Windows Wells advice sought!

[yankees60]

I assume that several of you reading this have windows wells for your basement windows?

In a prior post I detailed all the work that I am having done on my property.

Soon -- the week after next - a contractor will be here to do the following at the following costs.

1) $500 - bring in a truck load of fill. A friend advised that I'd never have too much fill for my property.

2) $2,000 regrade the back (east) side of my house and put down a mesh that water cannot get through and put stones on top of that mesh. Install two 55 gallon plastic drums in the ground at each end of the mesh. Holes would be put in the barrels and stones would go both inside the barrels and around the barrels. This is all to prevent water from going into my basement during the annual snow melt - late February / early March. I almost never ever will get water in the basement no matter how much it rains due to the soil on my property being sandy. He will also be regrading the south south of my house.

3) $1,000 to remove 11 bush stumps and two tree stumps and grind one tree stumps. Also regrade all the areas where the bush stumps are being removed.

4) $1,000 to install two window wells. These window wells will be concrete.


The first three seem to be both good value and things I could never do on my own.

However, that does not seem to be the case with the window wells.

I've seen a 2 minute YouTube video and it seems super simple to install them. You just dig a hole! I CAN do that!

I checked some pricing I can get concrete window wells from a local construction supply place for about $100. Or, metal ones from Home Depot for $35. Covers would be about $25 each. Finally, bedroom to put on the bottom would not be much?

So my costs to do it would range somewhere between $150 to $300? Which is why the $1,000 seems way too much. I know he would do the best job possible while I would not. But still....

Any flaws in my analysis?

[Mountaineer]

Not a flaw in your analysis, just a question. Will the window well work disturb water proofing on the outside of your foundation (basement wall)? Does the contractor plan to address the possibility and perhaps do something to mitigate water entering around the new window well?

I have two window wells. They are heavy galvanized ribbed metal and have lasted 36 years so far and only have a couple of rusty spots maybe an inch or two long along the top of one of them.

[yankees60]

Not a flaw in your analysis, just a question. Will the window well work disturb water proofing on the outside of your foundation (basement wall)? Does the contractor plan to address the possibility and perhaps do something to mitigate water entering around the new window well?

I have two window wells. They are heavy galvanized ribbed metal and have lasted 36 years so far and only have a couple of rusty spots maybe an inch or two long along the top of one of them.

There is no water proofing that is going to be done. He is simply going to regrade from 4 to 5 feet away from the foundation so that it slopes downward away from the foundation rather than the present state where the slope is down TO my foundation.