Finishing your basement? Adding a bedroom? Selling a home with a "bedroom" downstairs that never had a legal exit? An egress window well is what turns basement space into legal, safe living space — and Well Covered installs inspector-ready egress wells across the Chicago suburbs.
An egress window well is an enlarged well that gives a person room to climb out of a basement window in an emergency — and gives firefighters a way in. The International Residential Code (IRC section R310) requires an emergency escape and rescue opening in every basement sleeping room and in habitable basement space.
Municipal inspectors across Cook, DuPage, Kane, Will, and Lake counties enforce these numbers. We build to them every day, so your basement passes the first time.
A legal egress opening is first and foremost about getting your family out in a fire. But it also pays for itself: converting a basement room into a legal bedroom typically adds significant resale value, and a bright full-size window transforms a dark basement. Appraisers and buyers can only count a basement bedroom if it has compliant egress.
We install rugged galvanized steel egress wells fitted to your foundation, tied in cleanly with grade and siding, with proper gravel drainage at the base so the well never holds water. Pair it with a code-compliant ladder and a lift-off Lexan cover and the whole assembly is safe, dry, and inspector-ready.
We handle wells, ladders, and covers as one job — one crew, one visit, everything to code.
Yes. The IRC, adopted across Illinois municipalities, requires an emergency escape and rescue opening in every basement sleeping room.
The well must give you at least 9 square feet of floor area and project at least 36 inches from the foundation, with a ladder if it's deeper than 44 inches.
Covers aren't required, but an open egress well collects water, snow, and debris — and is a fall hazard. Our covers lift off from inside without tools, so they keep the well dry without violating code.
We build to current IRC egress requirements and have worked with inspectors across the Chicago suburbs since 2001.
On-site measurement, honest pricing, no pressure.