Younger home with large bedroom window, low to the ground
If you are buying or selling an older ranch style house or historic home in Silicon Valley, there’s a good chance that original bedroom windows may be smaller or higher than your home inspector might like. What is the big deal with the height or size of the windows? The inspection report may mention ingress and egress.
On this site and others of ours, we bring up health and safety topics from time to time. For example, we shared info on unsafe electrical panels here. In the case of fire or other emergency, children and adults may need to get out and rescue personnel may need to get in. If bedroom windows are poorly configurated, the room could end up being a death trap.
For fire safety, it’s important that:
- bedroom windows be an escape route for persons in the home (egress) – for this, they must be low enough to the ground and big enough so that children and adults can both get out in case of an emergency
- emergency responders such as fire fighters, with their large backpacks on their backs, can get in through the same openings (ingress)
When windows are too high, kids, and perhaps adults, cannot get out through them. And no matter how low or high, if the windows are too small, emergency personnel cannot enter through them.
Bedroom windows and safety: how big and how low do the windows need to be?
There are varied requirements, and exceptions, depending on whether the home is new construction or a remodel. Additionally, there are different rules for basements and 2nd story bedroom windows. Cities and towns each have their own codes, too. Your best bet is to check with your particular town or city to see what you must do if remodeling or replacing your windows.
In Los Gatos, ground floor windows must be
- no more than 44″ off the ground
- at least 20″ wide
- at least 24″ tall
- There are additional requirements, though – please see the link at the bottom of this article to view the details.
San Jose’s requirements are similar.
City of San Jose: Window Replacement Requirements
All sleeping rooms and basements – Must meet these specifications:
– Minimum 5.7 square feet opening*
– Minimum height of 24 inches
– Minimum width of 20 inches
– Maximum height to bottom of clear opening of 44 inches
* In order to meet the required 5.7 square-foot opening, either the width or height or both must
exceed the minimum dimensions shown. If bottom of clear opening is le
When remodeling your home and switching from single pane to dual pane windows, many people will be tempted to use the same sized windows with the new replacement set in order to save money, and in many areas, skip the need for permits and finals by not disturbing the stucco. But rather than target the least expensive way to upgrade your windows, I’d like to suggest making safety a priority. Upgrade not just your home’s energy efficiency, but its safety too.
Ranch style house with original casement windows – impossible for ingress by emergency personnel.
Next is a ranch style house in which the windows have been replaced, but they are fairly high off the ground and the openings are not big enough for a firefighter to get in.
Bedroom windows have been replaced, but do not have large openings
And a ranch style house with newer and enlarged bedroom windows – low to the ground and bigger openings for fire escape or rescue.
Bedroom windows have been replaced and enlarged for safety.
I found many related articles on line with the particulars about size. This one seemed especially good, so I’m including the link here alongside info from Los Gatos and San Jose on replacement windows (each town or city may have slightly different requirements):
Common Building-Code Violations: Emergency-Egress Windows Too Small
Town of Los Gatos required bedroom window sizes
Health and Safety related articles we’ve written here or on our other sites:
Natural hazards in Silicon Valley (on Move2SiliconValley)
Where are the high voltage power lines?
Soft story construction (on this site)
Silicon Valley liquefaction zones (on this site)
