Hey everyone! I have a follow-up question regarding basement finishing codes in Illinois. Earlier today, I posted about challenges we're facing with completing our basement, especially since adding a bathroom can be tricky without the required egress windows due to low ceilings. After looking at many homes with finished basements before we bought ours, I'm surprised to find that most of them seemed not to have egress windows. I checked Redfin for our new town and noticed a similar trend. So, I'm wondering, is it common for people to finish their basements without permits? Or do building departments generally overlook the egress window requirement? I really doubt that all these homes are grandfathered in!
3 Answers
It's likely that a lot of these homeowners finished their basements without the necessary permits. In Illinois, you can't actually have a bedroom in a basement without a proper egress window. While you can do some finishing work, like adding electrical and plumbing, these usually require permits. That said, when it comes time to sell, you can only advertise that space as bonus space and not as additional square footage since it isn’t permitted. It's also possible that if an inspector comes during another project and sees an unpermitted finished basement, they might require you to tear it out or bring it up to code.
Whether or not you need an emergency escape window really does depend on your local jurisdiction. Officially, turning a basement into habitable space means you need that egress window, but I've seen some inspectors turn a blind eye, especially if it’s not a bedroom. The catch is that any new bedroom addition will definitely need one, and most realtors know the score on this. Just a heads up, 'egress' is more than just fancy talk—it’s a specific type of requirement that could vary if you’re in areas like Aurora versus Fox Lake.
You might want to check if your local building department follows the International Existing Building Code. If they do, it could give you some leeway in applying for a variance that might relax some of the requirements.