New Lenox Window Well Covers & Basement Windows
New Lenox has one of the most specific window well rules of any town we serve, and most homeowners here have never read it. The village's adopted building code requires that window wells be designed for proper drainage by connecting to the building's foundation drainage system — your well is not just a hole in the ground, it is part of the house's drainage design.
That rule exists because New Lenox is a young, deep-basement town. The median home here was built in 1998, about 70% of the housing stock went up in 1990 or later, and the village's frost-depth requirement of 42 inches means full-depth basements are the norm. Nearly every home has wells, and most of them are uncovered.
When a well ties into the foundation drain, everything that lands in that well is headed for your drain tile and your sump. A cover cuts the volume at the top instead of asking the system to handle it.
What New Lenox's Code Says About Window Wells
New Lenox adopted the 2018 International Residential Code by Ordinance No. 2791 on June 10, 2019, and wrote its own amendments into Chapter 18, Article VII of the village code. Three of them matter if you have a basement window.
First, drainage: window wells shall be designed for proper drainage by connecting to the building's foundation drainage system. Second, ladders: a window well with a vertical distance of more than 44 inches from the top of the well to the bottom of the window needs an approved permanently affixed ladder or steps, usable with the window fully open — at least 12 inches inside width, projecting at least 3 inches, spaced no more than 18 inches on center. Note the measurement is top of well to bottom of window, not simply well depth.
Third, the egress opening itself: a minimum net clear opening of 5.7 square feet, with the sill no more than 44 inches above the floor, and every basement — not just every sleeping room — must have at least one operable emergency escape and rescue opening. Any cover we build over one of those openings releases from inside without a key, a tool or special knowledge.
The Areaway Drain Rule Most People Miss
New Lenox's utilities chapter is blunt about where your water may and may not go. Section 94-87 states that no person shall connect roof downspouts, exterior foundation drains, areaway drains or other sources of surface runoff or groundwater to a building sewer or building drain connected to a sanitary sewer — and that existing connections must be disconnected within 60 days of written notice.
An areaway drain is the drain in the bottom of your window well. The village is explicit that it cannot go to the sanitary sewer, and Section 94-33 repeats the point for stormwater, groundwater, roof runoff and subsurface drainage generally. Combined sewers are prohibited in the village outright.
So the water your well collects has one legal destination: the storm system or an approved natural outlet, by way of your foundation drainage. Keeping most of it out of the well in the first place is the cheapest way to keep that system inside its design.
Hickory Creek And New Lenox Water
New Lenox sits in the Hickory Creek watershed, which drains to the Des Plaines River near Joliet. The watershed covers about 109 square miles, roughly 74% of it in Will County, and New Lenox contributes 8.4 square miles — one of the largest municipal shares. The village's floodplain code also regulates a second stream, Jackson Branch Creek.
The Illinois EPA's 2011 watershed plan describes a substantially urbanized basin with nearly half of its 109 square miles developed, and notes that local stormwater management focuses predominantly on discharge rate control through detention. New Lenox enforces the Will County stormwater ordinance rather than a standalone village one, adopted by Ordinance No. 2769 in January 2019.
Recent storms show what that means at ground level. On September 27–28, 2019 New Lenox recorded 5.27 inches of rain, with flooding reported at Cedar and Laraway, Schoolhouse and Constitution, and in the Country Creek neighborhood, and Gougar Road closed for several days. On May 1, 2019, three to four inches closed U.S. Route 30 through town. Permit fees are assessed on remodeling work over $500 in estimated cost — call the village at (815) 462-6400 to confirm what your project needs before you start.
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New Lenox Window Well Covers | New Lenox Window Wells | New Lenox Egress Window Wells | New Lenox Well Covers | New Lenox Basement Window Well Covers