Could you please post some pictures to give us a clearer idea of the house.

I totally agree with Rev. And having to go through a deck hatch in an emergency would be too much.

Put the doors elsewhere. Access through a hatch is just plain stupid.

There is a company out of Massachusetts that makes deck hatch doors that open ease. I think the hinge is made with a piston (not sure my terminology is correct). But, you can open it with ease from the inside of the house. We would not put furniture on the top of the deck, I'm too much of a stickler for safety. My bigger concern with a hatch is that the emergency personnel would not know by looking at our deck that there is access to our basement. So, turning the egress and running it parallel to our house with stairs extending just beyond the corner of the house is another option. Then we can build a deck over the stairwell, leaving enough open space to meet code. However, my fear is now we are opening the egress to the elements. Has anyone built or seen an egress with a deck over partial stairwell? BTW, the house is about 45 years old.

Put the doors on the gable end. Put windows above the access area.

Thanks, Sophie. That's a good option too, my least expensive option. That design would actually match the other side of my house, where there is a door at the endof a room with a large 3 Panel window. So maybe that would keep the design consistent. Would you put a deck off the gable end? It would have to be long and narrow. We plan to put a flagstone patio out there. I don't love a deck, just thinking it would make grilling easier.

Hi Michelle,

If you wish to go the hatch route you can also have your contractor build it out of the same material you are building the deck out of. Here's an Ipe roof deck in Miami where the customer did exactly that to access parts of the roof where necessary. They added a small piece of boat hardware that recesses down in the wood so it's flush and not something to be tripped over. Personally, and we're not normally contrarians, go ahead and put the deck there if that's where you want it, build the hatch so you can still have ingress/egress from your basement not just in the case of emergencies, but for whenever you want to take something in or out. I understand your concern about getting out of the house in the instance of an emergency, but I think that can be remedied by making sure you have enough smoke detectors spread through the house and that your smoke detectors are all working with fresh batteries. You could do a stone patio, but who wants to look at metal basement doors? Let us know what you end up doing and share pics after!

@Michelle it sounds like you'd benefit from working with a local landscape designer as you're now talking about a space planning and function question. They can help you figure out the deck/patio ratio and what's going to work best for you. You can search for designers here on Houzz, or through organizations like APLD.

if you get snow, you'd never be able to get out of your bulkhead anyway unless you consistently are removing snow and ice. but i still wouldnt build a deck over it. your furnace repairman says thank you.

if your floor plan allows, i'd go with sophie's suggestion as well, you could wrap the deck around the corner for more space, up to the bulkhead.

Agreed with Revoluyionary Gardens! And we should have added that you check with your local building codes......

Even if the deck hatch works fine at the beginning, it will be a potential (and likely) source of frustration (or disaster) later, on account of mechanical failure, or someone leaving something heavy on it. Mechanical things that don't get used often tend to get cranky or stuck, like so many unused emergency brakes on old cars. It would be a pain to maintain such a hatch over the course of years.

Personally, I'm sour on the idea of placing french doors at the end/side of house. Where do they lead to but a skinny "hall" to begin with, since there is limited space at that side of the house? And is the "view" over there? That might be one of the reasons to have french doors to begin with.

I wish it were otherwise but I think your best solution may be to relocate the basement access, and possibly "revise" it at the new location. Doing it in a different and less expensive way may work as a fire escape, but not if the access is needed for common utility purpose, like carrying out a load of laundry. One must view such projects in light of the total value of the house. Sometimes, if corners are cut the wrong way, the house is devalued. It may show up as immediate dissatisfaction and "having to live with" something one doesn't like, or later as a monetary devaluing of the house market price. Usually, if it's the former, it's the latter, too. It would be better to create something that not only doesn't devalue the property, but adds value for the present and future user, even if it costs more up front.