Dog broke window! Serious!
In her dedication to the mission of saving our home from the seemingly vicious dogs and puppies walking innocently by on the street, our dog ran into our double paned vinyl window and smashed the inner pane. Bad dog and all that, but what are our options now? Not for the dog, she’s fine, but…
In her dedication to the mission of saving our home from the seemingly vicious dogs and puppies walking innocently by on the street, our dog ran into our double paned vinyl window and smashed the inner pane. Bad dog and all that, but what are our options now? Not for the dog, she’s fine, but for the sash. It’s only the innner pane of the lower sash. Park Slope glass quoted us $189 to replace just the glass, but I am not sure how they plan to deal with restoring the vacuum/ gas filled space between the two panes by just replacing the glass. Any recommendations or ideas?
What I intended to indicate was the mechanism in a double hung double pane window that holds the window sash in place when you open it. This is some sort of a spring which is streched when the window is shut and then relaxes when the windows are opened. Since, for most of the year, this ‘spring’ is under tension it loses it’s ability to hold the window open after some years. Hence, you can often see double pane double hung windows held up by wooden boards or rods, etc. since, the upper sashes slide down if the window is not locked.
Single pane double hung windows have chains/ cords and weights which help lower and raise the sashes. Except for the cords breaking, these mechanisms are much more durable. Interestingly, the OHJ had a recent article on making single pane windows more efficient.
Link below:
http://www.oldhousejournal.com/magazine/2004/oct/strips.shtml
Anon 7:36:
If the seals are all perfect then a single pane window with storm should perform significantly BETTER than a typical IGU alone, because a single pane window with storm window is then similar to an IGU with a very deep airspace = better insulating value.
What do you mean by “spring mechanism” associated with double pane? Springs have nothing to do with single vs. double pane. Are you referring to double hung?
As an aside, that’s what the window replacement industry would have you believe. That single pane windows are much less efficient than double pane windows. They do unfair comparisons between leaky poorly maintained single panes without storms and double panes. Some double panes made of aluminum are actually very poor insulators and can be worse than well maintained, properly glazed, weatherstripped and restored wooden single pane windows with storms. If you do a heat loss calculation, the software actually has higher insulating values for single pane windows with storms, than double panes. There are preservation briefs and several posts on the OHJ website that talk about this. Single pane windows have survived for hundreds of years, double panes need replacement due to the spring mechanism failing every so many decades.
Sorry, to get on a soapbox, but this is an issue that bugs me, since many people just rip out windows that are historic, and actually could work, given some elbow grease and TLC.
Single pane windows are NOT good! Very inefficient from an energy standpoint. It is actually required to have double pane windows in NYC now. You may want to just replace the window since it was in your future plans anyway. Unless you are inherently handy, you don’t want to do this yourself. You need to make sure a professional seals the window very well or you’ll get air infiltration through the cracks and in that case you might as well just leave a hole in the wall and pay to heat and cool the outside of your building.
OP here: I do not think it was filled with gas. How would I replace the inside pane. Wish these were old single pane windows, I have replaced broken glass on several of those.
anon 11:37, thanks for your link. sounds complicated though. have you actually done this?
i am thinking of replacing the window now (was on the cards, since the living room windows do not resemble the grid patterns of the upstairs windows which are original to the house) and trimline has nice pine windows with grilles, etc. anyone have experience with these? any installers you would recommend or can I DIY it?
Is your window actually filled with gas (like Argon) to increase the insulating properties or is it just an air space? If it is filled with Gas, you need to replace the entire two panes. If just filled with air, they only need to replace the inside pane.
The “double pane glass” you’re talking about is an IGU (insulating glass unit). (As an aside, note that is often incorrectly called “insulated”, while “insulating” is correct.)
An IGU is typically two pieces of glass with a spacer between. You need to replace the entire IGU, not just the inner glass. The following link will give you some general knowledge of what’s involved, even if you don’t do the work yourself.
http://www.handymanclub.com/document.asp?dID=762
Go to All United Window Corp. on Classon Avenue and Park Avenue at the edge of Clinton Hill. They will fix it for you for $50.
Whatever you do, don’t let Park Slope Glass anywhere near it. Unless you want to wait several weeks and have a shoddy finished product.