WA State/King County? Egress Law (Seattle: sales, 2015, Home Depot)

[revelated]

Looking for guidance from those that know more than this guy, before I end up getting him fired for his trouble. Some quick history.

2014, I bought four el cheapo single hung vinyl windows for the master bedroom as the older ones had compromised seals. Lowes purchase, $200/window, installed by one of their contractor partners. No issues with the windows, they actually keep temperatures normal and block a little bit more noise.

Here's a link to the window in question, just for reference.

Shop ThermaStar by Pella 10 Series Vinyl Double Pane Annealed Egress Single Hung Window (Fits Rough Opening: 36-in x 60-in; Actual: 35.5-in x 59.5-in) at Lowes.com

Now, the home was inspected by the seller, my inspector, and three different Lowes representatives. None of the above had any issue with the window opening. I had an issue with the Lowes sales rep, and chose to go with a different company for future window purchases.

Fast forward to 2015. I'm in the process of ordering a much larger window for a different room, this time from Home Depot, but it's a Simonton Sound & Security window. It's going to be installed Thursday. Depending on the performance of the window, I considered replacing the four Lowes windows with this better performance model.

However, the Home Depot rep is claiming that the existing windows don't meet egress for the state, and I'm telling him he's got be nuts. There's simply no way that 10 people can overlook an egress issue, but he swears it's true - that the window isn't wide enough. This is despite, on the Lowes link above, in the table you can clearly see that they too indicate it meets egress! I've pointed him to both the WA law and the Lowes table, and he still swears that they're both wrong (the state is wrong about their own law?) and that he has "charts that we use". So it's like he's assuming what the egress should be based on assumptions about other factors - none of which applies, unless I'm reading this wrong.

I look at WA law here:

WAC 296-150M-0550: What is required to meet the fire safety certificate requirements?

(3) Emergency egress.
(a) Every bedroom or other room designed expressly for sleeping purposes must have a window that meets the minimum requirements of at least 5.0 square feet of opening for emergency egress.
...(b does not apply to my situation, there is no patio door)
(c) Windows and devices must be installed in a manner which allows for proper operation.
(d) The bottom of the opening of an egress window shall be no more than thirty-six inches above the floor.
(e) The height of the bottom of the window can be increased to forty-four inches when the clear net area is increased to 5.7 square feet of opening.

TO me this window size more than meets these requirements. The windows are two feet above the floor, too. The total window square footage is 15, unless my math is faulty - it very well might be. Even if I slice that in half because it's a single hung, you still get to 7.5 square feet of opening.

What am I missing here?

[ny7v]

The International Residential Code requirements for egress windows are:

Clear opening width ≥ 20"
Clear opening height ≥ 24"
Minimum clear opening sq.ft. = 5.0 sq.ft. (5.7 sq.ft. 2nd floor and above)
Maximum sill height above the floor = 44"

The state law you quoted does not pertain to this situation.
The existing Pella windows have a clear opening of approximately 7.5 sq.ft.

I am a City of Seattle building inspector and I know these things to be true.

[revelated]

Originally Posted by ny7v

The International Residential Code requirements for egress windows are:

Clear opening width ≥ 20"
Clear opening height ≥ 24"
Minimum clear opening sq.ft. = 5.0 sq.ft. (5.7 sq.ft. 2nd floor and above)
Maximum sill height above the floor = 44"

The state law you quoted does not pertain to this situation.
The existing Pella windows have a clear opening of approximately 7.5 sq.ft.

I am a City of Seattle building inspector and I know these things to be true.

OK. But again, according to my math, the current windows still meet the requirements. This is a second floor bedroom, but it still exceeds the requirements. True or false? Is the guy a nut or is he not?

[Inkpoe]

Honestly, to me it sounds like the Home Depot guy is trying to hustle you. He doesn't need facts to sell, just a sucker. You've already had an inspector come by and check... Would you place a hustler above the inspector?

[ny7v]

Your windows are 7.5 sq.ft. and that exceeds the minimum. They are in compliance.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by revelated

OK. But again, according to my math, the current windows still meet the requirements. This is a second floor bedroom, but it still exceeds the requirements. True or false? Is the guy a nut or is he not?

It exceeds the requirements. Is the guy nuts? Calling him nuts is giving him the benefit of the doubt. He may just be a guy trying to swindle you into spending more money.

[revelated]

I don't think it's a money issue, I'm asking for a quote on the higher cost window as it is.

The only thing I can think of, is that there's something specific to the Simonton model that doesn't meet. I can't imagine that being the case.

I've pushed back hard on him - borderline (but not quite) threatened him to take the measurements of the Lowes window and call whatever authority he needs to, so he can verify his charts are wrong.

[eightbitguy]

If the inspector cleared it, he's in the wrong. You've pointed out the code to him, and he says the code is wrong.

Don't pay this person to do anything to your house. I'd even go as far as to report him to Home Depot (or wherever you initially set up the sale) to alert them to someone blatantly passing out wrong info.

At best he's trying to upsell you in a shady manor. At worst he doesn't know code and will do something wrong when installing your windows.

[eightbitguy]

Also, wouldn't replacing existing windows in an older structure fall under "grandfathering" anyway? I had to enlarge a window to make a basement room into a legal bedroom, but if I had left it a "den" I wouldn't have had to change anything.

Presumably you're not doing new construction/an addition, so the existing size would be grandfathered even if they were too small, right?

[revelated]

Originally Posted by eightbitguy

Also, wouldn't replacing existing windows in an older structure fall under "grandfathering" anyway? I had to enlarge a window to make a basement room into a legal bedroom, but if I had left it a "den" I wouldn't have had to change anything.

Presumably you're not doing new construction/an addition, so the existing size would be grandfathered even if they were too small, right?

I see nothing allowing for grandfathering. Even though, it's clear that the builder did the absolute minimum on many things, windows included.