Baltimore's Basements Are Full of Tiny Windows
Walk through any Baltimore basement — a Canton rowhouse, a Dundalk cape cod, a Parkville ranch — and you will find the same thing: a small window, high in the wall, maybe 24 inches wide and 16 tall. It lets in a little light. It does not let out a person. It was never meant to. These windows were sized for ventilation and daylight back when nobody finished basements into bedrooms.
Enlargement takes that window's location — already a hole in the wall, already roughly where you want light — and grows it into a code-sized egress opening: 5.7 square feet of clear area, 20 inches wide, 24 inches tall, sill no more than 44 inches off the floor.
When Enlargement Beats a Fresh Opening
Enlargement wins when the existing window sits in a good spot: the right wall, decent outside grade, a workable well location. Growing the existing hole is often less cutting than starting fresh elsewhere — the top of the opening is already there, and we are mostly widening and lowering. It also keeps the disruption to one wall section instead of opening a second hole in your foundation.
A fresh opening wins when the old window is in a bad spot — under a deck, facing a neighbor's wall six feet away, or on the side where the grade is highest and the well would be a swimming pool. During the free visit we compare both and quote the smarter one.
The Sill Problem
Most small basement windows sit high — the sill five or six feet off the floor. Code wants the sill at 44 inches or lower. Lowering the sill means cutting down through the wall, which is real concrete work, and it deepens the well outside. This is the part of enlargement that surprises people: the window gets bigger downward, not just outward. We plan the deeper well, the ladder if it passes 44 inches, and the drainage into the quote from the start.
What the Finished Job Looks Like
The old small window comes out. The opening grows — wider, and usually lower. A new casement or slider goes in, sized to the code minimums. Outside, a proper well goes in with drainage and a cover. Inside, the difference is night and day: the room that had a slit of light now has a real window, real daylight, and a real way out.
What Stays and What Goes
Enlarging a window disturbs more than the wall — the finishes around it, inside and out, need a plan. Here is what to expect.
Inside drywall. If the basement is finished, the drywall around the old window comes down — usually a few feet in each direction. We cut it cleanly, protect the rest, and leave the edges ready for patching. The patching itself is drywall work, not window work; we can recommend finishers, or your basement contractor handles it in sequence.
Outside: siding, brick, and grade. The exterior around the old window gets opened up too. Siding comes off and goes back on. Brick gets cut and repointed around the new opening. The grade outside gets excavated for the deeper, wider well. We put the exterior back together — matched as close as materials allow — but plan on the area looking like a work zone for the duration.
Trim and sills. The old interior trim rarely survives enlargement — the opening moves, so the trim gets replaced. We install new trim around the finished window as part of the job. It is a small detail that makes the new window look intentional instead of retrofitted.
What stays untouched. Everything beyond the work zone. We seal the area with plastic, protect floors and furniture, and keep the dust and debris inside the contained space. The rest of your basement should look the same when we leave as when we arrived — except for the excellent new window.
The disruption is real but brief — typically contained to the one-to-two-day job. And what you get for it is a window twice the size, a room full of daylight, and a bedroom that counts.
Call (301) 679-9193 or send the form below for your free written estimate.