How Much To Install Basement Egress Window

Your teenager might think basement living is cool, but is your downstairs built for safety? U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated 353,100 house fires per yr between 2014 and 2018. A pivotal characteristic for emergencies, an egress window provides an alternative road for someone to escape should the worst occur. However, egress windows weren't a code requirement for homes until 1997. Many older homes lack them in fundamental places like lower levels and attics.

If you lot're in this camp, an egress window usually costs around $iii,000-$4,000 to install, so it's not an insignificant expense. Thankfully, across offering peace of mind, putting in an egress makes your house more marketable and boosts value — not a bad side benefit! Read on for boosted insights on only how much value an egress window adds and what type of impression it can make on homebuyers.

A pug sitting next to a window to convey how much value an egress window adds to a house. — Source: (Matthew Henry / Flare-up)

What qualifies as an egress?

Egress stems from the Latin word egressus, meaning "to get out." If the stairs are blocked, and a home is flooding or on fire, egress windows mean you always have an exit strategy no thing where yous're located in the house.

All windows in bedrooms need to meet "egress" requirements, but many times, above-basis level spaces are designed with large enough windows to meet the requirements without being called an egress window specifically. Nonetheless, in basements where natural light is deficient, and where regular windows tin compromise a home's construction — many homeowners elect to install egress windows.

What qualifies as an egress window can depend on your municipality and its codes, merely at the very least, it volition attach to international guidelines. According to the International Code Council, an egress window or "Emergency Escape and Rescue Opening" is required in every basement, livable attic, and bedroom. That could hateful a door that opens to the exterior or a window that a person can fit through.

The ICC has specific stipulations for an egress window, outlined in its International Residential Code:

Minimum clearance:

A bedroom egress must have a net articulate opening of at least 5.7 square feet. The height of the opening has to be a minimum of 24 inches tall and xx inches wide. That means if you were to swing the window completely open, you'd take a 24 by xx inch space to crawl out of.

If the window is at or below grade (grade refers to the home's footing peak) the internet clear opening needs simply be 5 square anxiety to be considered a legal egress. In general, an egress should be large enough for a fully outfitted fire-eater to exist able to climb through.

Window well size:

In basements, an egress window should open to a window well of at least 9 square feet, or at to the lowest degree 36 inches in width and peak.

Maximum height to a higher place the floor:

A sill peak can exist no higher than 44 inches higher up the floor. If the sill is college than 44 inches, there must be a permanently fastened ladder or stairs to reach the window. Steps or rungs should be at least 12 inches wide and projection no less than 3 inches from the wall.

Window barriers and opening ability:

An egress window must be able to open from the inside hands and without any special knowledge of how to operate the window. If the window has a grill or bars, they must exist removable by manus, without tools.

The value of bringing your basement upwards to code

Adding an egress window to a basement instantly creates more "livable space," pregnant a finished living surface area where you spend fourth dimension in a home. Just merely how much value information technology'll add depends on the local market and a few additional factors, explains Jamie Owen, a residential appraiser since 1998 serving Northeastern Ohio.

"In many areas, to consider a basement room to exist a bedchamber, an egress window must be placed in that room," says Owen. Therefore, installing an egress window can enhance your dwelling house's value past classifying a new or existing space equally a legal bedroom or living area. However, because appraisers assess beneath-grade infinite differently than they practice above-class, the added value of a basement egress isn't going to be as high as y'all would encounter with a master or upper flooring addition.

"It's important to remember that just because a basement bedroom has an egress window does not mean that this expanse can now but be included in the gross living surface area," says Owen.

"In that location are some exceptions to this, but most of the fourth dimension, these areas have a lesser price per square foot than heated and finished above-form areas."

Our research shows that an to a higher place-grade bedroom tin add an additional estimated $8,000-$10,000 to your listing price in some real estate markets. According to Owen, calculation an egress to make a bedroom basement legal will interpret as about l%-lxx% of the value of its to a higher place-form equivalent. The chances of seeing a higher return on a basement sleeping room increases if information technology has an ensuite bathroom, Owen says.

Another mode to look at it: As of 2019, American homes were worth an average $119 per foursquare human foot, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. If you lot add an egress window to your 120 square foot basement bedchamber, that could translate equally an boosted $7,140 or $ix,996 in resale value (or 50%-70% of $119 ten 120 square feet).

An image of a man sitting on a couch to demonstrate the value of adding an egress window to your home. — Source: (Dillon Shook / Unsplash)

The marketability factor of an egress? Priceless

An egress helps brand your house marketable in two ways. Starting time, if you lot're a two-chamber abode in a market of threes and fours, making a finished room in the basement a legal sleeping room could put your firm in a new weight class by alluring a wider pool of buyers. Second, even if the basement isn't a bedroom or even technically finished, adding an egress is i less affair a buyer has to budget for upon move in.

