Fall Home Improvement
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – A cold draught belongs in a bar, not coming from your windows.
If you want to prevent cold air from entering your home this winter, you might want to start thinking about either short- or long-term fixes.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
CARRIE BOYCE, sales representative at Portland Glass, cleans the Harvey Nor’Easter vinyl replacement window display at the Presque Isle store. Tim McLean, auto glass technician/manager at Portland Glass, said now is the time to start thinking about either short- or long-term fixes if homeowners want to keep cold air from entering their homes this winter. Possible fixes include applying an interior poly on windows, essentially shrink-wrapping them, while a more permanent fix would be installing new windows.
According to Tim McLean, auto glass technician/manager at Portland Glass, options are limited if homeowners choose to keep the existing windows.
“If you’re going to keep the existing windows, the best fix is an interior poly that goes on the wood frame … 3M is the best product out there,” he said. “It’s a clear, double-sided adhesive tape that goes around the perimeter of your window – around the casing or the clamshell. You put this tape on, then stick clear poly to the tape and pull it as tight as you can. Once you get it on, you take a razor blade or a pair of scissors and trim around the edge, then take a blow drier – starting at the center – to work out the wrinkles.
“When this goes on, it’s so clear you really don’t even know it’s on there,” said McLean. “It’s not like the typical plastic that’s all hazy and you can’t see through it. This is crystal clear. A lot of people will even put decorations between the glass and the plastic because you’d never know the plastic is there.”
McLean said the interior poly will do two things.
“First, it’s going to eliminate any draft whatsoever,” he said. “You won’t get any draft from the window, more than if you put poly on the outside. By putting plastic on the outside of a window, air can still get around the edges of the trim and work its way into your home. When you seal off the inside, it’s completely sealed.
“The second thing interior poly will do is, if you have extremely cold weather in the winter, say it’s 20 below outside and maybe inside you keep your house at 70 degrees with a 50-percent humidity level,” said McLean, “moisture goes to the coldest place which is always going to be glass. By putting the interior plastic on, you’ve insulated that window and created an air vapor barrier so the plastic isn’t going to be cold like the glass, and you won’t have moisture and condensation on your glass which helps protect the wood and decrease mold buildup.”
At the end of the winter months, homeowners can simply peel off the plastic, which can be reused.
“Then all you’ve got to do is buy the tape,” said McLean, noting that a kit for patio doors costs around $15 to $20. “You can fold the plastic up … you don’t need to worry about wrinkles because you’ll be using the hair drier next year to get rid of them. All you’ve got to do is grab a hold of the tape and peel it off. I’ve used interior poly at my home, and I’ve never had any issues as far as paint peeling off.”
Though a relatively good short-term fix, McLean said the best option – if money allows – is installing new windows.
“If you’ve bought a new home, and you’re going to be there long-term,” he said, “that’s when you want to start thinking about replacing the windows.”
McLean recommends vinyl-insulated windows.
“Vinyl windows are good because they cut down on the maintenance since old windows can rot,” he said. “The windows we sell have a lifetime warranty … even if a baseball gets thrown though your window from a neighbor’s kid. In addition, that warranty is transferable to the next homeowner, which is a good selling point if you’re selling your home.
“If you’re shopping around looking at different vinyl windows, you want to look at the thickness of the glass,” said McLean. “The thicker the glass, the bigger the air space, and the warmer the inside pane of glass is going to be because it’s harder for the cold to transfer from the outside pane to the inside pane if you have a thicker air space.
“One possibility is going with a Low E glass,” he said. “Low E is a coating on one pane of glass which keeps more heat out in the summer, lets more in in the winter. A second option would be if you went with Low E argon gas, which instead of having air between the two pieces of glass, you’re going to have gas. It’s a very dense, clear gas that makes it that much harder for the cold to transfer through that air to get to the inside pane of glass. The warmer you can keep that glass, the warmer the house is going to be and the less condensation you’re going to have build up on the glass.”
Yet another option is a vinyl acoustical window, which comes with a built-in storm window.
“They use it at airports to control noise level,” said McLean. “That’s what I have at my place, and it’s a very, very quiet window, plus you have that storm window helping cut any cold air.”
An “average-sized window” costs anywhere from $130 to $140 for clear glass, and upwards of $200 for a Low E argon window.
“That will get you a high-end window with a lifetime warranty,” said McLean. “There are windows out there that you can buy for a whole lot less, but you’re not going to get the quality of the window. It’s not so much the price as it is looking at the window and seeing what you’re getting for your money in terms of window stripping, the way the two windows interlock, etc. A better window is a window with more individual air chambers in the jam because it’s individual air pockets that makes it harder for the cold to transfer from the outside to the inside.”
McLean recommends homeowners stay away from aluminum windows.
“An aluminum window in the wintertime radiates the cold,” he said. “They are a cold window.”
While storm windows were popular 15 years ago, McLean said they’re becoming a thing of the past.
“Fifteen years ago, storm windows were very popular, but as technology changes, so do peoples’ opinions,” he said. “More people will opt to go with a vinyl window and spend the extra money and be done with it.”
Staff photo/Kathy McCarty
EMERGENCY PERSONNEL responded to Industrial St. Sept. 19 for an individual who’d fallen from a ladder. Pictured assisting the victim are first responders from the Presque Isle Fire Department and staff from Crown Ambulance. Ladders can be wonderful tools, making those hard-to-reach projects easier when caution is used. Injuries can be the result, however, when ladders aren’t used properly. For safety tips, visit www.osha.gov.
