The company I work for builds basement window wells out of PT 6×6. It is labor intensive, let me tell you. The hours seem to slip through my fingers like grains of sand. . .
Now, I’m just a peon, so nothing will be changing any time soon. I’m still curious as to what other approaches might be. How do you do your window wells?
Edit: Or maybe someone can come up with a way of rapidly making timber wells?????
Making mitered head casings is a breeze with this simple system.
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Replies
What about modular retaining wall blocks?
Rich
There's a thought.
They install some pretty nifty ones in MI complete with ladders and safety cover. They are fiberglass.
For shallower ones, they use galvanized "window wells".
http://www.boman-kemp.com/search_components.mv?component=well
Yeah. Well, my employers wouldn't be into anything like that. They cater to a certain market; that is, picky rich people. So everything has to seem like it took some time and effort.Edit: I am totally just asking out of curiosity. Timber wells is how we do it, period.
Edited 10/4/2008 9:39 pm ET by Biff_Loman
I got a nice cad file from that site! Thanks for spurring me to search it!
JLC just did a great article on a basement addition where they used a system from Bilco called Scapewell.
Looks like just the ticket where egress is a concern.
http://www.bilco.com
The best reward for a job well done is the opportunity to do another.
There's a shop on the south side of Denver that does precast window wells. I got one on my house. Slickest thing you ever saw. As I understand, this plant is subbed out to a customer that has the design patent on these. So they make them and the customer then sells them.
It's 5 sides of an octogon from the top view. Comes in various sizes. You got a 4' wide window? They'll have a 54" or 60" unit for you. They go bigger.
From the side view, it's whatever height you need, commonly 6 - 7 ft. A reinforced band around the top opening. At that point, it's about 4" thick of the precast concrete. Has a cast-in galvanized ladder on the inside. Comes with a reinforced hinged metal grate for a lid that is only able to be opened from the inside. The hardware for the locking grate is also cast-in.
What makes it so slick is how it's installed to keep it always tight.
About 2/3rds of the way up from the bottom, on the outside of the two parallel legs of the 5 sides, is a hook cast in. A chain will attach from that and hook up to another on the house's poured foundation (gotta have that) about a foot higher. Obviously the length of chain is critical. But what happens is the weight of the precast unit swings on the chain up against the house. Gravity keeping it in place. Once backfilled, it can't move.
These apparently are so popular here that the dekkerator stores have large pictures that fit on the inside of these wells like wallpaper, giving another prettier view. The mountains, deer, cow, whatever.
I build my egress wells out of timber as well and its not that time consuming or expensive at all:
I use 4x4 pressure treated. precut pieces in shop , each horizontal member is 4' with a 30 degree cut on each end. Vertical members are 12" long with square cuts. Each well requires 12 horizontals and 12 verticals and 1 1/2 sheets of treated ply (usually 1/2")
Start by setting first row of horizontals (3), sometimes on footing blocks, but I will also just set them in well drained sand. I am essentially building 1/2 of a hexagon. The 2 set at the foundation come off at an angle, connected by the third one. Now set the first row of verticals (4) one at each joint and one against the foundation. repeat untill you use up all the pcs. Cover the outside with 4'x4' pc. of ply (3 sides). I simply nail all this together as I go with galvinized ring shanks. I dont attach to the foundation at all. The pressure of the backfill holds the well evenly against the foundation because of the angles.
I try to install these at the same time as backfilling so I can get the excavation contractor to evenly backfill against the well.
Interior distance front to back becomes three feet and the horizontals provide a sort of "ladder" to enable a person to climb out.
Total shop time maybe 1/2 hour per well, Install maybe 45 minutes, materials less than 100 bucks.
Oops, meant to post to biff loman
Edited 10/5/2008 9:47 am ET by LIVEONSAWDUST
Edited 10/5/2008 10:11 am ET by LIVEONSAWDUST
Yeah. . . That sounds thought out well. Everything we do is more work. Our outfit puts plywood up against the windows and backfills against them, then digs them out again by hand. THEN we get to the process of nailing 6x6s together with 10" spikes.Most of our processes seem really smart and efficient, but this is not one of them.