The main source of heat loss in the house – window openings. If they are not airtight, the room cools down quickly and the heating bill increases. We will tell you how to insulate plastic windows if they are blown. Usually such work takes no more than an hour.
How to understand where it’s blowing
Before proceeding with the insulation, it is necessary to reliably determine the weak points. Otherwise, you will have to redo the work several times. Here are the most common problems:
The bead does not fit snugly.
The trunnions do not press the sash against the frame well.
The seal has worn out.
The tightness of the foam joints is broken.
To identify a specific place of blowing, it is enough to run the back of your hand along the perimeter of the frame, slopes, sashes and under the windowsill. In places of depressurization, air movement is felt. If you wet your hand, the sensitivity increases, and you can easily notice even small gaps.
For a visual assessment, you can use matches or a lighter. If there is a leak somewhere, you see how the flame deviates from the vertical. To avoid fire, do not bring fire to curtains and flammable objects.
Please note that the intensity of the draft is always different. It blows the most from the cracks in windy weather and at large temperature differences between the street and the room. It is necessary to look for a problem at this time.
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Reasons for blowing window blocks
To know exactly what to do if it blows from a plastic window, you need to understand in detail the possible malfunctions:
Wear of rubber seal. This is the most likely cause of the problem. The service life of the new rubber is 10 years, subject to constant prevention. Without maintenance, it can withstand about 5 years.
Wear of accessories. The trunnions have the positions “Winter” and “Summer”, which are designed for seasonal deformations of the material. If you leave them at the maximum porch, the resource of the mechanisms is reduced. At the first stage, the skew can be eliminated by adjustment.
The installation technology is broken. A draft appears when the foam joint is destroyed. If the foam was applied to a dusty wall, it will come off over time. The material not covered by the flashing will crumble in the sun. The most flagrant violation is the absence of a closed loop of insulation.
The draft of the building. The problem is typical for new buildings. In the first years after construction, the foundation always sags a little. If this happens unevenly, distortions appear.
Slope blowing. Adjacencies to window blocks should become a single heat-insulating circuit. It is better to trust their device to professionals. Otherwise, there is a risk of cracks and cracks.
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Blowing from plastic windows: how to eliminate the cause
Many problems can be solved on your own. But there are two cases in which it is better to trust experienced craftsmen:
Product under warranty. If defects are found during the warranty period, all work must be carried out with the consent or with the help of the installer’s masters. Unauthorized intervention may result in subsequent denial of warranty service.
Warming from the outside. If you live in a high-rise building, the work to restore the external slopes has to be carried out at a height. Residents of the first floors can use the ladder. If the apartment is located above the second floor, you have to work from an open window opening, which is very dangerous.
For those who want to eliminate blowing with their own hands, we will give step-by-step instructions for each of the faults.
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How to tighten the fittings of plastic windows so as not to blow
For the density of the porch of the sash to the frame, the eccentrics are responsible, which engage with the strikers. Installers leave them in the neutral position by default. But with the onset of cold weather or with a strong gusty wind, such pressure is not always enough. You have to install it yourself.
On the side there are pins that need to be adjusted in order to achieve the desired result. They have three positions:
Neutral. Installed at the factory. The mark (dot or notch) is located along the vertical axis.
Winter. The mark on the trunnion is turned towards the gum. This position provides maximum pressure.
Summer. The point or risk faces the street. This weakens the pressure for the summer season, which increases the service life of the sealing gum.
The trunnions are rotated using a No. 4 hex wrench, an asterisk or a screwdriver. There are several around the perimeter. The exact amount depends on the size of the sash.
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neutral position
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Position
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Position
When a house shrinks or structural elements sag over time, you may encounter skewed parts relative to each other. Eliminate it by adjusting the loops. We’ll show you how to do it right in the video.
How to eliminate blowing from under the glazing bead
The problem is rare and is a factory defect. Therefore, if the warranty has not yet expired, contact the installers. There may be several defects.
Usually the glazing bead just does not match the size. If its length is less than necessary, cracks form at the corners, at the junction. When the glazing bead is longer, after installation it does not fit well and puffs up. A defect may appear during operation. The clamping bar installed with excessive tension snaps off during thermal expansion.
In both cases, the bead must be replaced. You buy a new hold-down bar from the window company and cut it to size. Washed down at an angle is easy to do with a hacksaw and a miter box. It is useless to shorten the old long rail. Most often it is already deformed. And if not, it turns out to be very difficult to carefully cut it a couple of millimeters.
What to do if in a plastic window it blows from below from under the sash
If the adjustments described above did not solve the problem, then it is the wear of the sealing gum. In this case, you can see the following defects: rubbing, wrinkling, loss of elasticity. We select new tires according to the sample or type of profile system. We change in the following sequence:
By the handle we open the sash.
