Basement Bedroom Window Requirements Ontario

As long as there is an egress window or door to the exterior somewhere in the basement you have met the bedroom egress requirement the report also notes.

Basement bedroom window requirements ontario. Also note that if basements have multiple sleeping rooms each sleeping room is individually required to provide a means of escape and rescue. Egress style windows are required by law as they provide a fast and safe escape from your home given an emergency situation. Emergency egress window requirements for bedrooms. You must be able to do so without the use of additional tools or complicated instructions.

They need to meet the criteria set forth by the national building code of canada nbcc. What might surprise you the most is that the fire code does not necessarily require a window in the bedroom itself. Minimum width of opening. I ve stood in many basement bedrooms with a buyer or seller talking about the fact that there is no closet or that the window may or may not be large enough to call the room a bedroom or to legally call it a bedroom.

If a room is used as such it must provide a means of escape. The code requires every basement habitable attic and every sleeping room to have at least one operable emergency escape and rescue opening. Building codes require a basement bedroom has a window for fire escape purposes. 2 except for basement areas the window required in sentence 1 shall have a maximum sill height of 1 000 mm above the floor.

46 cm above the bedroom or basement floor. An emergency escape requires that each bedroom must have a door that leads directly to the exterior of the building. As a homeowner in ontario you need to make sure that your bedroom and basement windows meet the required egress window standards. Minimum height of opening.

At a minimum the bottom of the window must be no more than 44 inches from the floor and that the actual opening be a minimum of 20 inches wide and 24 inches high. Light at least five per cent of the floor area served ventilation at least 0 28m or 3 ft or an adequate year round mechanical ventilation emergency escape. Minimum net clear opening. Installed security bars on basement or bedroom egress windows must be able to be easily removed from inside the home.

This may come as a relief to some people trying to plan out their basement apartment or additional basement bedroom but contrary to popular belief a bedroom in a basement in ontario does not require an egress window in the actual bedroom.