What Size Must An Egress Window Be

For determining egress window sizes and placement the international building code holds that every bedroom must contain at least one egress window.

What size must an egress window be.

To ensure you install the right egress for your basement we ll break down the residential window well code requirements you ll need to abide by. The minimum opening area of the egress window is 5 7 square feet. These laws are very specific about what each room can and must have in terms of escape methods should an emergency situation occur. The minimum egress window opening is 20 wide.

The area of a window well shall not be less than 9 square feet with a horizontal length width of no less than 36 inches. In case of an emergency windows installed in any sleeping room must pass strict codes so that occupants can exit and rescue specialists can enter the bedroom. Unobstructed opening of not less than 0 35 m2 3 77 sq ft in area with no dimension less than 380 mm 15 inches this window should maintain the required opening during an emergency without the need for additional support. The overall size of this smallest double hung egress window is 14 85 sq.

And every basement bedroom whether existing or added is required by code to have an egress window. An egress window is a window that is required in specific locations in a dwelling and must meet specific size requirements to qualify as an egress window. The egress window must have a glass area of not less than 8 of the total floor area of room s for which it is servicing to allow the minimum amount of sufficient natural light. In the window business egress codes are laws about the size of operable windows for the purpose of allowing people to escape if there s a fire in the home.

Let s have a look at the alberta building code abc 2014 criteria that all egress windows must satisfy. Egress is literally defined as a path out or to emerge and these terms directly apply to the design principles behind egress windows. The minimum egress window opening height is 24 high. It is intended to provide an emergency means of exiting a dwelling.

However if your basement has habitable finished rooms building codes require it to have egress windows or other means of egress patio door etc. When the sill height of an egress window is located below grade common for egress windows provided for a basement a window well must be provided. Minimum size gliding egress window gliding windows with horizontally sliding sashes that always fill half the possible window opening area also have to be big to meet egress requirements. Egress window well code requirements.