Hey friends! How is your week going? It feels like a roller coaster ride here. I never knew that concrete demo could be this dusty – everything in our living room and kitchen was covered in a layer of concrete dust – even with all the windows and door closed! I caught Roxie drinking from her outdoor water bowl that was covered in concrete dust – and she was licking it because it was almost dry! I felt like such a bad mother and needless to say that she got some really good treats for being neglected.
With the framing in place and the concrete truck ordered, we did not just sit around and wait the magic to happen. There was yet something that needed our attnetion BEFORE the concrete could go in:
This window well.
I knew that I have shown you the dirty carpet, ugly metal awnings, and the half torn garage. But believe me, I still feel embarrassed to show you this window well. I guess it is because that all the other things either have been upgraded, or at least their days are numbered. But we still have a whole bunch of these laying around, and sadly, without any plan to be replaced. There is just no point to change basement window wells until we enlarge the windows. But honestly, these window wells started bothering us more and more. With major exterior demo happening one after another, these window wells started to stand out and are definitely rising to the top of our “eyesore” list.
They deserve it. They are old, rusty, non-functional, and practically outdoor trash bins when we moved in. I will not be showing you what we have pulled out of these wells. This is a family blog – let us keep it classy.
But we will be replacing THIS particular window well today, because it will be enclosed in our new patio. It was enclosed in our old back porch, so this will be our only opportunity to replace it without breaking concrete ourselves.
Due to the concrete work, there was only a 24-hour window for us to get it replaced. And of course we had to find out that our window was not in a standard size…The window is only 32-inch wide, and our old window well was 33-inch in width. All the in-stock window wells we could get on the same day were 37-inch wide. So I spent some time googling “is wider window well a problem” but only found mixed results…
So should we go forward with a much wider window well? When there is no clear answer out there, it is time for my scientific training kicking in. All I needed to do was think logically:
- Is it necessary to get a perfect fit window well? No. Many egress windows rock much wider window wells. As long as the well is covered, with the sides sealed, it should protect the window as well as a smaller window well does. The only difference is cosmetic – it may look funny, or unfit; but functionally, there is no reason that a wider window well wouldn’t work.
- Do we want to wait for a few day in order to get a custom-fit window well? No. The concrete trunk is ordered and our contractor has other jobs lined up. Besides, even we could postpone the concrete work for a few days, the backyard is a dust bowl and my kitchen is covered in muddy paw prints. I won’t delay the work myself.
- Is a generic window well sufficient for our needs? Yes. The material will be the same as a custom-fit one and the price tag is actually much lower. Majority of this window well will be under the patio anyway, so instead of the looks, being strong and new are the most important things for us to consider.
We have been making many decisions during our renovation. Most of the time, we could base our decisions on scientific facts and experts’ opinions. This window well decision is an exception. Just like the work I do in the laboratory, sometimes you just have to make an educated guess based on the circumstances, when there was little previous knowledge you could trust. So I made my peace, padded myself on the back, and sent Slav to the big orange store for the most generic window well ever. He brought back this beauty one:
And this cover:
Classy. They are nothing exciting, but I actually think that they could blend in the concrete patio quite well. And I appreciate the fact that they are plastic and should never rust.
New on the left, old on the right.
In the morning of the day of concrete work, we got up early and started digging.
The new well is 4 inches wider, so Slav made a much bigger hole around it to make our work easier.
Just like other metal component we found on the exterior of the house, both the old window well and the screws holding it in place were badly rusted. Slav had to grind some screws off to free the window well from the foundation.
Once the old well was off the house, we started to grading the soil at the bottom. Just like how we graded soil around the house foundation, the soil within the window needs to allow water to drain away as well.
We then laid down two layers of 6-mil Poly. Now any water getting into the well should drain away on top of the poly layer, instead of seeping down. Some gravel will hold the poly layer in place instead of soil to facilitate drainage.
Next, Slav drilled the new window well into the foundation.
Then caulked the heck out of it:
Do you see the red line on the foundation? It indicated where the top of the concrete patio would be. The rule of thumb is that the window well should be at least two inches above the finished surface (in this case, the top of the patio), and at least four inches below the bottom of the window sill. Our 24-inch well satisfied these requirements.
You may notice that there were some gravel at the bottom of the well too. We put down a thick layer on top of the entire poly layer until it reached the bottom of the well, So when we backfilled, dirt would not get into the well itself.
According to the instruction, someone need to “support the window well at all time during backfilling”. Guess who went inside…
It took Slav about 10 minutes to backfill. He shoveled some dirt around the well, one inch at a time, then compacted it really well by doing a little dance on top of it. I, on the other hand, was busy at this one-woman show, pretending to be buried alive. So Slav started pretending he was preforming a sacrifice. It was too much fun.
Isn’t it beautiful? I could not believe how intimated we were about installing it and how easy it actually was! We filled the well with the rest of the gravel and cleaned up a little:
Yes you are looking at the finished patio around it! We got the concrete poured and it is curing now. I cannot get over how beautiful the whole back patio is! Here is another sneak peek:
I will be back tomorrow to show you the process of pouring concrete and finishing the surface. The big reveal will be on Saturday (hopefully we can get our furniture here on time). Are you ready for some mimosas on our new patio? You bet I am!
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