Hi All, Thanks so much in advance for any help & advice you might offer. I built a home in 1991. Installed Eagle brand windows because it was a local company, and looking at their “window sticker” it was one of the best available then. My only complaint on my entire home since has been the windows, they have always “leaked terribly”. House is extremely drafty, have to keep the furnace at 78 just to keep 68 temp inside. As the yrs go by, my complaints have went unanswered. Problem getting worse every year. Used to be drafty, then it went to drafty & condensation problem inside. Sometimes the ice melts inside and seeps between where window locks and creates a big patch of ice outside of window! Getting consistently worse, now drafty, moisture on the inside house side of the window, not between the double panes though. These were low E gas filled. Last 8 months, 4 seperate windows on 3 sides of the house have “exploded” and cracked out, 3 on the ouside pane, one on the inside pane, glass flew 15′ away on inside pane! Two exploded when temps were 40 degree’s, two exploded when temps around 20 degree’s outside. Have also noticed sometimes only the very middle of the window on inside of house has moisture on them alot. This winter, for first time, having very serious ice buildup inside, mostly where window latches, although they also have ice forming all around frame of window where wood meets glass. New weatherstripping has not helped, windows can’t hold plastic as there is too much of a draft, after a day or so the plastic expands until a corner of it loosens. Eagle reps have always told me I had a humidity problem and I believed them. They said house was wrapped too tight, that I had questions about because it is so drafty. I picked up 6 gauges last fall and have watched them very closely. Ever since Christmas, humidity has not been above 30%, the norm is right at about 27% with outside temps being anywhere from 40 dgrees outside to 10 below zero. Moisture problem is huge now. I posted a picture on my webspace at http://members.aol.com/mjaxn82361/icejamb It has actually gotten much worse than in this photo. My main concern is windows “blowing up”. My daughters can’t even sleep in their bedrooms because I’m afraid a window will “blow” and shatter them with glass. Last contacted company 12/19/06 & he said he would be out within two weeks. Still hasn’t shown up. I need replacement windows I think, can’t afford to do this more than once, so I ask all of you, what is the best or close to the best replacement window company out there? It has been suggested I need an air exchanger but I understand that is just for high humidity, and I don’t think the humidity at 27-30% is my problem? My window frames are ok although some of the the windows themselves are very bad where water has sat in the past. Would like not to have to take all the siding off if possible. Have looked into Renewal by Andersen, they appear to be very good although I don’t know anything about the composite material except what they tell me. Anyone have any suggestions on who I should use, who you have used? I thought when I built the home I was using the best, but I was fooled once, don’t want to take that chane again. Now Andersen owns Eagle windows but the Eagle rep won’t take care of me, so using Andersen doesn’t seem smart at this point either. Thanks so much in advance….look forward to hearing comments, be happy to answer any questions or show you any more pics of window problems.
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Replies
Where do you live? What type of window is this? d/h or casement type?
How is your home insulated? Are the windows properly caulked in? Is the house sided or have a masonry veneer?
I live in East Dubuque, Illinois. Thats the extreme NW corner of IL. The windows I have are two kinds, the majority are doublehung windows, and the rest are casement windows. The weather isn't playing favorites, both types frost up, and one of the casements broke out, and the other three were broken doublehungs. I have 2"X4" walls with fiberglass insulation, there is 1" blue styrofoam outside and also a Tyvec wrap. I remember when they put the warp on, they very extremely particular that it went on just perfect, no tears and very few seams. I seem to remember they also had a special tape for the seams that were there. There is plastic inside under the drywall inside. Sure sounds like it should be wrapped too tight but trust me, there is enough of a draft that you can see the curtains move and it is when the furnace isn't on. I also forgot to mention, I was told by the original company my roof wasn't vented properly, but I had a brand new roof on last year, and I inquired about more venting and they told me I already had plenty of ventilation and more would be a waste of money. Hope I've included everything...thanks!
something is not right here .. sorry, as if you didn't already know .. I have a hard time thinking even a bad window could be so bad .. it looks to me like the window installers never insulated between the framing and window .. pull some of the casing and check there first ..
