Winfield Window Well Covers & Basement Windows
Winfield's housing sits right in the middle of the window well retrofit window. The median home was built in 1986, 37.6% of the village's stock went up between 1970 and 1989, and another 20.6% dates to 1940–1969. That is close to 60% of Winfield homes with wells old enough to have rusted, settled or filled in at the bottom.
The village has an unusual amount of water for three square miles. The West Branch of the DuPage River runs through Winfield, along with Klein Creek and Winfield Creek — and the Winfield Creek watershed alone drains about 9 square miles, including part of western Wheaton, before discharging to the West Branch.
Winfield also offers an Overhead Sewer Assistance Grant to residents installing overhead sewers to prevent basement backups, and adopted a Stormwater Buyout Policy on December 17, 2015 to formalize how flood-prone properties are evaluated.
Three Waterways In Three Square Miles
For a village of 3.14 square miles, Winfield carries a lot of drainage. The West Branch DuPage River runs through it, along with Klein Creek and Winfield Creek. The Winfield Creek watershed drains roughly 9 square miles — including western Wheaton — and discharges into the West Branch.
DuPage County monitors the West Branch with six flood control facilities, seven stream gages, ten rain gages and four cameras, and a Winfield Creek gage is part of that network. County officials have flagged upsizing the Church Street Bridge culvert as a capital priority.
The regional benchmark event remains September 12–15, 2008, when the remnants of Hurricane Ike dropped 10.53 inches on Wheaton, 9.02 on West Chicago and 8.45 to 8.51 on Carol Stream. The National Weather Service recorded widespread basement flooding, roughly $100 million in damage and four fatalities, with the DuPage River rising to record or near-record levels. That is the kind of rain an open window well is worst at.
Village Programs And County Buyouts
Winfield's Overhead Sewer Assistance Grant helps residents installing overhead sewers to prevent basement backups. Separately, the village adopted a Stormwater Buyout Policy on December 17, 2015, formalizing how flood-prone properties are evaluated for buyout.
DuPage County runs its own Voluntary Flood-Prone Buyout Program, which has purchased more than 130 homes since 1989 at fair market value and demolished them to open space, with eligibility that includes FEMA repetitive-loss structures. The county also maintains about 360 miles of streams under its Stream Maintenance Program.
Accessory structures in Winfield must comply with the DuPage County Floodplain and Stormwater Management Ordinance in addition to village zoning, and Title 12 of the village code is devoted to flood control. Drainage complaints route through the village at (630) 933-7100.
Permits And Code In Winfield
Winfield adopts the international family of codes by reference in Title 9, Chapter 1 of the village code — the residential, building, existing building, mechanical, property maintenance, fire, energy conservation, fuel gas and swimming pool codes, plus NFPA 101.
The village's amendments to the residential code touch administration, permits and a few construction provisions, but there is no Winfield amendment to the emergency escape and rescue opening requirements, and none to basement, sump pump, foundation drainage or downspout provisions. Window wells here are governed by the adopted model code rather than a local rule.
Because the specific code edition and the permit rules for window replacement and basement finishing should come from the village rather than from us, call Winfield at (630) 933-7100, at 27W465 Jewell Road, before you start. Whatever edition applies, a cover over an egress well has to release from inside without a key, a tool or special knowledge — that is the rule we build to.
Winfield spans Milton and Winfield Townships, was incorporated on April 18, 1921 with 310 residents, and holds Hedges station, built in 1849 and described as the oldest train depot in Illinois. Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital anchors the town center, and the West Branch DuPage River Trail and Winfield Riverwalk run through the village.
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