"Egress Window Well Cover……"

Last Friday morning, Patrick drove up to our house to help me build a window well cover for the guest room's egress window.  As per usual, Patrick did most of the work while I was the "go-fer" and holder.  We did the cutting and construction for the frame in the garage as it was a drizzly, wet day.  It fit nicely.  ;)

The 3 pieces of polycarbonate clear roof sheeting were cut as one piece which gave the circular saw a firmer surface to slide along and also made sure they were all the same length.  :)

Here we are getting ready to attach the 1st pice of polycarbonate roofing.

As told, I hold, Patrick does the work.  ;)

Once the sheets were held in place by a few screws, Patrick went back and added a screw to each "low spot" in the sheeting surface.  We went with the low spots to give it a stronger bond on the 3 cross boards.  I had bought brackets that were "supposed" to fit underneath the sheeting, but the "waves" on them did not fit the "waves" in the polycarbonate sheeting.  Since the angle of this cover is quite steep for shedding snow, we figured it wasn't a big deal to attach the sheeting without full back support……"hopefully", that holds true.  We did use the screws with a rubber washer under the head which will help keep the screw holes from leaking, although even leaks wouldn't be a problem in this situation.  As you can see from Patrick's outerwear, the drizzling had gotten a bit heavier.

The cover is being secured to the window well frame.  Notice the new horizontal boards attached to the side wall?  Patrick used our left over pieces for ladder rungs on both sides of the window well.  The lowest rung will get trimmed to match the upper 2 the next time Patrick comes up to our house………...providing he remembers to bring along his reciprocating saw.  ;)

The "almost" finished window well cover.  Now comes my big part in the job.  :)  I want to cut a tarp to fit the open sides of the window well cover, attaching them to the covers frame with Velcro strips.  Our thought is they would be left on all Fall and Winter to help keep blowing leaves and snow from inside the window well, then be removed in the Spring and Summer to allow for more daylight, plus allow for more freely flowing fresh air to come in when the guest room window was open.

Don's job was to spread the 8 bags of river rock we'd bought for the bottom and mid level dirt surfaces in the window well.

Nice, eh?  ;)  We were surprised that each bag of river rock had water in them even though they were completely sealed bags.  The individual rock colors showed when we bought them but after handling, the water became muddy and that is what you see in the photo below………muddy water dried to a dull brown.  Next Spring (perhaps even this Fall), we will take a hose and spray them down so that their various "true colors" show.  ;)