On May 24, 6:18*pm, bryanska wrote:
So... classic story of "measure twice, cut once".

I installed an egress window well myself. The hole for the window has
not been cut (I am subcontracting that). So for the past week I have
been digging, and I finally bolted the well to the foundation and
backfilled.

However, now that I measure twice, I see I might be a couple inches
short of the 36x36 requirement for clear opening in front of the
opened window.

It's more like 36" deep by 34" wide.

How serious are the inspectors? Do they vary?

Oh yeah. I've recently had three new egress windows installed in
bedrooms, replacing old ones that were not up to egress code.
Inspector didn't measure anything. Insisted on checking every bedroom
in the house (even ones with no new windows) for smoke alarms, but
certainly did not measure any windows.

In your case, I'm guessing most would turn a blind eye to the missing
2". Would probably take a harder line though if your window was too
small by the same margin. My bet is you get away with it, and 2" is
not enough to worry about in terms of safety. However, every city and
every inspector is different. Two years ago I had windows and siding
replaced on back and sides of my house. Inspector was here for no
more than 10 minutes and passed everything just fine. When we had the
front of the house done last year, different guy came and mistakenly
inspected the whole house, including back. He raised about half a
dozen issues, all of them trivial, and in some cases, plain wrong. So
yeah, luck of the draw my friend, so good luck.