Window & Door Seals That Keep Out Fall Drafts

How Do I Know If My Windows and Doors Are Leaking Air?

Fall is the easiest time of year to catch this, because you can feel the difference before it gets truly cold. A few things to look for:

• A cool spot near the frame – On a breezy day, hold the back of your hand a few inches from the window or door frame and move it slowly around the perimeter. Air moves in around the edges first, so that's where you'll notice it.
• Worn or flattened weatherstripping – Take a close look at where the sash or door meets the frame. Weatherstripping compresses and hardens over the years, and once it stops springing back, it stops sealing.
• Daylight around a closed door – If you can see light along the edges when the door is shut and latched, conditioned air is going out the same way.
• Condensation or frost between the panes – This one isn't a seal you can fix from the outside. Moisture between panes means the insulated glass unit itself has failed.
• Heating bills that climb every year – Windows and doors are one of the largest sources of heat loss in a typical home, so a bill creeping up year over year with no change in habits is worth investigating.
• A room that never quite keeps up – If one room always runs colder than the rest of the house, start with the windows in that room before you start second-guessing your furnace.

Which Fixes Can I Handle Myself?

Plenty of drafts come down to a worn seal rather than a failing window. These are all reasonable weekend projects:

• Replace the weatherstripping – Inexpensive, widely available, and probably the highest-value hour you'll spend on your home this fall. Bring a sample of the old strip to the store so you match the profile.
• Re-caulk the exterior and interior seams – The caulk sealing your frame to the wall shrinks and cracks over time. Scrape the old bead out completely before laying a new one, or the new caulk won't adhere.
• Add a door sweep – A ten-minute install that closes the gap under an exterior door, which is one of the most common leak points in any house.
• Check and adjust the strike plate – If a door isn't pulling tight against the weatherstripping, sometimes the fix is the latch, not the seal.

Do these first. If the draft goes away, you've saved yourself a much larger conversation.

When Does It Make Sense to Replace Instead?

There's a point where sealing and re-sealing is just deferring the real fix. In our experience, it's time to talk about replacement when:

• The frame itself is warped, rotted, or damaged – Weatherstripping seals a gap. It can't fix a frame that's no longer square or no longer sound.
• You've fixed the same draft more than once – A draft that keeps coming back is telling you the problem is the unit, not the seal.
• The seal between panes has failed – Condensation or fogging between the glass can't be repaired. The insulated glass unit has to be replaced.
• Your windows are original to an older home – Rochester has a lot of beautiful older housing stock, and a lot of it still has single-pane glass that was never designed for the heating costs we have now.
• You're feeling drafts in several rooms at once – That usually points to an aging window system throughout the house rather than one bad unit.

Replacement is a real investment, but it's one that pays back in both directions: lower heating bills in the winter and lower cooling costs in the summer. ENERGY STAR® certified windows can lower household energy costs by an average of 12% per year, and that's before you account for the comfort of a house that actually holds its temperature.

Does Timing Matter If I Decide to Replace?

Fall is a popular time for window and door work, and for good reason — mild weather makes for an easy install and you get the benefit before the heating season really starts. That said, an experienced crew can replace windows year-round, including in winter. The important part isn't the month on the calendar. It's working with a team that knows how to protect your home and keep the house comfortable during the install.

Start Your Draft-Free Fall With Graves Brothers

If you're not sure whether you're looking at a weekend fix or a replacement, that's exactly the kind of thing we can help you sort out. We'll take a look at your existing windows and doors, tell you plainly what we see, and give you an honest read on whether a repair or a replacement makes more sense for your home and your budget. Sometimes the answer is that you don't need us yet, and we'll tell you that too.

Ready to get ahead of the cold? Contact Graves Brothers today for a free estimate.

Frequently Asked Window Replacement Questions

Looking for more information on window replacement and insulation? Here are some questions we hear from homeowners looking for replacement windows.