Putting in egress windows - paging construction maggs

[fez]

yeah dude!

you should send mm and me your address so we can come over and drink beer and 'supervise'

[FreakofSnow]

Phase I complete, one window cut out and installed.

Check it:

http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...avis%20saw.jpg

Window before
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...w%20before.jpg


Window after
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...ow%20after.jpg

[Sierra Cement]

Nice work man. Obviously earned that beer sitting on the new window sill in picture #3!

Is the new outside grade at least 6" below the sill so snow / water don't pile up and leak through your sill?

Where is the water in the new outside window well draining to?

Most construction related problems start when water gets inside the building. Be extra cognizant to properly waterproof your window and the surrounding wall.

[fez]

remarkably good job considering the lack of properly inebriated supervision.

[Mountainman]

I'm betting all that rain today helped ya check for leaks

[FreakofSnow]

Going for the second window this weekend, hopefully this time it will be easier and I won't make the same mistakes.

Overall, the cost to do this was $500 for one window If you were to pay someone to do this they would probably charge 2-3k easy.

For any future egressers:

After all was said and done, here are instructions and tips

Tools needed
measuring tape
cold chisel
eye protection
resp. mask
mason hammer
sledge hammer
shovels
chalk
Hilte gun/Nails/Charges
caulking
Liquid nails
window shims
nails
Concrete chainsaw
hip waders
1/2 - 3/4 yard of gravel
beer

Steps
1. Mark off the area in front of your window that will need to dig - I my case I needed to go at least 48" down and about 48" wide to make room for the railroad ties.
2. Dig the hole - I chose to rent a mini excavator
3. Buy the window before you start cutting and make sure you have the proper size to meet the code
4. Mark on the wall the size of the cut, make sure to make it bigger than the window (account for the buck - pressure treated 2 x 6)
5. Score your mark with a cold chisel as the water slinging off the saw will take the chalk off
6. Prepare the inside - I hung visqueen up w/ a staple gun, pulled back the rug, laid down a bead of caulk to act as water trap. Then I got a big "bucket" and laid the visqueen into that to catch the water.
7. Put your waders on and jump into the hole with the saw
8. Turn on the water (keeps the blade cool) and start cutting
9. I found it was best to plunge cut in multiple spots and then link the cuts together.
10. IMPORTANT note: make sure you cut the bottom first, you don't want to do that last or it will pinch your bar
11. Make the side cuts and work them down from the top
12. Leave a little holding concrete near the bottom and go inside and beat the bastard out. *** MAKE sure you dig the hole deep enough so that you can leave the piece in the hole and bury it
13. Insert window
14. Place the gravel
15. Now make the window well (i did mine with railroad ties spiked together)
16. Proceed to get drunk and stand around & grunt

[FreakofSnow]

Finally finished the project, damn, that was a shit load of work. The great thing is, I figure that I saved an easy $3000.

Here is the last window, the before pics and afters

[Big E]

bizzump.

Why is it that I get more useful hits searching on TGR than searching on google??

To address my festering foundation/slab issues, looks like I have the opportunity to do some serious concrete work. Basically I'm going to need to cut out a fairly large portion of my basement floor - probably 10'x15' or so. Am I nuts for thinking of doing this myself? The guy I talked to from the company that's going to be doing some work, when he came over and looked at it, told me "since you can obviously do stuff yourself, we can tell you where to cut and you can do that yourself to save some cash." Only concern is if there are pipes and stuff under there, but there is no plumbing in that area of the house, so maybe I'm okay.

Figuring I need one of those macho ring saws w/ a diamond blade or two like Beaver had (okay, I admit it, I really just want to use one of those ) to actually do the cutting, and then a nice jackhammer to break up the slab.

Is this nuts? Does anyone want to come over and help?