# history lesson



## BSSTG (Mar 11, 2016)

Greetings all,

Can someone please tell me when it was 1st required to have emergency egress out of a bedroom window similar to what is required currently? I figure it goes back a long way but being an old ditch diggin electrician I have no idea when.

thanks

Byron


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## mark handler (Mar 11, 2016)

What state?

Which Code?

Heres one example:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...tT84gOAZ_rFjpg


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## mark handler (Mar 11, 2016)

*In California*


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## ADAguy (Mar 14, 2016)

Good stuff Mark, please provide more.


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## ICE (Mar 14, 2016)

> *In California*


GRADE FLOOR OPENING. A window or other opening

located such that the sill height of the opening is not more

than 44 inches (1118 mm) above or below the finished

ground level adjacent to the opening.

Otherwise, the area is 5.7 sqft.  The other thing that folks consistently get wrong is the sill height.  The "sill" in this case is the bottom of the net free opening.....not the sill that your Chia pet sits on.


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## steveray (Mar 15, 2016)

> GRADE FLOOR OPENING. A window or other opening
> 
> located such that the sill height of the opening is not more
> 
> ...


YEP....Tempered glass as well, measure to the glazing, not the sash. Just like the sill is not the opening, the sash is not the hazard....And how did you know I had a chia pet?


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## mtlogcabin (Mar 15, 2016)

The IRC change and added the following for clarity and consistency with the IBC

IRC

Where emergency escape and rescue openings are provided they shall have a sill height of not more than 44 inches (1118 mm) measured from the finished floor to the bottom of the clear opening

IBC

1029.3 Maximum height from floor.

Emergency escape and rescue openings shall have the bottom of the clear opening not greater than 44 inches (1118 mm) measured from the floor.


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## conarb (Mar 15, 2016)

\ said:
			
		

> Otherwise, the area is 5.7 sqft. The other thing that folks consistently get wrong is the sill height. The "sill" in this case is the bottom of the net free opening.....not the sill that your Chia pet sits on.


I argued that point with several CBOs here, enforcing it would have stopped much of the window scamming that was going on because they were putting the replacement windows inside the old window frames always raising the sills up.  One dramatically argued that a person could step on the stool to get out in the event of a fire, the real reason was they wer trying to make it easier for simple minded contractors to glue windows in with caulking to "save energy", just like today the AHJs are overlooking all kinds of codes for the solar panel scammers.  Part of it was ignorance of construction terminology, a sill is the bottom horizontal member of a window frame, the piece that the Tiger places his chia pet on is a "stool".


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