What Homeowners Need to Know About Building Codes for Windows

hey guys Sean with American Window Concepts and today let's talk about building codes and your new windows let's get into this okay so whether you're doing a new construction build or you're doing a retro replacement there's building codes that need to be adhered to now most times whenever you have a Contractor Building up a house they're going to be adhering to every code because you wouldn't get it passed through the county or the city hall without proper codes being adhered to so let's not really talk too much about that let's talk more about your existing house and codes that probably weren't in place in the 50s and 60s but are now let's talk mainly about bedrooms now bedrooms are the dwelling spaces in which you have to have egress codes met egress is literally your ability to get out in case of an emergency right there's a fire there's something that's going on you need to get out of the house then there's Ingress well that's the difference right that's from the outside to in let's say you have a house from the 20s 30s 40s 50s so on and you had wood windows there originally you usually you got 36 in by 48 in back then they were wood single hung Windows now if you replace that with another single hung that's not going to give you 5.7 squ ft of an area to let you get out we want to make sure there's enough area which is going to be 20 in minimum on the width 24 in in the height but that's the minimum you need more than that in these in these areas where you have these 36x 48 Windows you're going to need a casement crank out style of window to give you that egress of 5.7 it'll be more it'll end up being like 7 Square ft but in order to get that egress met you have to have a large enough opening and in those situations you need to do a casement let's talk about sliding Windows like you know we have some areas where they have 48 you know inch wide and there're skinny little frames but then you put in this final window inside of that existing frame now it cuts it down and that Nets you a little less on your your opening so we always go with the thinnest possible profile now let's talk about the grade level which is I'm walking outside and the window is just right here versus upstairs right so upstairs it's going to be 5.7 no matter what now if it's downstairs you can get away with in this area 5 Square ft still has to have that 20-in minimum width 254 in height now let's talk about seill height from the ground most seill Heights are about 40 in off the ground and that's about where we would want it that's a comfortable it's nice off the ground to where you can put a desk there a headboard some houses back in the' 60s and' 7s they would have a very high seill height again they didn't have these codes for egress what happens whenever we come into a situation like that we have to cut that down for me it's more of a I can't sleep at night if we were to put in new windows up there there was an an emergency and somebody suffocated cuz they couldn't get out of that window that would suck so bad so we like to cut those window sills down right so we don't change the header we just bring that sill down to about 40 in seill height now you can get away with 46 in maximum and that's for houses built before 1976 okay that's ESS now let's talk about tempered that's another code that is going to be necessary all doors need to have tempered glass right because it's going to be low to the ground you can easily trip land into a door it can happen and you don't want to have regular analed glass that'll Shard and cut you really really bad you want safety glass which is tempered now anything on side of a tempered door within 24 in needs to have tempered glass if it's directly above it tempered glass any window that is 18 in or less to the ground tempered glass even if you have a seill that's like a seill plate that's 6 in it doesn't matter if it's 18 in from the ground it must be tempered glass and the other thing is going to be baths and showers if it is 60 in from the ground like you know basically shoulder height for me and up you're okay but if it's 60 in or lower well now all of a sudden you need to go with tempered glass mandatory has to be now let's talk about fire code this is the last one now fire code is more of a newer code and it's usually for houses that live up in the hills or close to high vegetated you know areas where there's a lot of brush if a fire were to C you know go up a lot of houses would be uh in trouble at that point fire code is tempered glass one of the pains for us it's the interior for some place in Pennsylvania it could be I don't know exterior who knows and it just can put up with heat longer before it explodes okay so that's the reason you're going to see something like fire code if you live in the Hills you're like okay I want to get all my new windows you might want to talk about fire code windows with your sales guy all right guys I hope this answers your question make it a great day hey guys if you live in the Ventura or Long Beach area and are interested in a free in home estimate go to our website American window concepts.com and we'll reach back out to you as soon as possible if you guys find this information valuable and you want continue to learn more about Windows and Doors subscribe to our Channel thank you so much