Lemont Window Well Covers & Basement Windows
Lemont is two towns in one dataset. About 7.8% of its homes predate 1940 — the limestone-era core around the downtown — while 63% were built in 1990 or later out in the subdivision belt. The median year built is 1995, but almost nobody lives in a 1995 house here; they live in a 1900s one or a 2005 one.
Both need covers, for opposite reasons. The old core has original wells against foundations that have been shedding water into the same ground for a century. The newer subdivisions have deep, modern wells that collect a surprising volume of rain precisely because they are well built.
And Lemont sits on the south bank of the Des Plaines River, in the corridor the Illinois and Michigan Canal and later the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal carved out. In May 2020 the river near Lemont broke its record crest.
The River And The Record Crest
Lemont sits on a hillside along the south banks of the Des Plaines River, looking across at Waterfall Glen. That position is the village's whole history — the Illinois and Michigan Canal was dug through here between 1837 and 1848, and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal followed.
On May 18, 2020, after roughly four inches of rain, the Des Plaines River near Lemont broke its record crest, reaching 13.26 feet against a previous record of 12.6 feet. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District has since built a new stormwater treatment facility serving Lemont.
River stage is not the same thing as a wet basement — most water in a Lemont basement arrives from the surface, not the river. But it tells you what kind of rain this corridor gets, and an uncovered window well is the most direct route that rain has into your foundation.
Lemont's Code And Permits
Lemont enforces the 2021 International Residential Code with Village of Lemont amendments, effective January 1, 2024, along with the 2021 building, existing building, mechanical, fuel gas, fire, swimming pool and spa, and property maintenance codes, the 2020 National Electrical Code, and the 2021 energy code with State of Illinois amendments.
The village confirms that local amendments exist but does not publish their text on its public code page, so we will not quote a Lemont-specific window well dimension, ladder rule or cover requirement that we have not read. Under the base 2021 IRC, an emergency escape and rescue opening needs at least 5.7 square feet of net clear opening, a minimum clear height of 24 inches, a minimum clear width of 20 inches, and a sill no more than 44 inches above the floor, with the well at least 9 square feet and 36 inches of projection and width, and a ladder past 44 inches of depth.
Every cover we build over an egress well opens from inside without a key, a tool or special knowledge. Call the Lemont Building Department at 630-257-1598, at 418 Main Street, to confirm what your specific project needs — permit requirements for window replacement and basement finishing should come from them, not from us.
Limestone, Quarries And The Historic Downtown
Canal workers digging through Lemont in the 1830s and 40s hit what became known as Lemont yellow dolomite — a harder, finer-grained limestone marketed as Athens Marble. It built a good deal of Chicago, including the Water Tower, which survived the Great Chicago Fire.
The Lemont Downtown Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, preserving 38 buildings of local limestone. The Heritage Quarries Recreation Area, on former quarry land, is now run by the village.
Outside the core, the subdivisions carry different names and different eras: Briarcliffe Estates, Kettering Estates, Kensington Estates, Woodland Estates, Equestrian Meadows, Ruffled Feathers, Rolling Meadows, Athen Knolls, Fordham Hill Estates and Mayfair Estates. Lemont spans three counties — Cook, Will and DuPage — and four townships, so confirm which county's stormwater rules govern your lot.
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Lemont Window Well Covers | Lemont Window Wells | Lemont Egress Window Wells | Lemont Well Covers | Lemont Basement Window Well Covers