LESLIE: Judy in Minnesota, you’ve got The Money Pit. How can we help you today?
JUDY: We replaced our windows – all the windows – in our home over 10 years ago. And just this year, there appeared to be snow between the glass on two of the windows. So our question is: do we have to replace the windows again or is there some way to get that out?
LESLIE: Actual snow or was it just fogging up?
JUDY: No, it’s like – it looks like snow when the sun shines on it. It’s that noticeable.
LESLIE: So that’s probably more like a frost. And generally, what happens when you start to see condensation or frost or any sort of cloudiness in between two panes of glass, that usually means that the seal has failed. And that’s not generally something that’s fixable. Because when the seal fails, the gas that’s in there to keep the windows energy-efficient and put that thermal seal in there, that’s gone, too. So your window loses all of its energy efficiency, other than just the two panes of glass.
So, repairing that really isn’t worth it. I mean at this point, you should probably look into a replacement window.
JUDY: Replace the windows. Not all the windows. Just those two windows?
LESLIE: Right. And it would be a replacement window, so the operable parts are what changes out. The side panels, that all stays. It’s the up-and-down parts that get changed out.
JUDY: So they can just replace that middle part then?
TOM: That’s correct. Especially if it’s a recent window and yeah, the manufacturer is still sort of available. When the seal fails like that, there’s no repair for it. If you probably are not suffering through a lot of energy loss as a result of this, it’s mostly just a visual thing. But it’s not repairable; you need to have that sash itself replaced.
JUDY: OK. Well, thank you so much.
TOM: Alright. Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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