I know it's hard to believe that it can be so bad, but I have pictures of every window in my home to prove what I'm saying. Here is another photo I took the other night, It was 8 above zero and 68 inside the house with 27% humidity when this pic was taken: http://members.aol.com/mjaxn82361/window1e You can see the frost is where the window frame around the window is leaking, its not even close to the trim pcs. Since I have purchased the humidity gauges I have complete records of temperature inside & out. For years I have tried to tell Eagle what was going on and they wouldn't believe me either...or perhaps they did and simply hope I'd go away. The biggest gripe I have with the company is that whenever anyone from the company came out to look it was usually 40 degree's and sunny and no wind. The very first time I complained a gentleman did come out, he said he had a "test". He would light a match and if it flickered we knew we had a problem. We used a candle and on 3 of the windows it blew the candle out. I never saw that gentleman again. They replaced only those three window jamb pieces with solid ones. On a bitter cold windy day it is extremely easy to see where the problem is, it is in the plastic pcs that go up and down on each side of the window that the window slides in, and it is also all around the outside edge. The last gentleman from the company told me the recent breakage problem was because the gas was seaping out, thus the windows were sucking in toward each other to compensate and after they reach a certain point they break. Once again, he told me that, said he'd be here in a couple weeks, and I have not seen or heard from him since. I have given up on the company doing anything at all for me. I would have liked to get their honest opinion about what has been going on but I know I will never get that. I'm not really here asking if anyone knows a solution to the windows because I have lived with this for many years, half the windows at least have bad water damage and I'm past the point of finding a solution and using the existing windows. I would invite anyone to look at them close up and I can prove what I am saying. Years back we took the casing off at least half the windows and the company looked at that and they agreed they were insulated correctly. A couple of them we experimented on and put in low expanding foam very carefully and thsoe windows still frost up as bad as the rest. What I am looking for now is I would just like for folks to tell me their experiences with replacement windows. I don't know anything about the composite material that renewal by Andersen uses or what windows are generally accepted these days as being the best or close to it for what I need. I keep bringing up the Andersen renewal system because they seem to be the only company in my area that can replace a window without tearing all the siding off around the window. Perhaps that isn't the way to go? The article in the last issue of Fine Homebuilding dealing with a replacement window looked promising to me but I'm at best an amateur which is what brings me here....
My guess is you have what is referred to is collapsed glass. In 91 argon was put into sealed units... Unfortunately it leaked out and nothing replaced it forming a vacuum. With the amount of condensation you are seeing I would bet the panes of glass are touching, reducing you windows efficiency to single pane glass. You will see what appears to be a rainbow oil stain look where the glass touches, by applying pressure to the glass the stain will move around... or you can put a straight edge on the glass to see how flat it is.
Bottom line this will not help with your present window problems and is widely known in the industry for about the past 10 years. I would doubt Eagle didn't know what the problem was... they just had no way to fix it.
Once again... warrenty and the fine print are everything... If you have a 30 year mortgage you still have 15 years to pay for those windows.
Yes, You are correct on that. Only one out of the 4 windows that broke on me had the "rainbo effect" but the last gentleman from eagle that contacted me did admit they saw alot of problems with the gas leaking out and he said the panes would normally blow out when the windows were to the point where they were touching. He even admitted to having problems with getting the windows to seal correctly, but they do not now nor ever have made any kind of storm window so that isn't an option, and that would only work on half the windows now anyway. I have come to terms with the fact that I need new windows...I'll get them paid for,
I just need advice on who sells the best window now so I don't have to go through this in 15-16 years again....Thanks.
Well my best advice on replacement windows would be... If you like Renewal persue the fact that they are an Andersen Co as is Eagle now. Perhaps you could get a substantial discount.... as Andersen knows of this problem and repairs their windows that collapse.