Egress Window Installation in Gresham, OR
Your basement window in Gresham can be measured by two inspectors, who may report two different numbers. One works for the city's Rental Housing Program and reads from the Gresham Revised Code; the other works for the Building Division and reads from the state residential code. Both are checking whether the room behind the window can be slept in. They do not agree on the size of the opening, and a window that satisfies the first can fail the second. VResh Construction cuts a new Gresham opening to the second of the two.
What the rental inspector reads
Gresham licenses every residential rental and, in its own words, "uses the license information to conduct random, mandatory inspections as well as complaint-based inspections." The standard those inspectors carry into a basement bedroom is the city's amendment to the property maintenance code: a window provided for escape "shall have a minimum net clear opening at least 20 inches wide, at least 22 inches high, and, if constructed after July 1, 1974, at least five square feet in area," with a sill "no more than 44 inches above the floor or above an approved, permanently installed step" that "must not exceed 12 inches in height and must extend the full width of the window." Each line carries an exception for windows built to the code of their day. A basement rented as its own unit, including a basement ADU, holds a rental license and is in that pool.
What the building inspector reads
A new opening is measured against the state code, and Gresham's own final-inspection checklist restates the line the inspector uses: "Bedroom egress windows ≤ 44 inches measured from the floor to the bottom of the window opening with a minimum 5.7 square foot clear opening and 20-inch minimum width, 24-inch minimum height." No step. The same checklist requires "interconnected smoke detectors, hardwired with battery backup" at each floor, in each bedroom and outside each sleeping area, work that goes on the electrical permit the electrical contractor pulls alongside the building permit. The two tapes meet on one house. A 1960s Gresham basement window that is 22 inches high and just over 5 square feet is not held to the rental code's area line at all, because that line applies only to windows built after July 1, 1974, the date written into Gresham's own amendment. The same window is short of 5.7 square feet and 24 inches on a building permit, which is the document a buyer or lender asks to see. The rental code is a floor for rooms that already exist; the building code is the standard for openings that change what the room is. VResh builds to 5.7 so that whichever inspector comes next is measuring a window that clears both.
Half the housing predates 1980
About 48 percent of Gresham's homes were built before 1980, and the 1970s alone account for a quarter of them, the largest single decade in the city, so the date in the rental code sits in the middle of the housing stock rather than at its edge. Nearly all of those houses predate 1978, so the cut is lead-safe work.
Rockwood gravel, Pleasant Valley pan
Gresham's hazard plan describes "the deep, well-drained rocky soils of the Rockwood area, the Downtown area with its high surface water, and the mostly forested southern butte complex," and south of Johnson Creek the soil survey adds the Powell and Cascade silt loams with a hard pan 15 to 30 inches down and "a perched water table over the fragipan during the winter." A well in Rockwood gravel drains through its own base; a well in Pleasant Valley sits on the pan and holds water unless it is piped out. The development code sets the rule either way: foundation drains "shall be discharged to either an on-site stormwater facility, curb face outlets (if minor quantity), to a public or approved private stormwater system, or to an approved natural drainageway if adjacent to the lot," and "shall utilize infiltration systems to the maximum extent possible." On the buttes the excavation is "development" under the hillside overlay, with a one-time exemption of 10 cubic yards per lot outside the steepest slopes; a single well is a fraction of that, and the exemption form goes to Planning with the site plan.
The well in the side yard
Gresham's development code lists what may project into a required yard, and a window well is not on the list. "Windowsills, belt courses, bay windows, eaves and similar incidental architectural features may project no more than two feet into any required yard," it says; "open fire escapes shall not project more than 4.5 feet"; chimneys, 30 inches. A code-minimum well projects 36 inches from the wall, and the common single-family zones carry a 5-foot interior side yard. So, a well on the side wall of a Gresham house is a question for the Planner on Duty at 503-618-2780 before it is drawn, and the answer determines whether the bedroom window goes on the side wall or the rear. The city's exempt-projects page explains why the question cannot be skipped: work stops being exempt if it would "encroach over a drain system, public utility easement or into required setbacks from property lines."
Two more Gresham maps are checked simultaneously. Along Johnson Creek and Fairview Creek, the federal flood maps have been redrawn, and the city's floodplain page says that "if you want to do work in the floodplain (including digging, putting up small sheds and fences, or storing things)," the Planner on Duty is the first call; the city's handout puts "excavation or fill up to 50 cubic yards" among the things that need "at least a Type I application," and the code requires a basement floor on any substantially improved house in the floodplain to sit a foot above the flood elevation. And on the buttes, the hillside overlay counts excavation as development, as noted above. Most Gresham lots are on neither map, and the check takes a minute on the city's online map.
What the permit is worth at sale
Gresham's own permit FAQ makes the case for the paperwork better than a contractor can. "City inspectors won't necessarily approve something they cannot see and may require small sections of wall or roof covering be removed to verify the construction meets the code," it says of unpermitted work, and then: "some homeowners find when trying to sell or refinance their homes, prospective buyers or lending institutions want proof that alterations are in compliance with local codes. There is no proof without a permit and inspection on record." A basement bedroom is a room often finished without one. The egress window, cut under a permit and passed at final, is the record that makes it a bedroom on the listing, and VResh gives the owner copies of the permit and the passed inspection when the job closes.
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Egress window questions from Gresham, OR
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Build to the larger tape
Someone will measure your Gresham basement window again one day, a rental inspector, an appraiser, or a buyer's inspector. The opening VResh cuts are sized for the tape that reads 5.7, which satisfies both. Call or text (503) 272-6436.