"When I'thou showing somebody a firm that was congenital in 2000, and the basement is unfinished, they always say they desire to end it," says John Kriza, a top-selling real estate agent in Chester County, Pennsylvania with over two decades of experience. The moment Kriza tells the buyer that they would need to put in an egress window: "They will say to me 'Wait a minute, what's that all about?' They don't desire to think nearly that," Kriza shares.

This sentiment has merely intensified equally the pandemic drives people to seek bigger houses with a ton of usable infinite. More than ever buyers want to know that their basement could instantly become a play expanse, office, or individual space to give their family unit some breathing room. And in case you needed another reason to go ahead and install your egress: "I've had buyers not buy houses considering there was not an egress window in the basement," says Kriza.

Egress window toll estimates

The price to add together an egress window depends on a few factors, including where information technology's placed, the type of window you install, and whether the window requires a well. If your egress window'south location is above class, you'll save on digging and window well installation costs. Similarly, if you but need to resize an existing window, you'll reduce construction costs associated with cutting a brand new window.

Pulling information from the web's leading home comeback cost aggregators, here are several estimates of what it'll cost you to install an egress window:

Source: HomeAdvisor
Average egress window toll: $iii,860
Average range: $2,508-$v,237
Low and high-cease egress window range: $900-$8,000
Boilerplate labor cost for window installation: $100-$250 per window
Methodology: 543 HomeAdvisor members shared actual project costs to calculate the average installation costs.

Source: Fixr
Boilerplate egress window toll: $iii,750
Average range: $ii,500-$5,300
Low and high-end egress window range: $900-$8,000
Average labor cost for window installation: $500-$ane,000
Methodology: Fixr gathers data from various sources, including contractors, regime studies, trade publications, and vendors.

Source: ImproveNet
Median egress window price: $iii,635
Average range: $2,991-$3,953
Low and loftier-end egress window range: $900-$8,000
Methodology: 157 ImproveNet members contributed price profiles of recent egress window installation projects.

An image of windows to demonstrate the value of adding an egress window to your home. — Source: (Annie Spratt / Unsplash)

Types of egress windows

Depending on the blueprint of your basement and your upkeep, you'll be able to choose i of the following types of egress windows:

Casement ($220-$500)

Hanging on i or more sets of hinges, casement windows swing out like a door. Amongst the smaller of all egress windows, casements are a good fit for nearly any basement.

Horizontal or sliding ($150-$500)

These windows slide open up, like a sliding drinking glass door. Because just one pane slides open up, horizontal windows are larger in footprint, at least 4×4 feet., to see lawmaking requirements.

Single-Hung ($100-$500)

What someone might call a "archetype window," single-hung windows are two panes alpine, and the bottom pane slides upward to open up the window. Because only the bottom pane opens, single-hung windows need to be big plenty that the bottom pane meets the internet clear opening requirements.

In-swing ($350-$700)

In-swing windows await similar to casements, but they swing in to open instead of out.

Maximizing your egress window investment

Choosing one picayune window might seem similar an easy decision, only specific pattern or construction choices can help maximize the value of your egress investment:

Choose a casement window, space permitting
Casement egress windows have a hinge on one side, and when they open, they swing towards the outside. Because they swing out, casement windows are the almost popular egress window, and no affair the size of the space can make the room experience bigger. Casement windows are besides one of the most affordable egress windows, costing between $200-$500.
Go for a 'light and airy' look
Combat the dark and chilly hugger-mugger experience of a basement by choosing light colors and finishes for your egress window. Opt for lite woods stain or white window trim to brand the space feel bigger and more open up.
Opt to extend upward, not out
If you programme to retrofit an old window in your basement into an egress window, you can keep the toll of installation down by extending the height of the window upward instead of out. Calculation width can compromise the foundation of the abode, adding to price, while additional height won't heighten this issue.
Underground lines? Check your utilities
If you need to excavate around the holding'southward foundation to build the egress window or window well, make sure yous won't cut any buried utility lines on the property. You lot can call your plumbing, telecom, and utility providers to figure out where the lines are before you start digging.

Calculation an egress: An piece of cake selection

Adding an egress window can make your basement appear full of potential to prospective buyers. Even if information technology'southward not finished with fresh pigment and carpet, buyers volition appreciate that this safety feature has already been accounted for. If your home'due south basement is large enough to accommodate a bedroom, bath, or office, an egress window will help it appraise for the highest possible value by making sure any livable infinite you've created is fully up to lawmaking.

Header Image Source: (vm2002 / Shutterstock)