Does every bedroom in a Florida house need an egress window?

Yes. Florida's residential code requires every sleeping room to have at least one operable emergency escape and rescue opening, opening to a yard, court or public way. A door can serve instead, either a side-hinged door or a slider, as long as it gives the same clear opening area.

Can my egress window open into the pool screen enclosure?

It can. Florida's code lets an escape opening lead into a screen enclosure that's open to the air, as long as the enclosure has a screen door leading away from the house. Keep the path from the window to that screen door clear.

Do new windows have to be bigger than the old bedroom windows?

Not always. A replacement window is exempt from the size rules if it's the manufacturer's largest standard size that fits the existing frame or rough opening, and it's the same operating style or one with equal or greater opening area. The exemption doesn't apply to a change of occupancy.

Are hurricane shutters allowed over a bedroom egress window?

During a storm threat, yes. Florida's code allows shutters and panels on escape openings while a storm threatens, provided the home keeps at least one means of escape on the first floor. Permanent bars, grilles or screens must release from inside without a key, tool or special force.

What does it cost to enlarge a bedroom window for egress?

Bob Vila's guide puts resizing an existing opening at $150 to $200 and a brand-new opening at about $700, before the window. Where a wall has to be cut through, it estimates $1,500 to $3,000 per window. Those are national figures, so get a written quote for your wall type.

Egress Windows in Pompano Beach, FL

Typical cost: Bob Vila's national figures run $2,621 to $5,662, a range built around basement digging; above grade, a same-size swap adds about $200 in labor to the window price, and cutting a new opening runs about $700.
Timeline: the same guide allows about 3 days for installation, excavation and framing; a window swap with no digging is a smaller job.
Minimum opening: 5.7 square feet of net clear opening (5 at grade floor), at least 24 inches high and 20 wide, with the sill no more than 44 inches off the floor.
Permit: Pompano Beach requires a building permit for every window replacement.

Pompano Windows steers bedroom window requests to an installer who sizes impact casements and hung windows for sleeping rooms. List the bedrooms and the current window sizes; the installer rings you back to measure the openings and quote units that clear the escape size.

Egress Window Types for Bedrooms

Each operating style reaches the escape size in its own way, and the frame you need grows or shrinks with it. The prices under each type are Bob Vila's national materials-only figures for egress units.

White casement window cranked fully open in a bedroom with a tiled floor

Casement Egress Windows

Clear opening is measured with the window opened normally, and a casement's sash swings fully out, so its whole width counts toward the 5.7 square feet. A casement can therefore clear the rule in a smaller frame than a hung window, which helps in a wall with little room to widen.

Materials only: $200 to $1,200.

Tall white single-hung window with the lower sash raised in a bedroom

Single-Hung and Double-Hung Egress Windows

With a hung window, only the open sash counts, so the unit has to be roughly twice the clear-opening height. Watch the 24-inch minimum height and the 44-inch maximum sill together: a tall unit set low can meet both, but a sill under 24 inches on an upper floor brings in fall-protection rules.

Single-hung, materials only: $100 to $800.
Double-hung, materials only: $250 to $1,300.

Wide horizontal sliding window with one sash open in a bedroom

Horizontal Sliding Egress Windows

A slider opens sideways, so its open half has to be at least 20 inches wide and 24 high, with the full window wide enough to give 5.7 square feet through one sash. Ask for the clear width of one open sash, not the frame width, when comparing quotes.

Materials only: $150 to $1,000.

Bedroom with a sliding glass door opening onto a screened patio

Sliding and Hinged Doors as Egress

Florida's code accepts a door as the required escape opening, either side-hinged or a slider, and it has to meet the same net clear opening area. A bedroom with a door to the patio may not need a large window at all. Pricing for those doors is on the sliding glass doors page.

Installer measuring a window opening in a stucco wall before a new window goes in

Why Pompano Beach homeowners call Pompano Windows

One independent installer calls back, not a list of five
The request costs you nothing
Ask for approval numbers and design pressures on the quote
Permit, removal and stucco patching priced in writing

Florida Egress Rules for Bedroom Windows

These are the 2023 Florida Building Code, Residential, Section R310 rules.

Where
Every sleeping room needs at least one operable escape opening that leads to a yard, a court or a public way; it can open into a screen enclosure open to the air if a screen door leads away from the house.
Area
5.7 square feet of net clear opening at minimum, or 5 square feet for a grade-floor bedroom.
Size
Never under 24 inches tall or 20 inches across, with the window opened the ordinary way.
Sill
Measured to the bottom of the clear opening, 44 inches off the finished floor at most, so a person can climb up and out.
Operation
Anyone in the room can open it, with no key, tool or trick to know.
Replacement exemption
A new window can skip the size rules if it's the largest standard size that fits the existing frame or rough opening, in the same style or one that opens wider, and isn't part of a change of occupancy.

Shutters, Bars and Fall Protection on Escape Windows

Bars, grilles and screens over an escape window must release from inside without a key, tool or more force than opening the window. Storm shutters and panels are allowed over escape openings during a storm threat, as long as the home keeps at least one way out on the first floor that nobody has to reach through a lockable door outside their control. On an upper floor, a window whose opening starts less than 24 inches above the floor and more than 72 inches above the ground outside needs fall protection: openings that won't pass a 4-inch sphere, or ASTM F2090 devices that still release to the full egress size. Ask the installer to confirm each bedroom's clear opening on the quote.

See casement windows.