Project Information
Built this last summer (2012).
At the time my daughter was still just one and my son was 4. This window well is just feet from from the front door and is a good 5 feet deep with no way out. So easily enough it was something to worry about with those kids running around. Also i did have a few chickens stuck down there before it was built.
I built it entirely out of cedar. I used three lag screws for the two, front 4×4 posts. Against the house i just used 2×4s with some decking screws. The right side of the railing is actually a gate to be used as a fire escape or just getting in the well to clean out the leaves and such. When it's closed you really can't tell at all that it is a gate and i'm very happy with how easily it opens even in the winter with a lot of snow. The design spacing of the spindles was pretty easy. I used one of the 2×2 post scraps for the narrow spacing and the 4×4 post scraps for the wide spacing.
Only took us the day to complete. This summer I will be applying some sealer. I still need to figure out what to use as a fixed ladder that won't degrade over time.
At the time my daughter was still just one and my son was 4. This window well is just feet from from the front door and is a good 5 feet deep with no way out. So easily enough it was something to worry about with those kids running around. Also i did have a few chickens stuck down there before it was built.
I built it entirely out of cedar. I used three lag screws for the two, front 4×4 posts. Against the house i just used 2×4s with some decking screws. The right side of the railing is actually a gate to be used as a fire escape or just getting in the well to clean out the leaves and such. When it's closed you really can't tell at all that it is a gate and i'm very happy with how easily it opens even in the winter with a lot of snow. The design spacing of the spindles was pretty easy. I used one of the 2×2 post scraps for the narrow spacing and the 4×4 post scraps for the wide spacing.
Only took us the day to complete. This summer I will be applying some sealer. I still need to figure out what to use as a fixed ladder that won't degrade over time.