by Carey, James
Figure 6-4: Stopping air infiltration with spray foam.
Where polyurethane spray is now best for large gaps, then and now, caulking is still best for narrow cracks. The kind of caulking to use depends on the area being caulked. Glass, metal, wood, plastic, and other surfaces respond differently to caulk. Read the manufacturer’s label carefully before making your purchase.
Another infiltration-control method is installing precut gasketing into electrical switches and outlets. The gasket material consists of a thin foam that fits neatly between the plug or switch cover and the wall. Each gasket is precut to match either a plug cover or a switch.
If your electrical boxes aren’t gasketed, we suggest that you add them. An entire home can be done for under $50. Cover outlets on interior walls, too. Don’t forget that air can get into interior walls via wire and pipe holes that penetrate through to the attic and crawlspace.
Windows: See the Light, Feel the Cold
As beautiful as they are, most windows aren’t as energy efficient as an insulated wall. Unfortunately, you can’t see through a wall. The R value (insulative value) of a typical wall is about R-13. (See “Understanding R values,” earlier in this chapter, for more information.) The R value of a typical window is about R-2. Even triple-pane windows have a low insulative value.
None of the window types or brands on the market today can compare to the recently developed highly energy-efficient windows that are available. Where current window brands offer an R value of R-2 or R-3, a new line of truly energy-efficient window offers R values of R-5 to R-13. (A solid wall in a moderate climate has a rating of R-13.) Wouldn’t you like to have a window in your home that has the exact same insulative value as a wall? Manufactured by Serious Materials, these windows come in a range of insulative values from R-5 to R-13 — depending on your budget. For more info about these windows, go to www.seriousmaterials.com or call 800-797-8159.
If highly efficient window replacement isn’t in your immediate future, here are a few maintenance suggestions for your windows that will make them a bit more energy efficient, add longevity to their existence, and make them easier to operate.
Dealing with water and air leaks
A window that leaks air can also mean excessive energy loss and cost. Summer or winter, you don’t want your house to leak air, especially if you spend your hard-earned dollars warming or cooling it. Test a window for leaks by burning an incense stick near all its joints and connections. If the smoke flickers, you have an air leak. Check:
Where one section of the window meets another
Where the windows meet the frame
Where the frame meets the wall
You seal air leaks and water leaks in the same way — by caulking and replacing weatherstripping. You can also inject foam sealant between the frame of the window and the frame of the house.
Caulking
Often water leaks at a window result from a breakdown in the connection between the window frame and the wall. To prevent leaks, caulk the window where it meets the exterior siding (see Figure 6-5). If the window is surrounded by wood trim, use a high-grade polyurethane caulk to seal all gaps between the trim and the siding (and the trim and the window).
Take special care to seal the top side of the top piece of trim. Puddling water at this location causes many window leaks.
Figure 6-5: Caulking an outside window.
Expanding spray foam
If you’re willing to remove either your exterior or interior window trim, you can do a much better job of sealing window and door leaks — permanently! — than you can with just caulk. Using expanding foam not only prevents air infiltration, but it also makes the treated area watertight too.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Use a pry bar and a hammer to remove the window trim (either inside or outside — not both).
2. Fill the void with expanding spray foam in a can.
Don’t worry about overfilling. Let it bulge out of the wall. What you don’t want to do is touch the foam while it’s wet; you’ll make a huge, hard-to-clean-up mess.
3. After the foam dries (it’ll take several hours), use a razor knife to cut off the excess.
We like to use a serrated knife from the kitchen. However, “borrowing” a knife is only possible when the boss isn’t home.
4. Replace the trim in the reverse order in which you removed it and touch up paint as necessary.
Weatherstripping
Leaks also occur when weatherstripping wears out. You may have to remove the operable portion of the window to find the weatherstripping:
For sliding windows, open them halfway and lift the window out of the bottom track. Then pull the window out of the opening bottom first.
For single-hung windows, usually you just release a lever on the side track(s) of the window frame. Contact the manufacturer for specific instructions.
After you remove the operable portion of the window, it becomes pretty obvious where the weatherstripping is and how it has to be replaced. Most home centers offer replacement weatherstripping in peel-and-stick rolls. If you aren’t sure about what to do, take the section that you removed to the store with you or photograph the area that needs attention. A picture is definitely worth a thousand words!
