Northbrook Window Well Covers & Basement Windows
Northbrook's housing stock is older than most people assume. The median year built across the village is 1976, roughly 72% of homes went up before 1990, and about 34% were built between 1940 and 1969. Those mid-century and 1970s foundations are where we do most of our Northbrook work — steel window wells that were installed with the house, never covered, and have spent fifty years collecting rain, leaves and snowmelt.
An uncovered well next to a 1960s foundation is a problem that compounds. Water pools against the foundation wall, the window frame rots from the bottom up, and the well itself rusts through at the soil line. A properly fitted cover keeps that water out of the well in the first place, which is a far cheaper fix than replacing a basement window or chasing a seepage crack.
We build every Northbrook cover to the opening we measure on site, and every cover over an egress well opens from inside the basement without a key, a tool or any special knowledge — which is what the code requires of anything covering an emergency escape opening.
Why Northbrook Basements Take On Water
Northbrook drains a lot of ground. The village maintains more than 123 miles of storm sewer pipe, about 24 miles of open ditches, and roughly 1,725 acre-feet of detention storage. That infrastructure is substantial, and it is also what tells you how much water moves through the village during a real storm.
The September 12-13, 2008 storm dropped 6.4 inches on Northbrook and is still the event homeowners here bring up first. Storms like that overwhelm surface drainage before they overwhelm anything else, and an open window well is a surface drain pointed directly at your foundation. A 4-foot by 3-foot uncovered well catches a meaningful volume of water in a rain like that, and every gallon of it lands against the wall.
Northbrook has been rated CRS Class 6 by FEMA since 1995 and improved from Class 7 in 2021, which earns village property owners a 20% flood insurance discount inside the mapped floodplain and 10% outside it. That rating reflects real floodplain management work — it does not mean a given basement is safe from surface water, which is what window well covers actually address.
The Village's Overhead Sewer Cost-Share
Northbrook runs an Overhead Sanitary Sewer Cost Participation Program that reimburses homeowners 50% of the contractor cost, up to $5,000, for converting to an overhead sewer. Eligibility requires that the home was constructed prior to 1965. The program is voluntary — the village is not requiring anyone to convert.
It is worth knowing about because it tells you something about the village's older housing: homes from before 1965 are the ones most likely to have gravity sewer connections that can back up. If you are already looking at basement water, an overhead conversion handles sewer backup and a window well cover handles surface water. They solve two different problems, and most homes with one problem have the other.
We are not plumbers and we do not do sewer work. But if you are getting water in a Northbrook basement, it is worth knowing which source you are dealing with before you spend money on either fix.
Permits and Egress Rules in Northbrook
Northbrook adopted the 2024 International Residential Code by Ordinance 2025-72 on October 28, 2025, effective January 1, 2026. Under the IRC, a basement bedroom needs an emergency escape and rescue opening with 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. The well outside it needs at least 9 square feet of area with a minimum projection and width of 36 inches, and a permanent ladder or steps if the well is deeper than 44 inches.
A cover over an egress well must be releasable from inside without a key, a tool, or special knowledge, and without more force than the window itself requires. That is the rule we build to, and it is the rule an inspector will check.
One Northbrook wrinkle worth knowing: the village's basement finishing permit runs $3.00 per square foot plus a $100 deposit, and it does not include structural review. Cutting a new egress opening into a foundation wall is structural, so that work routes to an Interior Alteration permit instead. Call Development and Planning Services at 847-664-4050 before you start — and confirm any local amendments to the IRC with them directly.
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Northbrook Window Well Covers | Northbrook Window Wells | Northbrook Egress Window Wells | Northbrook Well Covers | Northbrook Basement Window Well Covers