Charming brick home in Bethesda Chevy Chase area in Maryland. The customer was finishing their whole basement and an integral part of their basement remodel, including a downstairs bedroom. Obviously that needed a fire escape window. This was a unique job for several reasons one the home was built in the 20s or 30s and so it’s always interesting working with the house that old and a foundation that old. To access was very difficult. There was a steep hill that made getting in and out very difficult, especially with machines. Much of it had to be done by hand. Lastly, at some point in time somebody modify the original opening of the house and added a larger window with a block. Well, when that was done they cut a larger opening for the new window with wise but never made the proper structural changes to the foundation when we found it the two existing lentils that were original to the home we’re not bearing on anything on the right side. They were just hanging there so we had to carefully take apart the brick, making sure nothing fell apart water construction tooth out the existing brick and add two new steel lentils to support the load. After that we dug to the footing looking for the drain tile, which in this case didn’t exist. That being so we added an external sump pump at the footing and encapsulated that with silt cloth, and 3 tons of 57 stone. The 1/3 hp pro flow pump will act as the primary drain in this case, going through a back-flow prevention valve underneath the bottom of the well and up through the ground until it got to grade and then extends out 7 feet underground until daylight. We use a 4’ x 4’ twin in-swing European tilt and turn Wital window, and a 64 inch with white Boman Kemp well system. Also, a portion of the excavation had to be done very carefully as it was right on top of the gas line on the right. JDS Home Improvement specializes in retrofitting basement fire escape egress window systems to make a legal and safe bedroom in your basement. Give us a call for a free estimate to transform your basement into a bright, safe, and desirable usable space for your home.
