Town of Erie or Weld County
If you are starting your basement finish project in Erie the first thing to check on is what local building department has jurisdiction over your home. With the speedy expansion in the area this is an important step. That being said, if your contractor accidentally submits an application to the wrong jurisdiction make sure they are meeting the code requirements for that area, and that your contract reflects these differences.
Insulation Requirements in Erie Colorado
Basements are a little different than the rest of the home in regards to the insulation needs. First we’ll go over the code requirements. The Town of Erie requires R-10 continuous (blanket insulation) or R-13 batt insulation int the walls of your basement project. This is one of the differences between the Town of Erie and Weld County, Weld County does require R-15 continuous or R-19 batts in the walls. Neither requires insulation in the ceiling, ceiling insulation is usually an add on to help reduce more of the potential noise transfer between floors.
Basement Window Requirements
This is a requirement that all local governments have, but all basements must have at least one egress window, and every bedroom must have a window! So if your basement has only one egress window, as long as its in the bedroom you are good. An egress window is for an emergency exit in the event that the stairs are impassible, so keep that in mind as we go over the other basic requirements, and keep in mind that any window can be added or enlarged to meet requirements.
Basement egress windows must be no more than 44″ off the floor so they are easy enough to crawl into. The minimum OPENABLE area is to be 5.7 square feet. to measure yours, open it as wide as it can go then multiply : Hight in inches X Width in inches then divide by 144 to get square feet. like this: 22′ wide X 44″ tall = 968 square inches then divide 968/144= 6.72 square feet. That being said, modern egress windows are chosen to be sure to meet these basic standards!
