Our complete door and window care services include all major brands of windows and doors – even those out of production brands like Oldach and BiltBest. We provide this area of our website to help answer some of the homeowners most nagging questions regarding this old house window and door common problems and issues.
Water leaking into the home around the frame of windows and doors is usually an indication of failure of building components, sealants, rubber membranes, flashings etc. around a window or door. Tracking down the source of these failures and repairing them is best left to the pro’s – window and door professionals – some contacts are www.WeFixItUSA.com and www.ThePolak.com in Colorado Springs, Co. The most common and simple repair on many homes is to make sure that caulking around windows and trim components has not failed. While advances in modern building techniques and the science of modern products will help prevent leaks behind siding it is still best to keep these sealants intact. This is especially true in homes that are more than 10-25 years old, which may not have employed the best in flashing systems.
Most modern windows (vinyl, fiberglass, composite, etc) include a drainage system ( weep holes ) within the window frame. This causes some confusion for many home owners, when they see water sitting in the window frame after a rain storm. In most cases, water sitting within the window frame is normal. While it is always best to call us before assuming this residual water is normal, you can follow a simple rule of thumb. Water outside of the window frame on interior drywall or interior wood trim or components inside – is never good. If water sits within the window frame, chances are your window is normal. If you are unsure, contact us to prevent damage , or drop us an email with a picture and will provide a free pictorial analysys and save you the cost of an in home service call.
Condensation between panes of glass is usually a sign of the insulated glass system seal failure. This seal failure means that the sealant holding two panes of glass together is no longer maintaining a dead air space, LowE, or Argon Gas seal – and once the failure begins to allow too much air within the air space, the desiccant will no longer be able to attract moisture effectively enough and you will begin to see obvious moisture or water spots within the interior of the glass panes. Many glass window panes get fogged between the panes for short periods of time during rapid temperature changes, hail storms and cold snaps – This is technically a seal failure, but as long as this moisture quickly disappears, it can be considered normal in some cases. For testing in Colorado, please contact http://www.WeFixItUSA.com or http://www.ThePolak.com – we can test for seal failure and costs of replacements of the bad insulated glass units.
Infiltration of air, either hot or cold – can be one of the most frustrating issues for a homeowner to deal with. But keep in mind – very large glass panes have a cooler surface than the surrounding air, and can often cause a draft of cool air as the colder air drops down the face of the glass. Sitting on a couch or chair in front of this phenomenon, you would be convinced you have a draft penetrating through your window, when in reality, you are feeling the interior cooler air. Better insulated glass such as triple pane units, LowE and Argon Gas Units, window blinds and coverings will help to alleviate this problem. Allowing a path for warm air from your heating vents to reach the glass will also help with this issue. If you think that air is coming in around window components or edges, you should have units checked – you may have weatherstripping or window weather seals that have failed due to age, ultravilet breakdown or simply because of the “built in memory” caused after windows are 5-8 years of age. These weather strip components can often be replaced or repaired very inexpensively depending on the style of window. For help anywhere along The Colorado Front Range, Kansas, or North Texas – please contact http://www.WeFixItUSA.com or http://www.ThePolak.com – remember that air infiltration between window frame and other building components can be a sign of a construction deficiency, and can lead to some costly repairs – so it is wise to have this looked into as soon as possible.
When you see water droplets, condensation trickles or even ice on the interior surface of your glass, the window frame or trim – your initial thought is usually that something is wrong with your window. Condensation on the inside surface of glass is usually not a window or glass problem. Glass and windows are almost always the coolest surface on the interior of a home, even if they are high performance energy efficient products. Because of this, excess moisture within the air is likely to cool and condense on these surfaces. In a dry climate like Colorado, high humidity inside homes creates an easy recipe for condensation on glass surfaces – sometimes caused by the operation of whole home humidifiers in your HVAC System, cooking on stove tops, interior sources of water such as aquariums, hot tubs or swimming pools, too many occupants and animals living within a small area, houseplants, excess moisture coming through foundation from crawl spaces, too tightly fitting thermal blinds or rapid air temperature changes.
Many factors have an impact on the longevity of exterior sealants – a couple of the most obvious are sun and weather which directly work to break the sealants down, the quality of sealants used , ie. 5 Yr to 50 yr warranty caulks and seaqlants, and the expansion and contraction capabilities of these surrounding components. Vinyl windows are especially expansive, and can have a major impact on the longevity of sealants around their edges. Large vinyl windows can move so much that interior and exterior caulking can visibly break at their edges – especially if a cheap grade of sealant was used. The best solution in these situations is to use caulking and sealants with the largest possible expansive range, such as elastomeric and polyurethanes – sealants like “Big Stetch” tahat can easily expand and contract at large gaps that exist around the edges of windows, doors, chomney’s etc. It is best to use a backer rod in the gap prior to applying sealants and allow the sealants to cure and stretch properly. Maintaining exterior caulking can be very important to prevent leakage.