Exit window

[DonaldSmith]

Several years ago, I re-glazed my basement windows with glass blocks.  Knowing that all livable spaces in a basement are required by code to have a secondary exit route, I provided an exit window.  I was much smaller then, but I can still get out that window. 

 

[oldodge41]

Amazing the space I could fit thru if my butt was gonna be on fire. Seriously, nice work!

[Plymouthy Adams]

in a real emergency, do not stop to open a window....use a chair and smash right on through...might be your last chance to break a glass....go for it...

[Eneto-55]

41 minutes ago, DonaldSmith said:

Several years ago, I re-glazed my basement windows with glass blocks.  Knowing that all livable spaces in a basement are required by code to have a secondary exit route, I provided an exit window.  I was much smaller then, but I can still get out that window. 

I suppose that each state has somewhat differing qualifications for an egress window, but I thought (at least here in Ohio) they needed to be larger than that.  But of course better to have SOMETHING rather than needing to bust through those glass tiles.  (I know how they are made, as my father-in-law was a general contractor, used them in his own basement, and has some laying back in the woods behind his shop.)

[DonaldSmith]

I know that my exit window doesn't meet code.  Each minimum dimension and the minimum total area has to be such that a fireman (or firewoman) can go through the opening with a SCUBA tank on the back.  

[DonaldSmith]

So nobody is taking the bait:  "How do you fit through an 8 by 16 vent in your glass block window?"  The Secret:

 

  

 

I thought it was so clever that I sent photos to Pittsburgh-Corning.  No word back, yet. 

[Ulu]

That looks like a pretty heavy sash.
What kind of hinge did you use?

 

20 years ago I designed some very heavy operable prison windows, and the hinge pins were 3/4” hard steel.

[DonaldSmith]

The hinges are spec grade stainless steel, but without bearings.  Rust-resistant, but low frequency.  I drilled a set screw into each pin, for security.  The door sags noticeably, but there is a "ramp" to raise the door as it closes. 

 

I open the door a few times a year, to break it free if necessary.  Once, the three-year-old neighbor girl saw the sign and read, "Exit!" The neighbor kids are fascinated by the window, especially when I open it and yell at them in their yard.   

 

The neighbor kids own our front screened porch.  It's sometimes a hair salon, and sometimes a dentist office.  With the patient reclined in the anti-gravity chair, the "dentist" proclaims, "Let's see if you're ready for braces." 

 

Our driveway, three cars wide at the garage, is their race course, for skates, bikes, and battery-powered kid-size cars. 

 

Our front yard is a gymnasium in season, for cartwheels and other feats.  After a few inches of snow, the yard was a bobsled course, with mother and oldest daughter pulling the youngest daughter and the youngest, a boy.  (The second-in-line daughter was probably inside reading, or doing piano lessons.) 

 

And they all enjoy the basement rec-room, with an array of Fisher-Price toys for the younger ones, and puzzles to challenge all of them. My son says that these kids are our surrogate grandkids.  

 

 

[Eneto-55]

I see now.....  (I had assumed that the windows opened into a window well, and figured it wound't be easy to slither through the smaller window, and then up out of the windows well.  Tricked me!)

[Dan Hiebert]

No one replied right away because you had everyone sucking in their guts to see if they could manage it...then hesitant to admit you may be more agile than us...