Cold Wet Winter Inside? Are Your Old Windows Letting the Winter in?

Posted by: Ken Mariotti

Today.com

Tired of a drafty house?

Tired of taping gaps around your windows?

Tired of winter already when it’s only January?

Can’t see out your windows?

Condensation dripping down your windows?

Tired of winter already when it’s only January?

The weather outside shouldn’t appear on the inside. If you’re constantly chilly the culprit may be your old windows. If your windows are letting the winter in - it may be time to replace your old windows. Inefficient windows leak cold air and moisture.

There are many ways to temporarily fix the problems, but the permanent solution to drafts and cold wet windows is to replace your old and leaky windows with new energy-efficient products.

Drafty windows or cold windows are chief among the reasons to replace windows. When you sit next to your window in winter it’s colder than the rest of the house and the HVAC system works overtime. Simply put, your old windows probably provide little to no insulating value.

Andersen 400 Series

Double-paned glazing with insulating argon gas eliminates uncomfortable, expensive drafts. Todays technology also includes warm-edge spacers and new weather stripping materials to further insulate. Understanding the SHGC (solar heat gain co-efficient) of the glass options, allows you to further control how much heat enters and leaves your home during the winter. For example, in our northern climate you can choose a high SHGC glazing, which means the window will reflect heat back into the home, collecting more solar heat, for your south facing windows.

Condensation or frost build up can naturally be worse in the winter when the outside temperature is below the dew point of the indoor air. Water or frost appears when warm moist air comes in contact with colder dry air.  Older single pane windows provide no insulation allowing condensation to form on the cold surface creating water droplets or ice on the glass. Even early double-pane windows with aluminum spacers can experience condensation. If this describes your windows, like the drafty or cold windows above, upgrading your windows to today’s technologies will make a significant difference.

Today’s windows are engineered differently. Frankly, the most important part of the window to resist condensation is that spacer that keeps the panes of glass apart and seals in the gas. Today’s spacers are made of less conductive stainless steel, U-shaped tin steel, and foam polymers. Low-E and glass filled glass panes reduce temperature transfer between the inside and outside. With improved window frame technologies as well, new windows are sure to significantly improve if not eliminate condensation woes.

The good news is that you don’t have to suffer through another winter because winter is a great time to replace you windows. Come to our showroom to see replacement windows by Andersen, Marvin, Pella and more.

Installation and The Big Mistake

Posted by: Ken Mariotti

Marvin Ultimate Casements

It’s hard to say why it happens, but time and again, homeowners make the big mistake when replacing their windows. After spending untold hours researching window brands they buy their windows without any knowledge about installation and they make the big mistake.

The big mistake is signing a sales order for your new windows and afterwards, beginning the installation discussion.

At Woodland Windows and Doors, we think window and door installations done improperly may not be immediately obvious, but can lead to serious long-term problems. There are some things that as a business, you just have to invest in, in order to ensure the job is done right. We at Woodland think that installation is one of those things.

The big mistake happens because homeowners don’t realize all the things that can go wrong with window installations if performed by an inexperienced installer. It’s important to purchase your windows from a window dealer with their own installation team.  Windows can be ordered wrong, arrive defective or the opening needs modifying. We know the pitfalls and we know that the surest way to deliver an expert job is to control every aspect of it, with trained people who are committed to the perfect outcome.

Marvin Integrity Casements

In a previous post, “Installation and Why Our Installers are Woodland Windows and Doors Employees”, we relayed several customer stories about botched installations and poor customer service.  There is no shortage of stories from customers who make the big mistake and here are a few more that we’ve come across.

We thought we’d save a fortune if we install the replacement windows on our own.

We watched videos and the process was straightforward. We’re DYIs and figured that we didn’t need to spend around $300-$400. per installed vinyl replacement window, when we could save at least $100. per window by doing the installation ourselves. What we didn’t count on is how long it would take. We’d been told that professional installers could completely install 10-20 windows in a day, but it took us six weekends to do the job. After spending money on insulation and caulk, and our time, we didn’t save much money by doing the job ourselves.

We were remodeling our home and the contractor found someone to install our new replacement windows.

We didn’t know anything about windows, so we let our contractor determine what windows to order and who would install them. Shortly after the job was complete we noticed that we heard more freeway noise with the new replacement windows than we had with the old windows. Our general contractor finally determined that the subcontractor hadn’t properly insulated or shimmed, and the windows were ordered without the correct glazing or for the proper wall width. Our contractor is fixing the problems and we see some improvement, however we won’t have the results we were expecting. Our mistake was not bothering to ask our contractor what type of window was going in the house and who would be installing them.

Andersen 100 Series French Doors

We bought our replacement windows from Home Depot and contracted with them to do the installation.

We regularly shop at Home Depot for our needs, so we assumed they would also have good brands and the best value for our replacement windows. The installers botched the job, including reusing our 25 year old fiber insulation for example. Home Depot has sent out contractors to correct the problems, but they can’t seem to get it done correctly. Only after making this mistake did we learn what others already know, that many subcontractors working for the big box places are transient and are working for less than the going because they need the work, but don’t necessarily have the knowledge or experience.

Installation, whether you are replacing your old windows or having new windows added to your home, requires careful planning, flawless execution, and superior response times to address those unforeseen problems. It’s a process that must be owned from the beginning to the end. Did the person who measured your job, check their measurements before the order was placed? Or did that person walk through the job with the installers? The best way, the only way, to achieve a flawless level of performance is to build a professional team of skilled people who don’t just show up, but who own the work down to the last keeper – if it doesn’t lock the job’s not done. 

We don’t use sub-contractors for window and door installation and we hope you won’t either. Don’t make the big mistake.