How to Know When You Need Engineering for Your Basement Walkout Entrance

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(light music) - Hey, Caleb Dansie here, and thanks again for tuning into our videos. I wanted to share with you today some information on the engineering for basement walkout entries, and how we can actually maximize the amount of options of different places we could put an entrance on a home. And then also, when we need to have engineering done and when we do not. So I'm gonna run through a few different options with you today, show you on my computer screen three different situations. Two of the situations are where we actually have a existing window that's going to be turned into a door, and then a third option where there is no existing window, we're just excavating and putting in a door anywhere in the foundation. So let's jump right into this, I'm gonna flip my computer screen around so that you can see that, and we'll jump right in. Okay, so the first example that we have here is when we have a window that the top of the window is shorter or lower than 83 inches above the top of the basement concrete slab. So what we have here is a foundation. This is looking from the outside, all of these are gonna be the same view. Looking from the outside, this here's the top of the foundation wall. We have the existing window where the top of it is less than 83 inches high. And then the concrete floor down here is shown where the stairs are gonna land on that landing outside, and that's gonna be the same height as the floor inside the basement. So this situation would definitely require a structural reinforcement, something that's engineered. And in this video today, I'm showing you some pictures, exterior and interior reinforcement, that's what the engineer specified. There's a lot of different ways that the engineer can plan this out that would work. This is just what we had on these particular projects. So this is the first option. The reason we're going to definitely need the engineering is because the height of the window is lower than the height of an egress door, which is 83 inches. It's a seven foot door, it's a standard, you cannot make a shorter door for an egress, which is a emergency exit. So we'll then, after we get the reinforcement cut and installed, everything done, then we can move to cutting the concrete opening, which is less than 83 inches tall. And then, or right at 83 inches at least. And then we can put in the door and then trim that out with either stucco siding or just trim, depending on the width, and what that actual, what that will actually be. So that's gonna be unique for every home, and the situation that we're in with that. So that's the first one, and here's a picture of that. So on the left side here shows the engineering reinforcement that the engineer specified. And we had to put these on both side, the inside and the outside of the house. And that is there to make sure that that concrete does not break or crack under the forces coming down from the home above it. So this was a two story home, and that was the load bearing wall that bore the load of the two stories and the trusses above that. So, and then on the right side, that shows how it was when we got all the door installed and everything. Our next example is where the window is actually higher off the floor inside the basement than 83 inches. This is where you're actually not going to need any engineering, because the only part of the concrete that we'll be cutting is the lower portion underneath the window. So because we're not disturbing the header, how they poured that concrete originally, and the foundation, is sufficient, we're not disturbing that, so there won't be any engineering here. So then we can put in the door and take out the window and then trim that out with stucco siding, or just trim, depending on the situation again. And then here's a picture of that on the left side showing the top and the right side showing the bottom. So this is work in progress that isn't isn't completed yet. So you can see that on the left side here, that header was never disturbed. Then the last example is the foundation wall turned to walkout door where there is no window or any opening in the concrete. So we just have a blank canvas, and this is where you're going to need engineering regardless, no matter what you do. And so I would recommend at this point, if you know if you have the first situation where your window's height is lower than 83 inches, you're gonna have to do engineering regardless. So at that point, you don't have to use a window to turn into a door. You could go with this route, open up a lot more opportunities for different areas in your home, maximize functionality, side yard, backyard, privacy, or whatever you're looking to do, this would really help. So you can put it anywhere. And it's actually a lot more simple and can actually, the engineering cost can be absorbed because we don't have to worry about the trim, or stucco, or siding, we can just put the casing of the door around, which will actually save some cost as well. So this is the third example, and it's a great option so that we don't have to be constrained to the size of a certain window, and work around that. It's just a lot easier in some situations to go this route. The rules of thumb that you need to know are the concrete header, if that window is lower than 83 inches from the foundation, or the floor in the basement, then we're gonna have to disturb that header up top and have to do some engineering there. If it's higher than 83 inches, then we're lucky, we don't have to do any engineering. That's always exciting. And then if you're stuck doing engineering, either way, then that opens up a lot of possibilities to put the walkout anywhere else. So a lot of folks feel kind of restricted to turning a window into a door, but a lot of times if we have to do engineering either way, it's just as easy to put it anywhere else, and can save some cost on the exterior finish if you don't use a window. So anyway, I hope that helps you guys today. And thanks for tuning into our videos. If you have any questions, you can leave us a message on our website. Over on the right hand side of our website, there's a place where you can leave a voice message, a quick voice recording for us. And we can actually make a video and put that out into our channel and on our website, so other people can get those questions answered too. So anyway, appreciate you guys, and let us know what you think. And if we can help you with finishing your basement, or any other remodeling projects that you have, love to hear from you. Have a great day. Talk to you soon. Bye. (light music)
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Channel: Dansie Design Build
Views: 4,780
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Keywords: structural engineering, what does a structural engineer do, structural engineer, residential structural engineer, basement walkout, basement walkout construction, basement walkout engineering, design build, design build contractor, basement finishing
Id: gF4BwhxJdHQ
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 7min 38sec (458 seconds)
Published: Wed May 11 2022
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