main floor tour, and pictures of some progress. Today I’m sharing our progress with installing an egress window. As a bonus I’m sharing pics of our luxurious basement dwelling. OK… I’m kidding. It’s FAR from luxurious, but it’s not fair to only share the exciting and beautiful. Today I’m sharing the ugly real life that is living in a retro basement.
Since we are living in the basement while we renovate the main level I didn’t feel comfortable knowing that if there was an emergency we didn’t have another path out. Because of that, putting in an egress window was on the top of our priority list. Thankfully my dad was willing to pitch in and dug the entire exterior hole!
The window had to be 3′ x 4′ to meet all of our code requirements, and the hole had to be a foot wider and deeper than the window. This meant it was a HUGE hole.
Once our hole was dug we planned on cutting the opening ourselves. After borrowing a friends cement saw our efforts lasted about 15 minutes. That’s when we realized we were going to kill ourselves before cutting through the concrete wall. Thankfully our neighbor knew a guy who specialized in cutting concrete.
Just two days later we had this guy here with his fancy saw cutting our opening. It took him about 2 hours to set up and about 20 minutes to cut the hole. After watching him work we were SO happy that we hired it out!
Once the slab was cut Matt had to knock it out, and then break up the slab and haul it out of the hole. It was SO heavy that it took about 2 hours of pounding for the slab to be broken up enough to haul out.
After we had our opening we framed it out with treated 2×8’s that we screwed into the concrete.
Installing and insulating the window was the easiest part of the whole process! We just added exterior window wrap and caulk and then nailed it in place. Then we sealed it off with foam insulation. I didn’t get any pictures but my dad secured the metal well in place by drilling it into the concrete wall.
Because the hole is more than four feet deep we had to add a ladder to the well to be up to code.
We still need to add some drainage rock to the bottom and even out the dirt around the outside.
The finished pictures is far from Pinterest-worthy, but we are super thankful to have a safe exit from our basement now. It also adds a lot of value because now this bedroom is “legal” adding an entire bedroom to our home.
I guess this makes for a good segway into the rest of the house tour! This is the boy’s room that got the egress window. I told you it’s far from glamourous, but it’s working out great. It is far better than living with friends or in a rental, because I am able to work on the house while the boys sleep. It also didn’t involve an extra move!
Here you have our fancy living room/master bedroom suite. It’s so fancy that we can pull the chain to turn off the light right from our bed!
Over to the other side of the basement is the playroom/office. So inspiring!
In our basement dwelling we even have a “guest room”! Yes, even my dad has light he can pull from his bed! We haven’t been able to convince my mom to come and stay yet! Who wouldn’t love sleeping under the ducting and electrical box?!
Here is the laundry room/walk in master closet. It’s ironic but it’s the biggest “closet” I’ve ever had!
I’ve saved the best for last… our basement bathroom. The shower has lots of duct tape on it and leaks all over the basement floor. The vanity is smack in the middle of the bathroom. We also have a shower curtain as a door. So very private.
Obviously the basement is far from ideal, but also far better than millions of people in the world live! It pushes me to make a little bit of progress on the upstairs daily! Hopefully we’re not too far away from being able to move up there soon!
Installing a basement egress window
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We will be installing egress windows in our home next year (hopefully) and I really appreciated you showing the process you used. Love your basement! Good luck with your future projects!
Thank you so much! Good luck with your projects!
What did it cost to hire the cement cutting guy? I’ve been thinking about adding another window to my basement, but I’m on a serious budget.
I want to say it was between $600-$900. It was expensive but when you consider the value of an additional bedroom I’d say It was worth it.
Wow great project! We’ve never done one of these ourselves, but can keep it in mind now if we come across other folks with the same need.
I’m curious if you guys ended up getting a cover for the window well and what your thoughts might be on that?
We did get a cover but it wasn’t a great fit and blew off easily. Wish I would have found one that fit better.
That’s to bad, it does seem to happen to a lot of people. A great place to get a strong window well cover that lasts, since they’re made of Lexan Polycarbonate, is at https://windowwellusa.com. Our covers are also sold at Lowes and Home Depot, but it can save you money when purchased directly from our online store.
All you would have to do is get one that measures at least 1 inch larger on all sides than your well measures. And there are clips or a locking system that keep the cover locked secure to your well and allow for easy exit incase of emergency at the pull of a pin.
Installation is fairly simple and the cover can be trimmed down using a standard jigsaw.
Hope this helps you out.
Thanks for your post! What cute little guys you have! And thanks for pointing out that for most people in the world this is luxurious 🙂 I really enjoyed seeing this and want to expand one of our teeny basement windows.
They are cuties! We ended up selling that house after only living there 5 months! We just barely moved upstairs and had it on the market. If you hire out the concrete cutting and don’t mind shoveling it really wasn’t that awful of a job.
Did you have to hire a structural engineer before/after cutting out of the foundation? I’m thinking of doing this shortly but am worried about compromising my foundation.
Honestly, it probably is a good idea! Because our window wasn’t very big, and the concrete was very strong we didn’t. After some research it seems like a smart thing to do though.
You need to add steel angle as a header for the window opening. You have cut into your stem wall and now removed direct load path which means your live and dead loads are not distributed properly. Keep an eye on the concrete and the window itself. If the glass starts to flex when touched or the window starts to stick when you try to open it, you may have an issue and you will need to add the angle iron to pick up that load path.
I was wondering about this as I was reading. Every home reno shoe I have ever watched did just as you said when cutting out a do It or larger window . Im so glad that you brought it up.
What was the brand of window you used? I need to install s9 e egress windows, but cannot find a brand / style I like.
Thanks.
Ours was the only in-stock option from our local big-box store Menards. It worked really well though and looked great.
Nice project. Can I ask where you bought the window well? I’m in Massachusetts and am having a hard time finding ones that are deep enough for egress without spending $250 on shipping. Menards in OH has great prices but we’re obviously too far and they don’t ship. We’re also hiring the concrete guy but doing the window ourselves.
We bought ours from Menards. I would think Lowes or Home Depot sells them? Menards is the first and only place we looked. Good call on hiring the concrete guy.
I love how humble you are, how you see beyond the lipstick and rouge of your home. Your right about one thing, appreciate what we have because it’s a heck of a lot more than most have.
You’re too kind. That was definitely a trying time but putting everything in perspective helps.
We’re thinking of doing a window in our basement and trying to look for ways to cut a little cost here and there. A contractor says about $3000 to put in an egress window. What do you think you paid when it was a said and done?
Thank you.
Honestly I don’t think that is a bad deal! We paid $900 to have the opening cut. We dug the hole ourselves but that was backbreaking. The window well, ladder, and cover was around $500 and the window was around $300. So that’s about $1700… add on additional lumber, flashing, screws, nails, and drill bits and I’d like to say we were close to $2000. In the end it depends on how you feel about digging the hole! Good luck to you!
Where did you find the window well and ladder? I’ve looked at the local box stores and they don’t carry any corrugated metal types at all. Thanks!