Basement Egress Window Installation in Cochrane
A code-compliant escape window cut into a poured concrete foundation. Diamond-blade wall sawing, a structural steel lintel over the opening, the window set and sealed, and a drained well outside it.
Egress Windows on Cochrane foundations
Cochrane is mostly modern reinforced foundations sitting on dense glacial till with cobbles in it, and shallow bedrock as the ground climbs west. That inverts the usual balance on this kind of work. Almost everywhere else the concrete is the hard part and the dirt is the easy part; in Cochrane digging the well or the stairwell can be the slower and more expensive half, and it has to be understood before the wall is even discussed. A cobble the size of a wheelbarrow does not care that the concrete beyond it is routine.
Sloped sites are common enough that walk-out doorways come up more often here than in most of the areas we cover, and stairwell retaining on rocky ground is a real part of the scope rather than a note at the end. Buyers are generally families developing a basement in a house built since the 1990s, or acreage-adjacent owners wanting a proper lower entrance. The Town of Cochrane is the authority having jurisdiction, so the permit path is its own and gets handled as such.
How we run this one
Measure and verify
We measure the wall, confirm sill height against the finished floor, and check what the opening has to clear before anything is quoted.
Locates and excavation
Alberta One-Call locates first, then the outside face of the wall is exposed down past the sill line.
Saw and remove
The opening is wall-sawn with a diamond blade and the concrete section is removed in controlled pieces rather than broken out.
Lintel and window
A structural steel lintel carries the load over the opening, then the window is set, insulated, flashed and sealed.
Well, drainage, backfill
The well is set and drained to weeping tile or a rock sump, backfilled, and the grade restored to shed water away from the wall.
Town of Cochrane is the authority having jurisdiction for this work, and we confirm what the wall is actually made of before anything is quoted. No price appears on this page — here is what moves the number , and here is the job in full .