Basement egress windows are large enough for the average person to use as an exit in case of an emergency providing your family with peace of mind while satisfying home fire safety regulations and building codes. Every sleeping room is required to have at least one operable window or exterior door approved for emergency egress. The most common basement egress window are slider windows which come in sizes of 48 72 wide x 48 high.
emergency exit basement windows
An egress window must have a net clear opening of 5 square feet for first floor sleeping rooms and 57 square feet for basements.
Emergency exit basement windows. Inside the builder provided steps to provide access to this window from the basement floor level. The window must be large enough to allow an adult to go out through this. Basement egress windows must be added to this area of your home if you are thinking about finishing it. Our photo illustrates a hinged casement type window in use as an emergency exit for a buildings basement.
The window units must be operable from the inside to a full clear opening without the use of a key or tool. A sleeping room is defined as any room with a privacy door and a closet. An egress window is a window used for emergency exiting or rescue. Basement windows as emergency exit egress except when a bedroom is equipped with automatic sprinklers a bedroom must have a window to the outside usable from the inside without keys tools or special knowledge and without having to remove the shutters or hardware.
We used its exit path to toss cut up segments of soaked carpet and carpet padding outdoors without having to drag these messy items through the home following a basement. At salvage building contents we described using this casement window window installed as an emergency exit in a basement. With the 48 wide x 48 high being the most popular and which come in most. Sam satterwhite of the family handyman writes that an egress window in a basement dramatically brightens an otherwise dark dingy room which isnt surprising considering the fact that most building codes require egress windows to provide a clear opening of at least 57 square feet a window of that size is big enough to provide a wealth of natural ventilation to the stuffiest basement as well.
