Make It a Bedroom
Book a Code CheckWhat Makes a Window an Egress Window
This is the entire test, and any contractor can recite it. If yours cannot, that is the useful thing you learned from the call.
5.7 square feet of clear opening
Clear means what is actually open once the sash is fully open — not the frame size, not the rough opening. Below grade the requirement is 5.7 sq ft. This is the one people fail on, usually by inches.
24 inches of clear height, 20 of clear width
Both minimums must be met at the same time as the 5.7. A window can clear one dimension and still fail, which is why a tape measure held to the glass is not an answer.
Sill no more than 44 inches off the floor
You have to be able to get out without a ladder. If your basement floor sits low and the wall is tall, the opening has to come down — which means cutting concrete, not swapping a window.
The well itself has to work
If the well projects more than 36 inches from the wall it needs a permanently attached ladder or steps. And the cover, if there is one, must open from inside without tools, keys or special knowledge.
One Opening, Done to Code
We are the specialist your basement finisher subs this to. It is all we do.
Egress Window Cutting
Cutting a new opening through poured concrete or block, setting a proper header, and fitting a window that meets all four numbers rather than three of them.
Window Well & Ladder Systems
Galvanised or composite wells set below the sill with the right projection, and a fixed ladder where the depth requires one.
Well Drainage & Tie-In
Gravel base tied into the footing drain. In an Oregon winter an undrained well is a tank of water sitting against a hole you just cut in your foundation.
Enlarging Existing Openings
Where a window is close but short. Often cheaper than a new cut and it keeps the room's layout — we measure first to see if it is possible.
Window Well Covers
Polycarbonate covers that keep rain, leaves and children out and still release from inside without tools. A cover that needs a key fails the code and defeats the point.
Permit Drawings & Inspection
We pull the permit and meet the inspector. Cutting a structural wall without one is the kind of thing that surfaces at closing, years later.
Bedroom Legalisation Surveys
Measuring what you have against what the code wants, in writing, before you list or refinance. Free, and about one in six needs nothing done.
We cut openings and build wells. We do not frame, insulate, drywall or finish basements — that is your remodeller's job, and we work alongside them constantly.
You Are Buying a Legal Room, Not a Pane of Glass
People call us thinking about daylight. What they are actually buying is the difference between a basement room and a bedroom — and that difference is worth real money in three separate situations.
An appraiser will not count a room as a bedroom without compliant egress, so it does not appear in the bedroom count when you sell or refinance. A rental inspector will not pass a sleeping room without it. And in the situation the code was written for, somebody has to be able to get out of that room in the dark, and a firefighter has to be able to get in.
- ✓Appraisers exclude non-compliant rooms from the bedroom count
- ✓Rental and occupancy inspections require it for any sleeping room
- ✓It is the one code that exists purely so someone can get out
- ✓The cost of the cut is usually less than the value of the extra bedroom
Windows Around Marion County
Measure, Permit, Cut, Inspect
Two days of noise, and the permit runs alongside rather than after.
Code check
We measure the existing opening against all four numbers and check the wall above for load. Free, in writing, and sometimes it ends here because you already comply.
Permit
Drawings and the application to the city. Usually a week or two in Salem, and we start the moment it is issued rather than cutting first and asking later.
Cut & set
Saw-cut the opening, set the header, fit the window, build and drain the well. Two days for most, three if the wall is thick or the access is poor.
Inspection
We meet the inspector and hand you the signed card. That card is what an appraiser or a buyer's agent will eventually ask to see.
We Cut the Hole. Somebody Else Finishes the Room.
Most of our work arrives through basement finishers who sub the opening to us, and that division is deliberate on both sides. Cutting a structural wall, sizing a header and satisfying an inspector is a narrow speciality, and doing it several times a week is why we are quick and why the inspections pass.
Framing, insulating, drywalling, flooring and actually turning the space into a room is a different trade with a different rhythm. We are happy to be the two noisy days in the middle of somebody else's six-week project, and we will hand you names if you do not have a finisher yet.
- ✓Cutting, headers, wells, drainage and the permit — ours
- ✓Framing, insulation, drywall and finish — your remodeller's
- ✓We work alongside finishers most weeks and coordinate directly with them
- ✓If you have no finisher yet we will give you two names we would use
Egress, Plainly
How much does an egress window cost in Salem?
A new cut through a poured foundation with well, drainage, window and permit runs about $5,500-$9,500. Enlarging an existing opening that is close to code is often $3,000-$5,000. A well and drainage on an already-compliant window is $1,500-$3,000. Block walls and thick pours sit at the top of those ranges.
How do I know if my basement window already complies?
Open it fully and measure the actual opening, not the frame. You need 5.7 square feet of clear opening, at least 24 inches of clear height and 20 of clear width, and a sill no more than 44 inches off the floor. All four at once. We check this for free and roughly one visit in six ends with you needing nothing.
Do I really need a permit?
Yes — you are cutting a structural opening in a foundation wall. Unpermitted egress work is one of the things that reliably surfaces during a sale, and unwinding it then costs far more than the permit did. We pull it and meet the inspector as part of the job.
Will an appraiser count my basement room as a bedroom?
Not without compliant egress, no. This is the single most common reason people call us: a room that has been used as a bedroom for years does not appear in the bedroom count on an appraisal, and the difference in valuation is usually a multiple of what the window costs.
Can you cut into a block wall, or only poured concrete?
Both. Block needs more care — the cores have to be filled and the header detailed differently — so it takes a little longer and costs a little more. Anyone quoting the same price for block and poured without looking at your wall has not looked at your wall.
Does the window well need a cover?
Not required, but sensible in Oregon — it keeps rain and leaves out and stops the well filling. The rule that matters is that any cover must open from the inside without tools, keys or special knowledge. A locked or screwed-down cover turns a compliant window into a non-compliant one.
What about the drainage? Will this cause a leak?
It is the right worry and it is why we tie the well into the footing drain with a gravel base. An undrained well is a container sitting against a fresh opening in your foundation, and it will find its way in. If your footing drain is failed or absent, we will tell you before we cut rather than after.
How long will my basement be a building site?
Two days for most cuts, three for thick or awkward walls. It is genuinely noisy for several hours while the saw runs, and there is concrete dust, which we sheet off. The permit and inspection run alongside rather than adding days at the end.
What People Say
We listed the house as four bedrooms. The appraiser knocked the basement room out because the window was six inches too short and it cost us more than the whole egress job would have. Openwell cut a legal one in two days and the re-list held.
Our finisher subbed the opening to them and I am glad. They found the wall was a bearing wall on that elevation and set a proper header. The first quote I got had no header line on it at all.
The well drains into the footing tile rather than just sitting there filling up. In a Salem winter that is the entire difference between a window well and a bathtub outside your bedroom.
Not Sure If Yours Already Complies?
Four measurements answers it. The check is free and about one in six houses needs nothing done at all.
Book a Code Check
We measure the opening against all four numbers and put the result in writing — before anyone talks about cutting anything.