In the corner we hook the seal and tighten it around the perimeter until we reach the upper loop.
We move the sash to the “ventilation” position.
We take out the rest of the sealing rubber.
Thoroughly clean and wash the mounting groove.
The beginning of the new rubber is located at the top in the middle. We completely bypass the perimeter with a single contour. It is important to avoid excessive tension at the corners.
At the junction, we cut the rubber without undue tension or overlap.
Pull out both ends of the rubber band. We apply a drop of Moment glue on their lower parts and set them back.
Be sure to change the second sealing circuit, which is located on the frame. The principle of action remains the same.
The described method is suitable for tilt-and-turn opening. To repair conventional pivot windows, you must first remove the sash.
How to get rid of a draft from under the windowsill
Cold air can come directly from under the window sill or from the junction of the lower frame profile with the window sill. Both defects indicate violations in the construction of the foam joint. In new buildings, installers save foam by filling large gaps with construction debris.
The most correct solution is to dismantle the window sill and install it back with careful foaming of the seam. In this case, it is necessary to break the lower part of the slopes and restore them after repair. Therefore, this method is rarely used. To get by with the least damage, we carry out the work in the following order:
We break the plaster layer under the windowsill to a height of 5-10 cm.
We clean the mounting foam and construction debris from the seam. We leave only the stand bars on which the window sill lies.
Carefully foam the seam to the full depth.
After hardening, we restore the plaster and wallpaper.
The foam expands as it hardens. To prevent the window sill from lifting up, put something heavy on it.
If the work is carried out at a negative temperature, you need to use a special frost-resistant mounting foam.
This method is only suitable for shallow window sills. If it is more than 20-25 cm, it is very difficult to get to the frame installation plane. In some cases, the defect can be eliminated from the side of the street.
What to do when the plastic window blows from the side of the hinges
If a tight fit of the sealing rubber is ensured, the only possible defect is damage to the slopes. There is practically no blowing in plastered junctions. Therefore, we will tell you how to repair prefabricated slopes from sandwich panels. Let’s dismantle them first:
We remove the outer framing corners or profiles.
With a long knife or a hacksaw for wood, we cut the foam seam around the perimeter.
We remove the panels.
We clean the remaining foam from the wall and plastic.
After dismantling, we see the quality of installation of the window block itself. We evaluate it visually and set the points through which cold air enters the apartment. We remove the old foam in them and foam the joints again.
A draft may appear due to the formation of cracks in the wall under the plastic panels. If you find them, damaged areas need to be embroidered, primed and repaired with plaster.
After sealing the problem areas, we restore the slopes.
The problem may lie not only in the interior, but also in the exterior. In urban development, the outer slope is formed by a quarter in reinforced concrete panels or brickwork. But there is always a deformation foam joint between the wall and the PVC window profile.
The most common mistake is its improper sealing. Installers do not close the foam, leaving it in direct sunlight. Over time, it breaks down and crumbles. Fixing a broken adjoint node is simple:
With a knife or spatula, we take out the insulation from the gap.
Re-foam the seam.
After the composition has completely dried, cut off its protruding parts.
The gap is closed with a flashing or plastered.
These were the main malfunctions that you can fix with your own hands. You have learned how to adjust plastic windows so that they do not blow and you can now fix them if minor defects appear. We will give a few more recommendations that will help keep the heat in the house.
How to make an additional camera on a double-glazed window
Modern two-chamber systems reliably protect the house from any frost. The energy efficiency of older frames lags far behind them. Eliminating this shortcoming requires a complete replacement of the glazing, which is very expensive. A special thermal film becomes a budget solution to the problem. It is installed on the PVC profile in the following sequence:
Thoroughly wash the glass and frame.
Glue double-sided tape around the perimeter around the glazing beads with a single contour.
Remove the top protective strip from the adhesive tape and glue the film.
Cut off the excess with a utility knife.
We heat the material until the folds are completely smoothed out.
Thermal film creates an additional hermetic chamber that accumulates heat and reduces thermal conductivity. It retains light transmission and remains almost invisible.
Alternative ways to save energy
Technology does not stand still. Instead of increasing the number of cameras, increasing their volume and using expensive fillers, experts turned their attention to more budget solutions.
Thanks to the application of special coatings, multifunctional glasses are produced. From the inside, they create a barrier to thermal energy, reflecting it back into the room. A light tinting film delays ultraviolet and does not allow the room to overheat in the heat. At the same time, good light transmission is maintained.
Heated glass is an innovative development that is becoming more and more popular. On balconies and loggias they can be used instead of heating radiators.
