NorthernVirginiaBasement.com

 Phoenix Home Services Inc. is a contractor has many years of experience installing egress windows and egress walk outs in basements.  If your basement is be built in Fairfax County, Arlington County, Loudon County, Prince William County, Washington D.C. you will need some type of egress to pass inspection. Emergency egress window or a walkout is code for all finished basement no matter when your home was built. An egress window is also needed in any basement bedroom when remolding your home in most Northern Virginia counties.  When installing a new egress window in your basement remodeling project Phoenix will need to submit detailed and engineered drawing to obtain a permit.

The Northern Virginia County engineer will plan, review and will check the engineered drawings and mathematical calculations to make sure all load calculations are correct for the installation of the egress window cut in your basement foundation. Cutting out an egress window is a very complex task and requires this installation to be done by a Class A contractor with the BLD certification by the Virginia DPOR. Phoenix Home Services Inc. has most likely installed more egress windows and basement walk outs in Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. than any other contractor. Phoenix Home Services Inc. will prepare stamped drawings for code enforcement to obtain the necessary permit for your basement egress window or door.

The first step in installing an egress window or walk out basement is to excavate the area where the egress is to be installed. Phoenix will call MISS Utilities 48 hours in advance to get an active ticket number as per Virginia Commonwealth law at 1-800-552-7001. When the area has been marked we will dig out the egress window well area.The excavation of the footer must match the building plans submitted to the county. The second step in your project is to tie off the rebar for the footing and window well retaining wall inspection. At this point a Northern Virginia County or Washington D.C. inspector will be called for the footing inspection.

The required horizontal diminutions of any egress window for your basement are 36” x 36”. After the footing inspection is complete we will cut your basement concrete block or poured concrete foundation wall for the installation. On basement wall 8” thick we will use a hydraulic water rig saw to make the egress cut. On concrete basement walls over 8” a concrete chain saw will be needed to make the egress window cut on thicker concrete basement walls. After the cut for your egress window is made, we will pour a 12” 3000 PSI concrete footer for the egress window well.

Phoenix Home Services Inc. will leave the concrete cut out in place and order the new egress window from the cut made in your basement wall. Phoenix Home Services Inc. has a special program with Vinyl Lite Window Company that can custom build an egress window in 24 hours. This window can have grids to match the rest of your home and be very energy efficient.  We normally use a casement window for most of our egress window installations. To conform to code, an egress window must be at least 5.7 squares to meet county codes, using a double hung or slider window will not work. When your custom egress window has been finished we will push out the cut concrete section of your basement wall, and prepares the pocket beam for installation.

The pocket beam for an egress window needs to have a double angle iron, which is structural steel that will support the load of any egress cut out. If an angle iron is used it will need to be reinforced with brick on the inside of your basement and the outside wall too. Many egress window installations may include the use of a masonry lentil, or wood framing to support the load of the cut in your basement wall. When the pocket beam is installed for your egress window install, we will have the pocket angle iron, framing, or masonry beam inspected for code compliance.  The next step is to install your new window into the egress window cutout. After your window is installed it will be caulked, and have exterior casing installed. The Window well will now be needed to be finished, for this all concrete form your basement cut must be removed.

After the window well as been prepared, Phoenix Home Services Inc. will build up the window well with CMU (cinder block). Most often 8x8x16 cinder block is used to build the window well. After the egress window well is built it needs to be covered, and waterproofed with cement on the outside for the second County inspection. The most important step is to make sure your egress window is set up for proper drainage.

Many contractors fail to get the drainage of an egress window right, they think installing a drain box to the basement drain tile will drain the water from the egress window well and accomplish the task. These contractors are dead wrong most basement foundation drainage systems are corrupted with silt and will never drain properly. The only two ways to drain an egress window well is to install a drain box and day lights the system through a gravity system or install a day lighter egress window cover. If your egress window is deeper than 44” an escape ladder must be installed. After the egress window is installed we will get a final inspection from the Northern Virginia county or Washington D.C.

We can install egress windows in Fairfax County, Arlington County, Prince Willam County, And Loudoun Counnties VA. Also we are able to install egress window systems to code in Washington D.C.

This includes the cities of Ashburn, Alexandria, Annandale, Aldie, Burke, Bristow, Broadlands, Clifton, Centreville, Chantilly, Dale City, Dumfries, Falls Church, Fairfax Station, Fairfax City, Fairfax, Great Falls, Gainesville, Haymarket, Herndon, Langley, Mclean, Middleburg, Nokesville, Oak Hill, Oakton , Leesburg, Lansdowne, Mclean, Springfield, Sterling, Woodbridge, Reston, RestonTown Center, Sterling, Sterling Park, Tyson's Corner, Manassas, Manassas Park, McLean, South Riding, Vienna, and Lake Ridge.

We also service many Washington D.C. neighborhoods such as Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, Downtown, Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom, Georgetown, Logan Circle, West End, Cathedral Heights, Cleveland Park, Fox Hall, Friendship Heights, Glover Park, Massachusetts Heights, Spring Valley, and Capitol Hill.