Southern California homes can shift over time. Earthquakes play a large role in this, but there are other factors that can contribute to structural movements. Soil shifts and settles with time, especially as it dries out and becomes compressed by the house. While it’s important to install windows and doors that are level, this can be challenging in a house that has moved, settled and shifted.
Window and door products that are especially sensitive, such as multi-slide doors, require calibration in order to be properly installed. It takes more than just adding a beam to ensure these fixtures are properly installed. It takes a team of experts to ensure perfect alignment. Skye Walls can perform proper installation of your windows and sliding door products. We value good installation techniques and strive to deliver the best value to our clients. Want to learn more? Read on.
The Consequences of Poor Installation
There are many consequences of poor installation of your windows & doors. These consequences can be long-reaching, and may affect you and other people in your household years into the future.
Air and Water Leaks
Poorly installed windows and doors have seams and exposed cracks that allow air and water to penetrate your home. Air and water leaks can lead to a variety of environmental problems inside your home, including:
- Water damage. Water that seeps into the walls of your home over time can cause staining as well as wood rot.
- Personal comfort. Air leaks can create hot spots and cold spots around your home’s windows, causing rooms to become stuffy and uncomfortable, or drafty and cold. Either way, you may notice temperature swings throughout the day, and may feel overall discomfort no matter what the time of year.
- Mold. When water penetrates your home’s walls, mold growth can take hold and spread in the walls of your home.
- Wood rot and structural damage. If the water leak is allowed to continue on for a long time, the very timbers that hold up your home may become soft and rotten. This kind of damage can be hard to find and repair, but if it’s not repaired, it can open up your home to other types of damage.
Air leaks can impact your home’s energy efficiency, causing parts of your house to swing to different temperatures in unpredictable ways. This can make your home particularly energy inefficient as your HVAC system struggles to keep up with the temperature changes happening inside. Ultimately, these air leaks your HVAC system could work harder and faster than might otherwise be necessary to keep your house comfortable. These problems can cause unnecessary wear and tear on your home’s HVAC system and may even shorten its service life.
Difficult Opening and Closing
Windows that aren’t properly installed may be difficult to open and close. If they’re hard to open and close when they’re first installed, they’re unlikely to get easier as time goes on. Poor functioning windows can devalue your home and reflect poorly on the quality of its structure. Should you decide to sell, these defects in your windows could be a strike against your home.
Energy Inefficiency
Safety Hazards
Anything that could cause rot, structural damage and mold in your home is a potential safety hazard. Mold is a health risk that can cause breathing problems and trigger allergic reactions. The CDC notes that exposure to mold can cause the following symptoms:
- Stuffy nose
- Wheezing
- Red or itchy eyes
- Red and itchy skin
Mold creates a hazardous indoor environment for people in your household. Mold growth can also impact your home’s value and does need to be remediated before the house could be sold.
Just how level a window is also impacts the home’s structural integrity, which means that a window that’s installed off balance or in conflict with the rest of the home’s structure could lead to structural weakness. Ultimately, poor window installation can do damage well beyond the windows themselves. This could have long-term negative consequences for your home’s structure generally – especially in earthquake-prone southern California.
The Benefits of Perfectly Level Installation
Level installation is an expectation for windows & doors, yet many installers are not careful during the installation process. If you’re hiring a window and door installer for your home, there are many reasons to hire a professional that cares about the quality of their craftsmanship and pays attention to details like perfectly level installation.
Remember that your house will shift over time. As the ground and soil beneath your house moves and compresses, so will your home’s structure. Windows that do not begin their service life properly installed will wear out faster and soon begin showing the signs of poor installation. Those seams between the windows and the building will only grow wider and your window’s fit will only grow worse. Starting from a place of poor installation leads to problems much faster and can shorten your window’s service life by years.
Improved Energy Efficiency
Level installation is good for energy efficiency. By keeping the seams around windows and doors to a minimum, installers create a tighter building envelope and improved energy efficiency around the house. Combined with high performance low-E glass and argon gas in between dual pane glazing, new window installation can improve your home’s energy efficiency dramatically.
According to Energy.gov, window heat gain and loss is responsible for 25%–30% of residential heating and cooling. Reducing this percentage can help control your home’s utility bills while reducing wear and tear on your home’s HVAC system. With fewer air leaks, your home’s air conditioner and furnace can work less while still maintaining a comfortable temperature around the house.
Increased Comfort and Safety
New window installation makes for a better indoor environment generally. Some examples of the type of improvements you might see in your home following new window installation:
- Fewer problems with hot spots, cold spots and stuffy rooms
- Stable temperature throughout the house, even in rooms with western and southern exposures
- Improved air quality due to fewer problems with mold and mold spores in the air
These types of improvements can boost your quality of life and make your home better for entertaining. These improvements can also contribute to better health within your home. With fewer worries about the hottest days in summer or the coldest days in winter, you can enjoy peace of mind knowing that your windows are weather and temperature resistant.
Enhanced Curb Appeal and Property Value
New windows nearly always improve your home’s curb appeal and property value, but this is doubly true when the new windows are well-installed by qualified experts. On-level windows look better for longer because they can truly withstand exposure to the elements and the day-to-day wear and tear that windows are subjected to.
Water stains, mold and mildew can all be the result when windows are not properly put in place. When these problems take their toll, your home value and curb appeal could both be diminished.
How Skye Walls Can Help
Skye Walls has always prioritized quality construction and installation for windows and doors. From folding patio door installation to windows of all types, Skye Walls installers are all specially qualified to install Skye Walls products. How are we different from other window dealers and installers?
We have in-house structural engineers that help create building plans to ensure the best possible installation. Structural engineers are responsible for analyzing the designs and support systems for your home. This type of analysis is important for ensuring that your home’s structure and stability will not be negatively impacted by your window installation. This helps ensure the safety of everyone in your home.
Why are structural engineers important?
The load-bearing walls in your home are designed to support your home’s structure. It’s vitally important that each window within those walls is well-placed and designed to maintain the delicate balance that allows your home to stay upright.
The larger the window, the more pressure is placed on other parts of your home’s structure. Everything from the size of the structure to the material the wall is made from must be taken into consideration when trying to design a house that can maintain structural integrity with the windows being installed.
Structural engineers make this happen. These professionals know everything from local building codes to the soil composition and how it impacts your home’s structural strength. They take all these factors into consideration with each order placed, and they work to ensure that each home is installed in a manner that is consistent, stable, and level. Structural engineers are uniquely qualified to ensure that your home remains sound and strong during your window installation.
Invest In Skye Walls
A perfectly level window is one of the keys to a successful window installation. Skye Walls knows how important this is, and that’s why we’re one of Southern California’s premiere window dealers and installers. Homeowners trust our work above others because we sell quality, energy-efficient products. Call today to make an appointment and learn more about how Skye Walls products could improve your home’s value as well as your quality of life.
