What can be fixed on a Windsor window, and what can't
In Windsor-Essex, window trouble tends to show up in summer. The picture window looks milky on a muggy morning, a slider drags, a screen tears the week the patio door opens for the season. Plenty of it is a small fix. If the haze wipes off, it's humidity; the condensation guide covers that. For the rest, pick the symptom below. We connect you with an independent local pro who does that kind of repair and wants the job, and we follow up so nothing sits unanswered.
Start with the symptom
Match the symptom to the fix
Fog you can't wipe off
Haze sealed between the panes means a blown seal. In most frames a new glass unit fixes it and the window stays.
Sticks, drops or won't lock
A slider that drags, a sash that creeps down, a lock that misses. Usually one worn part.
A torn or bent screen
Screens stay in from spring well into fall here. Rescreening one window is an ordinary job.
A crack or a broken pane
A ball, a branch, a slammed sash. The glass is replaced on its own, and one pane is worth the call.
Know your windows
Three generations of windows in Windsor homes
Before 1960: wood sash and storms
A large share of Windsor predates 1960. Original sash in Walkerville, Sandwich and the core can often be reglazed and rehung.
1960s and 70s: sliders and first replacements
Often sliders or an early round of replacement windows. Rollers, latches and weatherstrips wear first.
1980s to 2000s: sealed units showing their age
Much of Tecumseh and LaSalle dates from these years, and its original thermal glass is now showing blown seals.
Worth a call
Small parts, real fixes
Window balances and cranks
The balance holds a hung sash up; the crank opens a casement. When either gives out, a matched part fixes it.
Patio door rollers and latches
A patio door that grinds all summer usually wants rollers or a latch, not replacement.
Screen doors
Torn mesh, a tired closer or a bent frame on the door you use every evening in bug season.
Sun and storms
Heat, glare and storm damage
Window film
Home film, not car tint. It can cut glare and heat on sunny south and west glass without new windows.
Solar-control glass
Replacing a unit or a window anyway? Ask about low-E coatings meant for sun. It's chosen when the glass is ordered.
Storm damage and after-hours breaks
Thunderstorms roll through often here. Make the room safe, take photos, cover the opening, then book the glass.
The bigger call
When the whole window should go instead
A repair usually makes sense when
- The frame is solid and just a unit or two has fogged or cracked
- The trouble is a balance, crank, lock or weatherstrip
- It's an original wood window you'd rather keep
A new window earns its place when
- The sill or frame is soft, split or letting water in
- Unit after unit is fogging across the house
- You want the provincial rebate, which covers complete ENERGY STAR windows, not glass alone
Questions
Window questions from around Windsor-Essex
Where pros work
Window help from the city out to the County
Independent pros cover Windsor, the towns around it and much of the County. Farther out? We'll see whether a pro travels that far.
Not sure what's wrong? Send a photo
A photo and a line about what the window is doing are enough. We'll put them in front of a local pro who can tell a blown seal from a tired balance.