Egress requirements and the two-opening myth

There has to be a large group of home inspector trainers who tell home inspectors that every bedroom needs two methods of egress. I've heard this repeated by home inspectors in online discussions more times than I can count, and it's based on nothing. This is a total myth. A bedroom needs one method of egress. More is fine, but not required.

While section R311 of the building code discusses Means of Egress at length, this section is all about people having a clear path to get out of a building, not about openings in bedrooms. If someone wanted to build a home and have no pathway from a bedroom to the rest of the home, they could. I've never seen this done and I can't imagine anyone ever wanting to do this, but it would not be a code violation.

Egress is not defined in the building code. Usually, when people say egress they're referring to the Emergency Escape and Rescue Opening. This term makes it clear that this required opening in the building isn't just for getting out (egress). It's also there to allow for emergency rescues. I've heard people call this "ingress", but I refuse to use that word because it sounds made-up.

The building code definition for an Emergency Escape and Rescue Opening is "an operable exterior window, door or similar device that provides for a means of escape and access for rescue in the event of an emergency." I think this term is already pretty self-explanatory, but I included the definition to make it clear that the opening doesn't need to be a window. It just needs to be something big enough to get people in and out. A door would be just fine.

So now that I've covered the proper terminology for any online trolls/word sticklers, I'm going to go back to calling it egress. I prefer layman's terms.

If you're in Minnesota, check out section R310 of the Minnesota State Building Code for all of the requirements. I'm not going to explain all of these requirements, but I'll list the basics:

The City of Bloomington has a nice handout on Egress Requirements explaining these requirements. This handout also has some nice diagrams, which I've copied below.

Here are some exceptions that are special to Minnesota:

In my humble opinion, a home inspector doesn't need to measure a window to decide if it's safe or not. We can look at a window and decide whether or not most people could get out. In fact, most people can do this. I see no need for a home inspector to measure windows to justify recommendations for added safety.

If a window is small and someone would have a hard time getting out of the home, it's obvious. A home inspector should call this a safety hazard and recommend correction of this condition, or recommend not using the room as a bedroom. There's no need to measure the window to prove this; anyone can tell just by looking at it.

The images below show a nice example of such a room. The seller of this home was using the room as an office, not a bedroom. Nevertheless, I added a comment in my report mentioning that the windows in the first-floor office were much too high for proper egress, and the room should not be used as a bedroom.

And by the way, the sizes listed above aren't just about getting out of a building; they're also about allowing a firefighter to get into the building while wearing a big oxygen tank. I'm not as concerned about this part of the equation. If a building is on fire, a firefighter won't worry about delicately unlocking a window and cranking it open; they're going to knock the whole thing out of the frame.

Author: Reuben Saltzman, Structure Tech Home Inspections