Has anyone had their basement windows enlarged to provide legal egress for a bedroom?

I am planning on moving my office from the 3rd bedroom to the basement and thought that it would be nice to have it legal as a 4th bedroom as well.

The house was built in 2005 and there are two small windows on the east side of the house, these are the windows I want to enlarge. The basement is poured and there has been no water in it at all since it was built.

If you have had your basement windows enlarged, how much did it cost, how long did it take and did you experience any problems?

Thanks

CanopyFlyer

 

This might help.

It sorta walks you thru the process of enlarging an existing smaller window on an older house

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home...t/1275596.html

 

1st thing is to call your local building inspector to make sure you're going about it correctly (if you are even allowed to).

 

or just got rent one of these and start cutting.

 

This isn't going to be a DIY project, I'm hiring a local contractor.

I just wanted to know if anyone else had this type of work done and if they experienced any problems.

 

I was kidding about doing it youself.

Are you in a planned unit development? Are there any rules about doing this?

 

Do you have room to do it even?

In my basement, there wouldn't be enough clearance up before hitting the ceiling, or down before hitting dirt outside to enlarge them enough.

 

I would assume a building permit is needed. That is one of the things that I'm hoping the contractor can educate me about.

There is plenty of room between the house and property line, although where the windows are located is between houses. The windows are already mostly under grass level, so the wells will need to be enlarged. Plus, I'm thinking drainage will be very necessary, as most of the water from my back yard goes down that side of the property. My neighbor and I discussed putting in a drain in the past between our properties, this may be the time to do it.

This is the first company that I am getting a quote from ===>Badger Basement

The link goes to their page where they discuss enlarging basement windows. That is very much what my windows will probably end up looking like.

 

My friend did it to his house with no problems, his home was built in 2005. They enlarged the opening and placed another window into the opening. He didn't have to have that much of a window well though, not much to it. Of course he hired someone to do it, it was done as they were finishing the basement.