We recently put in a large egress window in the back of our house. Our basement walks out to the rear, so naturally most of the rear of the basement walls are above or slightly below grade. In this case, the window is about 4' tall, and the bottom is about 8" below grade (grade is about 3' above the basement floor in this area. I have bought a well like this:
Menard's window well
2' tall, 3' protrusion, perfect size for this window. The soil around the house is all backfilled with sand, so drainage is very good. My plan was to dig out enough soil around the window so that the top of the well sits just above grade, and backfill the area inside the well with a foot or so of pea/crushed gravel, which sits on top of the backfilled sand. Soil outside and inside of the well all slopes away from the house. Some people I've talked to have insisted that I install a drain in this well. But why? Drainage was never an issue before, so I don't see why it would be now. I can't see how water would gather within the well, since it has the same sandy soil as a base as what used to butt right up against the house there before. Does this make sense? Really the only thing that's changing is that the soil within the well will just sit about 2' lower that the soil outside the well, but it still slopes away from the house just the same.
FWIW, lowering the grade so as to not need a window well is not an option, since a tree sits about 5' from the house here and we don't want to take it down.
Menard's window well
2' tall, 3' protrusion, perfect size for this window. The soil around the house is all backfilled with sand, so drainage is very good. My plan was to dig out enough soil around the window so that the top of the well sits just above grade, and backfill the area inside the well with a foot or so of pea/crushed gravel, which sits on top of the backfilled sand. Soil outside and inside of the well all slopes away from the house. Some people I've talked to have insisted that I install a drain in this well. But why? Drainage was never an issue before, so I don't see why it would be now. I can't see how water would gather within the well, since it has the same sandy soil as a base as what used to butt right up against the house there before. Does this make sense? Really the only thing that's changing is that the soil within the well will just sit about 2' lower that the soil outside the well, but it still slopes away from the house just the same.
FWIW, lowering the grade so as to not need a window well is not an option, since a tree sits about 5' from the house here and we don't want to take it down.