Installing an egress window in the basement

It's been almost a year since I've posted here.  Let's just say the new addition to the family has kept me busy.  That doesn't mean I haven't had time to continue renovation projects.  Kim has always wanted to finish the basement.  It's a decent space for added living space.  When the builder built the house I'm assuming finishing the basement was an after thought because they put the HVAC and mechanicals smack in the middle of the house.  Even though this may make sense for efficiency and ease of installation it does not help when designing a finished basement.

Since the main purpose for finishing the space is to provide a play room for Macie the fist thing I wanted to do was put an egress window in.  Just in case a fire or something prevented us from using the steps we could exit through the egress window.

Last fall I noticed someone in our neighborhood had one installed.  I stopped by his house and chatted with him for about a half hour.  He told me everything the contractor did and how happy he was with it.  His looked pretty industrial - metal retaining well and safety grate covered by a plastic lid.  Here is one similar I found online:

I wasn't a huge fan of the look.  After talking to him for a while I finally asked him the million dollar question.  How much did it cost?  He told me $3000.  I almost laughed out loud but caught myself.  The first thing I though was maybe I need to go into business installing these things.  Since I'm way to cheap to pay someone that absurd of an amount for a day's worth of labor I decided to do it myself.

Here's how I did it.

First step - call OUPS to mark all my underground Utilities.

As you can see I had no choice but to install the window to the right because the left window was blocked by our gas service.

Step 2:  Dig out well.  I recruited a couple buddies to a free workout.  It took us about 3 hours to get the entire well excavated and hauled off via wheel barrow.

The final size was 3.5' wide by 3' by 3' deep.
Step 3:  Gather materials and Cut wall.
In planning I knew I wanted to find a window that fit to the width of the existing small window.  Home Depot had Anderson casement windows that fit perfectly.  I had the option of either 28"x40" or 28"x48".  To reduce the amount of excavating I had to do I chose the 40" model($250).  This put me below the 44" requirement on the inside of the basement.  In Ohio, if the sill of the window is above 44" from the basement floor, the window is out of code.  I also had to buy 2"x8" treated lumber to frame the window ($20).  Some miscellaneous items I needed consisted of masonry/wood screws, spray foam insulation, construction adhesive, fast setting concrete, silicon caulk, acrylic caulk, and finish coat stucco ($60).  Luckily I was able to borrow a nearly new Stihl cut off saw from a Contractor on my job site.  They kept telling me how awesome it was because it had an electronically controlled fuel injector.

The first thing I did was used a straight edge and transferred the edge of the existing window down to the new sill using chalk.  I then repeated the process on the inside of the basement using a marker.

You can see that I also taped a plastic sheet to the ceiling joists to try and control the enormous amount of dust resulting from the saw.  The dust was smarter than the sheet and found it's way through the space between the joists.  With everything laid out I began cutting the block.

Even though the saw cut through the block like butter it took me about an hour to make the cuts.  It was so dusty and hot my safety glasses kept getting fogged up and it was also awkward holding the saw for the sill cuts.  The dust on the inside of the basement set off the smoke alarms multiple times and I definitely had to change my furnace filter after I was done.  After the cut was complete I used a large hammer to knock out the block wall.

I don't have any photos of the next few steps which included placing concrete in the open blocks along the bottom of the window.  Prior to placing the concrete I cut the 2x8s to size and made sure the fit nice and tight.  After the concrete began to set, I placed the bottom board and used 3.5" screws to basically anchor the board to the concrete.  Next I screwed the header board to the existing 2x4 blocking that runs along the top of the entire block wall (since the joist run parallel to the window I did not have to install a special header for structural support).  Next I screwed the jamb boards to the header and sill boards.  I was able to use shims to make sure they were plumb.  After checking to make sure everything was square and level, I checked to make sure the window fit in the opening.  I planned to have about a 1/2" gap but for some reason I only had about an 1/8".  Luckily once I set the window in place it did not need much shimming.  Finally I placed a bead of silicon caulk along the inside of the window flashing and attached the window to the wood frame using galvanized screws.

Some final steps included placing silicon over every screw head, installing spray foam in the gaps between the existing block and the wood frame, and finally caulking all other gaps that existed between the window and wood frame.
The following weekend I made a trip to Lowe's and found all their landscaping block to be 20% off!!  So for a little over $100 I was able to purchase all the retaining wall block I needed.  I ended up buying the 12"x8"x4" blocks.  To save additional money I turned them on their side.  Since the soils were very clayey the wall really wasn't structurally retaining anything so I felt comfortable turning them on their side.  Between every course of block I placed a 1/4" bead of construction adhesive to hold the wall together.  After the wall was installed the final step was to stucco and paint.  I used the final coat stucco bag mix made by quickcrete.  I have used it on other areas of the house that needed repairs.  It is very easy to work with but I still haven't been able to come close to matching the texture originally placed when the house was built.  I also placed 3 bags of small stone at the bottom to catch any water that may gather at the bottom of the well.  The stone is about 6" deep.  Here are pictures of the final product.

I spent probably 12 hours of labor and about $500 on materials.  Overall I am very happy with how it turned out.  Actually much easier then I expected.  In about a week or two I plan to begin the basement finishing so I will post my before pictures and describe the plan for the basement.

Thanks for reading!!!