Windows: RO sill height and egress question.

iMisspell

Gonna be framing in 4 windows.
Two in the bedroom (same wall, back side of house)
One in a bathroom and one in a hall - bathroom and hall on same wall, front side of house so i would like to keep the heights the same for each wall.

Questions...

What are the hight requirements for the bottom RO (or finish) sill for these ?
I have a 2007 NY residentail code book but i can not find this information in there (note, you need to be a linguistics major to understand 1/2 this crap anyway ) Page 196 section R613.1 is the closet thing i can find and it does not help (me anyway).

and a second question

How do i know if the two bedroom windows are, egress ?
Windows are Pella 450 Proline Double Hung, RO 37-3/4x53-3/4, finish 37x53. By looking at the windows and tossing a tape on them, it looks like if you slide the bottom window up the opening will be, 33Wx25H" of full and open clearance.

Thanks for any guidance.

Termite

I can't say what the NY code says, but I imagine it is based on the International Residential Code which says this...

Your egress windows' openings cannot be more than 44" above the floor. That's not the rough opening, it is the part of the window you have to crawl over. A 40" maximum rough opening sill height would be as high as I'd go just to be safe depending on the window frame/sill/shim thickness.

When fully open, the open part of a window (the part you'd crawl through) must be no smaller than 5.0 square feet...If the window is on the grade level. Above grade (2nd floor) egress windows must have 5.7 square foot openings. Minimum opening height is 24", minimum width is 20", but a 20x24" window opening is not compliant because it doesn't have enough area. Measure the height and width of the opening in inches and multiply them together. Divide by 144 (square inches per square foot) to get the egress dimension in square feet.

The opening dimensions you gave would be 5.73 square feet.

iMisspell

Great.
Being you didn't mention anything about the bath and hall, can i assume its only the 18"min or tempered glass ?

Walls will be 8'+ so with a 2x10 header i can still keep the window as high as possible and still fall under the 44", probably end up around 30".

Termite

Right, egress requirements only apply in bedrooms and basements. Basically each level of the home has to have a compliant means of egress, and each sleeping area has to have one as well.

The 18" rule only applies to panes of glass exceeding 9 square feet. You can put a window within a couple inches of the floor and not have tempered glass, provided no one piece of glass is 9 square feet or more.
Any windows of any size within 60" vertically and horizontally of steps or stairs must be tempered as well...Might be an issue in a hallway window. Windows within 24" of doors must be tempered regardless of size and regardless of door swing or type.

Remember, the NY code might vary...

If you ask me, anything close to the floor should be tempered, although the code doesn't mandate that. Tempered glass is hard to break and will break in small pieces, reducing the hazard for deep lacerations from larger pieces in the break pattern of non-tempered glass.