Window repair
Window Repair
Sash that will not stay up, windows painted shut, locks that no longer pull tight, and frost on the inside in January. One component failed. The window usually did not.
- Typical visit
- One to three hours
- Coverage
- Statewide
- Estimate
- Free, fixed in writing
- We sell
- Repairs only
Rule these out first
Four things it is probably not
Minnesota produces a specific set of window complaints, and more than half of them get misdiagnosed. Here is what to eliminate before anybody quotes you anything.
Not this
It is not that the window is worn out
A window is six systems — frame, sash, glazing, mechanism, lock and seal. Almost always exactly one has failed and the other five are fine. The frame, which is the expensive part, is the one that virtually never fails.
Not this
It is not a failed window if there is frost on the inside
Frost or condensation on the room side of the glass is indoor moisture meeting a cold surface. It tells you about the air in your house, not about the window. Replacing the window does not reliably fix it.
Not this
It is not necessarily the lock that is broken
When a window will not latch, nine times in ten the sash has moved and the keeper is out of register. The lock mechanism is usually perfect.
Not this
It is not too late because the sash is painted shut
Decades of paint is a nuisance, not a death sentence. Scoring the line carefully releases the sash without damaging the glazing or the trim, and it usually works normally afterwards.
How it actually works
Why Minnesota windows behave the way they do
Four steps of fairly ordinary physics explain most of what people call us about.
Cold air holds very little moisture
At twenty below, outdoor air is extremely dry even at high relative humidity. Indoor air at a comfortable temperature holds far more, and that difference is the engine behind everything else on this page.
Warm moist air finds the coldest surface
In a heated house the coldest surface in the room is almost always the glass. Moisture migrates toward it, and when the glass surface drops below the dew point of the room air, water condenses there.
Below freezing, that water becomes frost
Which is why the same window that beads with condensation at twenty degrees grows frost at twenty below. Nothing has changed about the window. The surface temperature has crossed a threshold.
A colder glass surface makes it worse
Anything that raises the inside surface temperature of the glass — a sound storm window, a sealed unit that is still sealed, less air leaking past a loose sash — reduces condensation. That is the actual lever, along with controlling indoor humidity.
By temperature
What shows up, and at what temperature
Minnesota has one of the widest annual temperature ranges in the country. Window faults announce themselves at predictable points along it.
40°F
Operation problems
Swollen or painted-shut sash, balances that will not hold, cranks that bind. Everything mechanical shows up in the shoulder seasons when people start opening windows.
20°F
Draughts and rattles
Compressed weatherstrip and locks that no longer pull tight become obvious. If you can feel a window from across the room, this is the band where you notice.
0°F
Condensation turns to frost
The inside glass surface drops below freezing. Condensation that was wiping off now forms ice at the edges of the pane, and sills start getting wet as it melts in the afternoon.
-20°F
Hardware gets brittle
Polymer balance shoes, tilt latches and crank housings lose flexibility and snap rather than flex. Most of our hardware failures are reported in the week after the first serious cold snap.
On the visit
What we actually check on site
Four readings and observations that between them explain almost every Minnesota window complaint.
Indoor humidity
Because if it is high, the condensation question is answered before we look at the glass. Humidifiers, unvented appliances, basement moisture and simple lack of ventilation all show up here.
Where the condensation sits
Bottom edge of the pane, corners, between the sash and a storm, or on the room side of a sealed unit. The location tells us which of four completely different problems you have.
Whether the lock compresses the seal
Close the window on a strip of paper. If it pulls out freely, the sash is not being pulled tight and that is both your rattle and your draught.
The condition of the timber below
Years of condensation running down the glass ends up in the bottom rail and the sill. That is where Minnesota windows actually rot, and it is worth finding early.
Minnesota conditions
What Minnesota does to a window
The coldest state in the lower forty-eight, with a hundred and thirty degrees between its extremes.
Cold deep enough to change materials
Minnesota winters routinely go far below zero, and at those temperatures polymer hardware stops behaving like it does in a catalogue. Balance shoes, tilt latches and operator housings become brittle and break under loads they would shrug off in October.
The widest range most windows ever see
From ninety-plus in July to thirty below in January. Every material in a window expands and contracts across that span annually, which is why timber binds in one season and rattles in the other, and why hardware walks out of alignment over years.
Frost depth and the movement it causes
Minnesota frost penetrates deeper than almost anywhere in the country, lifting steps, stoops and the openings above them. A window that fitted for decades can bind on one side after a hard winter and partly recover by June.
A great deal of early-century housing
Minneapolis and St Paul are full of homes built between 1900 and 1930 — bungalows, four-squares and the Victorians along Summit Avenue. Weight-and-pulley sash, putty glazing and original storm windows, almost all of it repairable.
Questions
Window repair questions
There is frost on the inside of my windows. Do I need new ones?
Almost certainly not. That is indoor moisture meeting cold glass. It is worth fixing — the water ends up in your sills — but the fix is humidity control, air sealing and a sound storm window, not a new window.
Do you sell replacement windows?
No, deliberately. It is the whole reason our recommendation about repairing yours carries weight.
The sash will not stay up.
A cord has parted or a balance has lost tension. Routine repairs, and neither needs a new window.
My windows are painted shut.
Very common in Minnesota's older housing. They can nearly always be freed without damaging the sash, glazing or trim.
Why did three things break the same week in January?
Cold. Polymer hardware goes brittle well below zero, and a cold snap finds every component that was already marginal.
Is weatherstripping worth doing here?
It is the highest-return item we offer. In a state that heats for six months, a sash that actually seals is a different room.
Coverage
Window repair across Minnesota
A mobile service covering the whole state, metro to the Iron Range. Pick your town below, or call and we will come to you.
Window Repair Across Minnesota
Related
Other repairs we handle
Windows and doors are the whole business, so whatever has failed, it is on this list.
Next step
Tell us what the window is doing
Free estimates across Minnesota, with a fixed written price before anything is touched.