You're finishing your basement. You want a new bedroom. Code requires the bedroom to have an egress — a window or door large enough to escape from in a fire. Your existing basement windows aren't big enough. You need to cut a new, larger window into the foundation wall. The contractor knows how to do the cut. The city wants a letter from a structural engineer before they'll permit it. What's actually in that letter?
Why a letter is required
When you cut a hole in a load-bearing foundation wall, you've removed a piece of the wall that was holding up everything above it. The wall needs a header — typically a steel angle, a steel beam, or sometimes a precast concrete lintel — to span the new opening and transfer the load above into the remaining wall on either side.
Sizing that header is structural engineering. The IRC and the Utah amendments don't have prescriptive tables that cover every situation, especially when the cut is large or the wall above is supporting more than just one story. So the city requires a letter from a Utah-licensed PE specifying the header.
What's in the letter
A typical egress window letter from us is one or two pages. It includes:
- The location and size of the new opening
- The wall type (concrete, CMU, etc.) and approximate age
- The loads above (number of stories, roof type, snow load)
- The required header — type, size, and dimensions
- The required bearing length on each side of the opening
- Connection or seating details
- Any temporary shoring requirements during the cut
- Signed and sealed by a Utah PE
What we'd ask you to send
- The address
- The size of the planned opening (rough opening dimensions)
- Photos of the wall from inside the basement
- The number of stories above the wall
- If you know it: the wall type and approximate construction year
That's enough for a fixed-fee quote. Most egress letters are $400-$600 and turnaround is 3-7 business days. If you're under a permit deadline, say so and we'll prioritize.
One thing to know about timing
Get the letter before the cut, not after. Cities can require retroactive engineering for cuts done without permits, but the letter is usually more conservative (and more expensive) when the engineer has to design without knowing exactly what's in the wall they can no longer see. Five business days of waiting is much cheaper than a stop-work order.
What this looks like in different cities
We've written egress letters for basements in every Davis and Weber County jurisdiction we work in. The rules and the process are essentially identical across Syracuse, Layton, Clearfield, Kaysville, Farmington, Ogden, Roy, and the smaller cities. Plan reviewers just want a clean, signed letter that names the jurisdiction and references the right code year. We do that as a matter of routine.
See our decks, additions, and remodels page for the full residential scope, or send us your project for a fee.