We read the prices basement window installers publish on their own sites, and put them next to what the window itself costs. Then we help you work out which side of that gap you are on.
Which side am I on? See published pricesThe window, bought direct
Manufacturer list price across 5 models, 3 of them code-compliant for egress.
The job, done by a contractor
26 prices published by 9 installers across 7 states, each one named and dated.
The question that decides it
If an opening already exists and the well stays shallow, buying the window and setting it yourself is a real weekend. If a new opening has to be sawn into the foundation, someone has to carry the load above it while it is open, and that is not a DIY step whatever a video tells you.
Four questions settle it. None of them are about how handy you are: they are about the wall you already have, the depth of the well, and what your building department wants to see.
Why these numbers and not someone else's
Aggregators publish averages nobody can check. Installers publish their own prices but never a competitor's. We do the one thing neither of them does: we read the pages contractors put up themselves, keep only what is verifiable, and show you where it came from.
Amounts we cannot tie to an egress window are thrown out, and we throw out far more than we keep. Companies that never answer us stay listed with whatever they publish publicly, and giving us prices never moves anyone up a page.
Two ways through
You do it
An opening that already exists, a shallow well, and a Saturday. We walk the code dimensions, the drainage tie-in, and the point where you should stop and call someone.
Someone else does it
Published prices, each with the company that charges it, the page it came from, and the date we read it. No averages, no sponsored order.
The windows themselves
That difference is not a detail. A basement window that misses the 5.7 square feet of net clear opening is a window, not a legal exit, and an inspector will say so. We list which is which, with the manufacturer's own price.
And once it is in
The part people regret skipping is the well. Done properly it drains, it holds back the grade, and it stops looking like a drain pit from inside the room.
