Doing it yourself

Most of the bill is labor, not the window. If the opening already exists and the well stays shallow, this is a real weekend. We walk the code, the sequence, and the point where it stops being your job.

Expanding foam being gunned in around the edge of an installed window

Install the window

What the code requires, the sequence of the work, and the point where you should stop and call someone.

Read it

Soil being dug out of a window well beside an existing basement window

Build the well

The code minimums, the drainage step that decides whether your basement stays dry, and the depth that owes a ladder.

Read it

Buried gas line warning tape uncovered while excavating beside a foundation — Photo: The Great Egress Co.

Two things before anything else

Call 811, and measure the opening.

A window well is dug tight against the foundation, exactly where services run. Have your utilities located first: the call is free and it is the cheapest step of the project.

Then measure. Under International Residential Code (IRC) 2021 the opening has to clear 5.7 sq ft of net clear area at the same time as its minimum height and width, and that combination catches more people than any other part of the job.

Take the four-question check