Manhattan Window Well Covers & Basement Windows
Manhattan is the newest housing stock we serve. The median home here was built in 2005, more than 30% of the village's housing went up in 2010 or later, and the population grew 231% between 2000 and 2024. Most window wells in Manhattan are younger than the homeowners' mortgages.
New does not mean covered. A modern well is deeper, cleaner and better drained than a 1960s steel one, which is exactly why an open one collects so much water so efficiently. And because Manhattan's detention ponds are owned and maintained by the associated homeowners associations rather than the Village, what happens on your own lot is genuinely your own responsibility.
Around that new construction sits an 1880s railroad village. About 7% of Manhattan's homes predate 1940 — the Manhattan Proper core — and those are a different job entirely.
Manhattan's Permit Rules For Windows
The Village of Manhattan has adopted and enforces the 2021 International Residential Code with local amendments, along with the 2021 energy code and the 2023 National Electrical Code, under Title 3, Chapter 6 of the village code.
The village's window replacement guideline is refreshingly clear: no permit is required if windows are exact replacement. A permit is required for window replacement requiring structure change, at a fee of $90.00, with a rough framing and u-factor inspection. That distinction is the one that matters for egress — enlarging a basement opening to reach a compliant escape window is a structure change, and it needs a permit before work starts.
Finishing a basement falls under the village's Interior Remodel/Addition permit, assessed at square footage times $0.47 with a $500 minimum. The village publishes no guideline specific to window wells, egress wells or sump pumps, so call the Building Department at (815) 418-2100, or the Building and Zoning Clerk at (815) 418-2042, rather than assuming. Inspections must be called in by 3:00 p.m. for next-business-day service, and contractor registration is required.
Water In Manhattan
Manhattan Creek is the village's named local waterway, and the Village reports that it has passed and enforces a resolution imposing stricter design and post-design requirements on facilities along it. The village also participates in the Lower Des Plaines Watershed Group's monitoring program.
The design standards are worth knowing because they explain what your lot is expected to handle. Storm sewers in Manhattan are designed for the 10-year event; the major drainage system — the overland flow paths across yards and streets — is designed to carry the 100-year flood. In a 100-year rain, a great deal of water is meant to move across the surface, and an open window well is a hole in that surface right beside your foundation.
Manhattan participates in the National Flood Insurance Program as community 170704, and the village requires a stormwater permit for development in the regulatory floodplain or disturbing more than 5,000 square feet.
The Village, Its Subdivisions And Its Core
Manhattan sits in Manhattan Township, Will County, covering about 6.68 square miles. It was founded in 1880 as a railroad stop and incorporated in 1886, and it remains the southern terminus of Metra's SouthWest Service line to Chicago Union Station.
The village's own records name its subdivisions: Butternut Ridge, Hanover Estates, Ivanhoe, Prairie Trails, Stonegate, Sunset Lakes and Whitefeather among the village-lit ones; Brookstone Springs, Century East, Foxford, Leighlinbridge, Kennedy Fields, Ridgefield and Manhattan Proper among the rest; Sunset Lake Villas and Tramore privately maintained. Manhattan Proper is the historic core.
Population tells the story plainly. Manhattan had 1,944 residents in 1980, 2,059 in 1990, 3,330 in 2000, 7,051 in 2010 and 9,385 in 2020. Almost everything you see was built in the last twenty-five years — and almost none of those wells came with a cover.
All our covers:
Manhattan Window Well Covers | Manhattan Window Wells | Manhattan Egress Window Wells | Manhattan Well Covers | Manhattan Basement Window Well Covers