Help with window repair please!

CFC

Hi all, I appear to have a double glazed window that is no longer air tight. What I mean is that there is condensation on the inside of the outer window pane. This is only affecting one window in my house. The DG is not under guarantee any longer, I suspect it was done years ago. It's UPVC windows. Is there any way of repairing them, either doing it myself or alternatively getting someone in to do it? If I knew what needed to be done it would save me being cheated when I got someone in to do it.

Please don't say the window needs replacing - that's going to be out of the question financially

Tallymanjohn

You don't need to replace the whole window, just the sealed unit. Depends on size, but should only be in the low 10's of £'s range & the unit is only held in by a beading strip. I just took an accurate size to our local supplier & it was ready the following day.

Actual repair isn't a DIY repair job AFAIK as it needs to be done in a very dry atmosphere, there are companies around that advertise DG repairs but don't know how successful they are.

CFC

Thanks, I'm still not sure I understand this though. Does this mean that I need to take the window out and take it somewhere to be fixed? Or does someone make another window bit and then install it?

What kind of supplier do you mean? Not sure who I should look for.

*confused*

adonis

The sealed unit is all that needs replacing, if you measure the glass size that needs replacing and contact some glazing firms or manufacturers (not the big dg sales companies ) they should give you some idea of the price.
I dont know if it is a diy job.

Ivrytwr3

If you have UPVC windows look around the rim of the frame that sits over the glass. This is called the beading and looks like this on each side of the frame:



So all you do is remove the 4 x pieces of bead and the glass will come straight out.

Measure the size of the glass, take this to your nearest place that does glass and get them to make up a new piece.

Put in the new glass and replace the beads; simple!!

(i find a wallpaper scraper is the easiest thing to use to get the beads out)

Ivrytwr3

ps it is easier to buy new glass rather than get the old one repaired.

Avoriaz

I have no idea if these ideas will work but they might be worth trying.

Wait for the next vaguely warm and dry day. Get a hairdryer and gently warm the outside pane where the condensation has settled. Continue until it all evaporates. With luck it might not reappear for a while. Don’t heat too quickly or unevenly so that you crack the pane and make matters worse.

Alternatively, remove the faulty sealed unit as described above, put it in a warm oven for a while and, when it has completely dried, wrap self amalgamating tape tightly all around the edges. Maybe replace the pane upside down as that might make a difference.

If you have any silica gel packs, you could remove the contents and add some before you tape the edges, especially the bottom edge.

If you don’t have self amalgamating tape, google and buy some. I got some from ebay for less than £5. It is basically a rubberised tape that you stretch before applying. It then shrinks and forms a water tight seal. Black insulating tape is unlikely to give a water tight seal but it might work.

Silica gel is a water absorbing compound. You often find little packets of it packed with electronic items etc.

I have never tried any of this and it is entirely possible that you will be completely wasting your time but you have little to lose other than time and the cost of the tape. You might save yourself £50.;)

Rex_Mundi

Once a unit has 'broken down' (like it has in this instance), I don't recommend trying to repair it.

Warming the unit to remove the water will not work. When double glazed units are made, the two longest sides of the spacer bar are filled with desiccant, this is sealed into the unit. The desiccant absorbs all the water inside the unit (air contains water), and stops the inside misting up. When the seal of the unit has gone, the desiccant can only absorb so much water, and once this has happened, you start getting mist on the inside of the unit.

To put silica gel into the unit, you would have to split the unit. This can be extremely dangerous. It means cutting the seal of the unit with a stanley knife. I've seen someone slip with a knife whilst doing this. He ended up in hospital with a very serious cut needing stitches. I would only ever split a unit where some form of specialised glass has been used.

Using any form of tape to reseal a unit wouldn't last long. The seals on DG units are normally around 8mm to 10mm thick with a specialised sealent. The seal on a unit does not only have to be watertight, it has to be completely airtight as well.

The best/safest/easiest solution is to replace the unit with a new one. When you take the measurement, you need three measures. The width, height and thickness of the unit. You also need to mention the colour of the spacer bar to match your existing units (silver/white/bronze/gold). Getting the thickness correct is crucial. Too thick or too thin, and the unit wont go back in. Units can be anywhere between 14mm, and 28mm thick (14,16,18,20,22,24,26,28mm). An option for getting the unit the correct size is to take the unit out on a dry day, take it to a glaziers for them to measure, then replace the old unit until the new one is ready.

CFC

Thank you all for your replies.

It sounds as if it is beyond me, so I've looked in the phone book for a glazier (not a big dg company) and he's coming out next week to give me a quote to measure up, give me a quote, create the window and then return and fit it. From the size of the window and the description of the problem he thinks it will be about 80 quid, which seems pretty reasonable to me - I had visions of a £400 bill!!!

Just in case anyone else suffers with this, he told me that how long the repair will last will depend on how well the window was originally fitted - he said it should be fine for about 5 years after that.

Looks like dg is not the maintenance free option we're told it is!

Avoriaz

Rex_Mundi wrote:

Once a unit has 'broken down' (like it has in this instance), I don't recommend trying to repair it. …..

And yet another of my brilliant ideas bites the dust.:D

Ivrytwr3

And yet another of my brilliant ideas bites the dust.

Nah, they are repairable, but to be honest it doesn't cost much to get a replacement unit these days and repaired ones run the risk of breaking down again.

More cost effective just to get a new one.