 | Bob Crager of Lewis Street Glass is a 26 year veteran in the glass business. Lewis Street Glass is a leading Wichita Glass company, serving the entire Wichita/Sedgwick County area since 1919. They do anything and everything having to do with glass, both residential and commercial. They also do Auto glass. They are located at 743 South Market, facing Kellogg on the South, and you can reach them by phone at (316) 263-8259. You can email Bob Crager at bcrager@lewisstreetglass.com |
Glass
2004-04-01 14:46:00
Is my house too tight?
ANSWER: We recently had a question come in about some 12 year old windows fogging up and looking cloudy to the owner. They were a top end, high dollar window, and the owner said that not all of their windows were doing that. Only a few of their windows were doing this. It was determined that the fogging was occurring between the panes of the thermopane windows, not on the outside surfaces. This type of window is a dual glass pane window with a titanium or other material seal, which creates a "dead air space" between the glass panes. This prevents the glass panes inside the home from condensing moisture due to the warmer temperatures inside the home. With age, this seal can deteriorate and break, allowing air to leak inside the glass panels, and this presents itself with visual fogging of the glass. This is definitely the most common problem with dual pane windows. The units with broken seals will need to be replaced with new factory sealed ones. This is done by glass companies that repair all kinds of broken glass and mirrors. Most units can be ordered in by the glass company, and a professional installer can put the new units into the existing frames. If the frames are a little older, and possibly have wood rot, sometimes you can benefit from having the glass company order in the new frames, and change them out at the same time as the new panels are installed. This is generally less costly than replacing the entire window.Depending upon the age of your windows, they could be under warranty by the manufacturer, but normally, by the time windows lose their seal and begin fogging visually, they're already past the warranty period. If in fact, you're getting substantial moisture on the inside of your glass windows, with water beading and running down the glass, it could indicate that the humidifier on your furnace is putting too much moisture into the air flowing through the home. Correct this by dialing back on the humidistat, and see if that corrects the problem.
