Hey everyone, hope you’re doing well, hope you had a great week.
Just wanted to take a minute and talk to you about basements and windows in basements particularly. I’m up in salt lake in an older home right now and originally this home had smaller windows and lots of times they don’t let in a lot of light, and many people worry about being able to egress in case of a fire or emergency.
So a lot of people end up cutting the concrete foundation and putting in a bigger window.
A couple things you want to check, I’m not a contractor but you want to look at if you can cut into the concrete and what implications there are.
Uniform Building Code says that windows in basements need to be 5.7 square feet to be a legal window that someone can escape out of.
Anyway it will depend on where you live if, you’re in the county, city, if they just go with the uniform building code or they have more strict requirements.
I love this home because they got these windows cut out and put in some nice windows that provide lots more light and a lot more comfort in the basement of this older home.
If you want to do that you can go out and rent saws, do it yourself, or you can hire a contractor. You’re probably going to be about 2-4 thousand dollars depending how far below grade and all that will entail as far as moving the earth and such.
Basements are awesome and having lots of light in basements are awesome!
If you have any questions about building code in your area and what you can or can’t do give me a call I’d love to help you.
Take care!
Brian
Wallsburg World Realtor