April is Safe Digging Month TAGS: Adding egress windows | Dial 811 | Dig Safe

Whether your basement is beneath a ranch house or a mansion, adding windows to it requires one identical process – digging a big hole! To ensure people dig those holes safely, and to reduce the risk of property damage or personal injury, the Common Ground Alliance has declared April to be “Safe Digging Month.” What’s beneath your feet? For homeowners, the answer could be power lines, cables, gas pipes and sewer lines. As more and more townships beautify themselves, more and more of the essential wiring that keeps our cities ticking has been transferred beneath our feet. For homeowners in …Continue reading →

Better Basement Ventilation: A Second Egress Window Brings a Breath of Fresh Air TAGS: basement | Basement Windows | bringing fresh air in a basement | damp basement | fixing smelly basements | prevent mold in basements

National building code requires all furnished basements to have a means of egress – but adding egress window wells can have other benefits as well; as one New Jersey homeowner discovered. “Sometimes I used to wonder why they even built a basement in this house,” admits Lambertville resident Rick. “We lived far enough away from the river that the house never flooded, but for as long as I lived here there was a funky, damp smell downstairs and it just wouldn’t go away.” Rick’s beautiful Victorian home is just blocks from the Delaware river; and his basement is an important …Continue reading →

DIY Basement Finishing: Make Sure You Know the Codes TAGS: basement | basement remodel ideas | building codes | Egress windows | finishing a basement

Richard thought he was smart to finish his basement himself – until it came time to sell his house. “I guess the moral to the story is: Don’t cut corners.” Richard’s talking about the finished basement of his Reading, Pa. home. “My buddies and I did it about five years ago,” he explains. “My wife and I had been talking about finishing the basement for a while, so we bought what we needed from the hardware store and got cracking.” And for a project fueled by six packs of beer and how-to articles found on Google, Richard and his friends …Continue reading →

Get Out of the Dungeon with Natural Basement Lighting TAGS: Egress windows | finishing a basement | gloomy basement | means of egress | natural light | safe basement exit

A finished basement can add lots of extra room to your home – but the lack of natural light can leave it dark and unwelcoming – almost like a dungeon. Adding an egress window is one great solution to bring natural light to every level of your home. Kelly loves the sun. “As far as I’m concerned, the most beautiful part of any home is the sunlight.” That was why she bought her beautiful Cape home, overlooking the park in Babylon, New York. “You can spend as much as you want on decorating, but none of it will make your …Continue reading →

Basement Remodeling: Why More Homeowners are Going For It TAGS: basement remodel ideas | building codes | Egress windows | finishing a basement | Refinishing your basement

If you’re a homeowner, you don’t need me to tell you that house prices stink right now. Even worse, analysts report things are likely to get worse before they get better. That’s why many homeowners are deciding not to put their houses on the market at the moment; and are instead reinvesting their money and renovating their current properties. One such couple is Dennis and Grace, from Great Neck, NY. “We bought our house at the height of the market,” Dennis says, “and since then, realtors have told us we’ve lost a hundred grand off what we can ask for …Continue reading →

Let the Sunshine In with an Egress Basement Window TAGS: basement | basement egress windows | large basement windows | Sunlight into a basement

Adding an egress basement window to your remodeled basement makes a lot of financial sense – but there’s another advantage you might not have thought of. As 60s pop icons The 5th Dimension sang, egress windows “let the sun shine in.” “Let the sunshine in! Oh, open up your heart and let it shine on in!” Scot Krauser has been singing that a lot recently. A 41-year-old music teacher from Easy Brunswick, NJ, he literally “let the sun shine in” when he added egress windows to the basement of his three bedroom ranch. “I love that song,” Scot beams. “Hair! has …Continue reading →

What does Egress Mean? TAGS: Basement Windows | circulate air | Egress windows | emergeny escape | Windows

The English language is a funny thing. For the most part it’s constantly changing, evolving and developing. Then, sometimes, you’ll find a word so old people have practically forgotten where it’s come from. For example, according to signs in railroad stations, you still “alight” from a train – even though most people think “alight” means setting something on fire. Another commonly confused word is “egress.” Ask most people what the definition of egress is and they’ll generally answer “a type of bird.” (That’s actually an egret.) Egress is another word for “exit”, and is used in building code to refer …Continue reading →