Egress windows and basement code in Worcester

Usually yes, and it turns on four things rather than on anybody's opinion. A way out that does not go through another room, headroom over the whole of it, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and a permit closed out at the end. We measure all four on the first visit and tell you which ones you already have.

No. The requirement follows sleeping, not square footage, so an office, a gym or a family room is finished without one. It is worth knowing that the day you sell, a room without a way out is not counted as a bedroom however it is furnished, which is why some people put the window in anyway.

The clear opening with the sash fully open, not the hole in the wall, and the height of the sill off the finished floor. Outside, the well is measured for how far it projects and how deep it drops, and anything deep enough to need a climb has to have one fixed in place.

A morning on poured concrete, most of a day on stone. The lintel goes in before anything comes out, the frame goes in the same day, and the opening is never left open overnight. The well and the cover follow once the window is in and sealed.

There will be a machine track across it and a bare patch where the spoil sat, and both recover in a season. Where the grass matters we lay boards for the barrows and dig by hand instead, which adds a day. Say so before we start rather than after.

Off site, unless you want it. A six foot well produces more spoil than people expect and it will not all go back around the ring, so what is left is loaded and taken away. Some people keep it for a bank or a raised bed, which saves a load out.

Yes, insulated glass in a vinyl or composite frame, the same as anything you would put in the rest of the house. The frame matters more than the glass down here, because it sits in a well that gets wet, so it is chosen not to swell and not to rot.

Under a deck, often. Boards come up, the well goes in below them, and the deck goes back over a hinged section that lifts from underneath. Under a walkway or a driveway it is harder, because the cover then has to carry weight, so we look for a different wall first.

It might, and it is measured before anything else because it decides the whole job. The height that counts is under the ducts, the beams and the pipes rather than up to the joists. Where it is short, moving or reboxing a duct run sometimes buys back the inch that matters.

Not until somebody who does that work has looked at it. A wall that is bowing, stepping or moving is a structural engineer and a foundation contractor, and cutting a hole in it is the last thing it needs. We will say so and hand it on rather than framing over it.

It can move it either way and we do not measure it, so we do not guess. Radon testing and mitigation is a separate contractor with separate equipment. If you have a reading already, get it retested after the work, and if you have never tested, that is worth doing first.

It should not, and if it does the drain under it is blocked or was never connected. Ours are bedded on crushed stone that runs to a soakaway or to the perimeter drain, and the cover keeps most of the weather out in the first place. Call us and we will lift it and look.