I knew ours wouldn't be super low because, again, I wanted the rock ledges and to go as big as I could go. When I was crowd-sourcing on Instagram last year for anyone who had done this project and was willing to share the cost, a few people shared that it was around the $5K mark.
#REGRESS WINDOW INSTALL#
Jess from Bright Green Door did a window well unit and some parts of the install were DIY and her price came to around $10,000.
#REGRESS WINDOW WINDOWS#
For reference, the windows that we put in are 60" x 36". If you went with more of a standard window well kit and size, then you could probably cut this cost in half. we decided that it would be silly to not just go as large as we could.Ī big portion of the $16k was the excavation and stone work for the size of the window wells. I will say that in our bidding process, we were originally thinking about just staying with the width of the original basement windows but going deeper so they could actually work as egress, but after looking at the cost difference to majorly enlarge the windows. We didn't go with the cheapest bid ($13K) and we didn't go with the most expensive bid ($45K). We paid just over $16,000 to have two basement windows put in and all of the work above done. Process of enlarging a basement window to an basement egress window I'm not going to give you a tutorial for installing an egress window but I will share how the basement window installation actually went down with our contractors. So, pretty fast in my research, I knew that I didn't want an egress window kit and that a DIY egress window was out of the question for this DIYer.Īfter researching more about how the egress window installation goes: cutting into our foundation, putting in French drains for drainage and building a wall - all to code. That being said, if I had a yard that was less landscaped, I might have considered a store-bought window well. The egress window wells that are pre-made just can't mimic what real stone looks like.
Our yard has stacked stone around most of the landscaping beds, trees and driveway. When it comes to renovating, I think you absolutely need to take into account what your house and neighborhood looks like when you are making decisions on finishes. that's what tipped the scale for us.īack to our house. BUT, when you figure in how happy we are with the larger window in the kitchen and all the sunlight that it lets in, combined with the fact that egress windows will be good for resale. To us, the cost of adding egress windows just to have windows that can be climbed out of in an emergency doesn't add up because no one will be sleeping down there. It did have a bedroom down there but we took it out (but have the wiring, supports to add one wall back in later down the line when we sell. Honestly, no one is living in our basement. Now that I've shared more about the basement egress window definition, let me share my definition of what the window would actually be. Egress window codes differ by location, so you will definitely want to check your local codes to determine what exactly counts as an egress window in your location. They basically serve as a basement escape window in case of an emergency. Most often, egress windows are in a basement. So, in thinking about the basement, I just kept coming back to wanting to add large windows specifically, egress windows (for looks and resale). The natural light that the new window adds in there is just stunning. Honestly, I think that was one of the best changes that we've made in our house to this day. We went from a window that spanned the kitchen sink (36" or so) to one that was just over 60" wide.
#REGRESS WINDOW UPGRADE#
But, I thought that we could make the basement not feel like a dungeon by enlarging our basement windows on each side of our space.ĭuring our kitchen remodel, we decided to splurge and upgrade the kitchen window. At just over 7', there was no way we could improve the ceiling height. Unfortunately, our basement has low ceilings. So, in thinking about the basement renovation, getting more natural light was a priority and that's when I started researching egress windows for basements. I knew from past experience, that enlarging windows in our house was something we all felt was one of the best renovation decisions we've ever made. I wanted the space to feel as much like an extension of the upstairs as it could and I wanted it to have as much natural light as possible.
In talking and dreaming about the space, I just kept coming back to the fact that I didn't want to renovate the basement cheaply. So, we started talking about what a potential basement renovation would look like about two years ago.
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