Expanding Masonry Window Wells

[Teresa1127]

The masonry window wells of a new house we are building only leave 22" from the wall of the house, with an 8" cheek wall. This limits the light we can get from our big, tall windows. We want to push back the wall of the window wells by about 20" to fix the problem. The plan is to cut out the rear section of the wall, insert rebar anchored to the existing side walls at an angle and then to have forms put up and new concrete poured to expand the window wells.

Would it be better to cut out the rear wall of the window well down about 4 1/2 feet down to one foot below the bottom of our windows or would it be better to cut them down only 3 1/2 feet and create a step inside the window wells.

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions would be appreciated.

[letsroll]

I don't see any problem with your proposed plan. However, I think it will be a lot cheaper to demo the whole window well and start over that way you wont spend money on sawcutting which is expansive. The amount of labor to built new window well will be the same as adding 20". Also, you won't have a cold joint which will make it odd looking. As far as 4.5 vs 3.5 ft, you are only talking about 12" difference - go the full height it's too labor intensive to do steps