Basement Bedroom Window Egress Requirements

The city of bloomington has a nice handout on egress requirements explaining these requirements.

Basement bedroom window egress requirements.

Basement egress window requirements. You can arrange the bedroom so that one of the exterior walls has a properly sized egress window or exterior door in it. If you plan to add a bedroom in your basement in the future you will need to meet the requirements noted above along with a few others. Casement egress windows usually have one or more hinges at the side and swing in or out to open like a door.

This design can allow for windows to meet the egress requirements while being comparatively small and thus be suitable for basements and areas with limited space. Egress window well code requirements. Make sure the basement window well has enough area to move around in and if the well is especially deep make sure you have a ladder attached to it for an easy getaway. The minimum opening area of the egress window is 5 7.

The area of a window well shall not be less than 9 square feet with a horizontal length width of no less than 36 inches. All of these rooms are required to have a means of egress. However if your basement has habitable finished rooms building codes require it to have egress windows or other means of egress patio door etc. If there s a deck or porch above the basement window well at least 36 of headroom is needed.

When the sill height of an egress window is located below grade common for egress windows provided for a basement a window well must be provided. Clear height of opening. Basement egress windows have special requirements. If you have a basement that has a bedroom recreation room den family room media room office or home gym.

There are several options that you can use to achieve the egress requirements for a bedroom in a basement. Window wells must be at least 3 x 3 and they must allow the window to open fully. The bottom of the egress window opening can t exceed 44 from the finished floor. Walk out basement walk out basements provide the most flexibility for building a bedroom in the basement.

Since you re below ground you have to make sure that the window can still fully open without obstruction. In fact there are some specific basement window requirements that you ll need to follow in order for your new basement space to be considered a proper bedroom. The minimum height for the egress window opening is 24 inches. You need an egress window all residential building code requirements across the united states state that any habitable space must have at least one egress window.

If the window well is more than 44 deep it needs a ladder.