You may need an adhesive solvent to unstick old weatherstripping. Adhesive solvent is available in spray cans for easy application.
Adhesive remover can be pretty caustic stuff. Read the can to be sure that it won’t damage your window frame.
If you have metal or vinyl frame windows, check the drain holes at the outside edge of the bottom portion of the window frame. During rains, water can fill the bottom track, leak to the inside of the home, and literally flood the area surrounding the window. Drain or weep holes allow water to escape from the frame, preventing flooding. You can use a piece of wire or a small screwdriver blade to ensure that the holes are clear.
Preventing condensation
Condensation around windows can result when a window leaks air. Cold outside air mixes with warm inside air and creates a wet layer of condensation over the entire window. Condensation can actually form enough moisture to cause wood to rot. And don’t forget mildew. Condensation is a feed bag for mildew.
You can reduce condensation by:
Sealing air leaks around windows (see the “Dealing with water and air leaks” section, earlier in this chapter)
Replacing single-pane windows with double-pane “insulated” glass
Using wood-frame windows
Using storm windows
If you have insulated windows and you see rainbows or condensation between the two sheets of glass, then your window has failed and should be replaced. The frame can remain, but the glass must be replaced. Be sure to shop for the best guarantee. A failed insulated window is expensive to replace at $250 and up.
Maintaining storm windows
Storm windows are necessary when you have old, single-pane windows. A storm window is nothing more than a second window that adds insulative value to the window that it covers. We wouldn’t be surprised if yours are 50 years old and tired. When storm windows are right, and when they don’t slip down and make gaps because of “tiredness,” they reduce heat loss and cold-air infiltration. But dealing with them, no matter how old they are, can be a challenge.
As far as maintenance goes, here’s what you need to do:
Take down the storm windows in the summer so that you can open your windows. Leaving them up year-round can cause rot to occur in the area between the storm window and the house. Also, ventilation is a must to reduce fungus growth in a home.
Put the storm windows back up in the winter. Make sure that storm windows are properly sealed at their edges when they’re installed. Air leaking through the edges of a storm window can allow condensation to occur between it and the window it protects.
Replace cracked panes. Leave this task to a pro.
Clean the panes every time you take the windows down or put them back
up. Use standard glass-cleaning methods.
Wipe the frames with lacquer thinner. Lacquer thinner cleans off the weird aluminum corrosion and shines up the frames.
Periodically (at least once a year), caulk the area between where the frames meet the walls and the sills. Be sure not to block the weep holes!
Why not replace storm windows? Cost. New storms for a house with 28 custom-size windows will cost thousands of dollars and are probably only the second-best solution anyway. Many homeowners have done away with their storms and just replaced the windows entirely — but that costs $15,000 to $20,000.
Maintaining screens
Newer, more energy-efficient homes don’t allow for the passive exchange of air through cracks, gaps, and penetrations as older homes did. Unfortunately, this condition creates stale trapped air within the home. In addition, some of the components used in the fabrication of construction materials emit gases that cause health problems, which can range from a minor case of the sniffles to a full-blown allergic reaction. Air in the home must be continually exchanged with a fresh supply from the outside, which makes screens really important.
Cleaning screens
In order to get a good exchange of air, you have to keep your screens clean. Grit and grime can also hasten deterioration, thereby diminishing the life of a window screen. As if that weren’t enough, dirty screens also prevent light from making its way into your home. Finally, a gust of wind can blow dust from a screen straight into your home, aggravating allergies and increasing housekeeping chores.
To clean your screens, lay them flat on a smooth, cloth-covered surface, such as an old sheet on a picnic table. Scrub them gently with a soft nylon brush, rinse with a hose, and shake off excess water. We recommend pressure-washing your screens once in the spring and again in the fall.
Patching a screen
Screen patch kits are available at hardware stores and home centers. They’re inexpensive and easy to install (the process takes less than a minute). You can also use any of the following methods to repair small holes in window screens, depending upon the type of screen material:
Apply a small amount of clear nail polish to a small hole or tear in a vinyl or fiberglass screen. The polish acts as an adhesive, sealing the damaged area.
Mend small tears in metal or fiberglass screens with a dab of clear silicone adhesive. If necessary, dab it on in successive layers until the tear is completely filled.
You can darn small holes in metal screening. Simply unravel a strand or two from a piece of scrap screening and sew the hole shut, weaving the strands through the sound fabric with a needle (see Figure 6-6).
Figure 6-6: Left, darning a screen; right, patching a hole in a screen.
Large holes in metal screen material take a little more effort. Follow these steps:
1. Neatly trim the damaged area to a ravel-free square or rectangle using tin snips (metal shears).
2. Cut a piece of patch screen material that measures about 1 inch larger (in both directions) than the damaged area.
3. Unravel a couple of strands of material around the entire perimeter of the patch; then bend the unraveled ends at each side of the patch at 90 degrees.
4. Place the patch over the damaged area and carefully thread the bent wires through the sound fabric (refer to Figure 6-6); then bend the wires flat again to hold the patch in place.
For large holes in fiberglass screening, simply cut a patch of similar material and affix it to the good material using transparent silicone glue.
Replacing a screen
Whether it’s a window or a door, rescreening is easy. There are two types of screen available: metal (copper, steel, aluminum, and so on) and fiberglass.
Rescreening with metal is slightly more difficult than with fiberglass (metal is not as flexible as fiberglass), but metal seems to stretch tighter, and it does last longer. However, where fiberglass screen material is not as strong as metal and often sags slightly once in place, it’s much easier to install. In either case both metal and fiberglass install in exactly the same fashion. You need the following tools and materials:
The screen material of your choice — a few inches larger than the screen to be repaired in both width and height.
A roll of screen spline of a size that matches the size you currently have. The spline is the rubber gasket material located all around one side of the screen’s frame that holds the screen in place.
A spline roller (a tool that is composed of a grip with a rolling wheel at each end).
A razor knife.
An awl or ice pick.
A large, flat work surface. The kitchen table covered with an old blanket or a piece of cardboard works well.
Replacement is pretty easy. Lay the screen spline side up on the work surface and then follow these steps:
1. Poke the awl into the old rubber spline and pull it out of its recess.
When enough of the spline has been removed, you can pretty much do the rest by grabbing and pulling.
2. Remove and discard the old screen.
3. Lay the replacement screen centered over the frame.
4. At one corner, use your fingers to press the spline material into the spline groove in the frame.
5. When an inch or two of the spline is started, use the spline roller to steadily push the spline into its groove around the entire frame (see Figure 6-7).
Keep the edge of the screen aligned with the frame and do one side first, and then the opposite side. Then do the top and finish with the bottom. Make sure to keep the screen taut. A helper may be in order here.
6. With the spline in place, cut the end and use the razor knife to remove the excess screen material.
Place the razor knife in the outside edge of the spline groove, pointing the tip away from the spline. Gently wipe the razor knife along the groove. It will easily cut away the excess.
Figure 6-7: Using a spline roller tool.
Buying new windows
Sometimes repairing or maintaining an old window isn’t worth the trouble. When replacement is the only alternative, it’s good to understand how window components differ to have a strategy for deciding what kind of window is best for you. When we get calls about windows on our radio program, most people want to know “What brand?” That’s not the way we recommend approaching the decision. When we need a window, we choose the frame type first, then the glass configuration (how many layers), and finally the energy options (low-emissivity, gas filled, and so on).
Choosing a frame
Some frames are more energy efficient than others, some last longer than others, and some are just plain easier to maintain. Here’s a list of the frames in order from our most to least favorite:
Clad wood frames: These are wood frames covered on the exterior with either a thin coat of aluminum or a thin coat of fiberglass. A frame made of wood is by far the most energy-efficient type. But, by itself, wood is a pain to maintain — painting, scraping, yuck! With a coating on the exterior, maintenance is reduced to almost nothing, offering the best of both worlds: energy efficiency and low maintenance. We prefer fiberglass over aluminum because fiberglass doesn’t dent as easily as aluminum.
Composite and fiberglass frames: These frames are next best in energy efficiency and low maintenance. They won’t last half as long as clad wood, but they’re far less expensive.
Metal frames: Metal frames are lowest on our list because they’re not at all energy efficient and they corrode faster than the others combined.
Choosing the glass
Choosing the correct glass configuration isn’t so easy. Here it’s more about money than anything else. Three panes are more energy efficient — and more expensive — than two panes.
Our advice? Select as many sheets of glass as you can possibly afford (with windows, more is better) and have the glass coated with ultraviolet (UV) inhibitors. These protect carpets, drapes, and furniture and are well worth the investment.