A drafty window makes for an uncomfortable home. In winter, the drafts send cold air drifting through your home, causing cold spots and high utility bills. In summer, the cool air you want inside ends up outside as it leaks through those same gaps, again causing high utility bills along with strain in your air conditioning system.
If you've tried to fix these drafts by doing the match test, where you hold a lit match up to see where the leak might be, and then patching that spot, it can be frustrating to find that you still feel those annoying drafts. If you've gone through those lists that are online of ways to stop drafts and you still feel one, chances are you'll need to call a professional window repair company to find the source of the draft.
Repairing Instead of Replacing
Unless something is visibly wrong with the window, always try repairs first. Sometimes the reason for the draft seems small but is difficult to repair, such as when a defect in a dual-pane window allows all the insulating gas out. That's hard to fix, so a replacement would be appropriate there (hopefully covered by a warranty). But a gap between the frame and the wall, a strip of old caulking that's cracked, or any number of other causes can be repaired. And even if you can't figure out how to stop the draft, a repair person still can in many cases.
Repeat the Match Test
First, with all your fixes now in place, repeat the match test. You want to be sure that you're not just feeling a draft through a fix you made that wasn't very good (it happens to everyone). If you find that one of your fixes didn't hold, just try making the fix again. If you find a new draft that requires a simple fix, attempt to fix it. Sometimes fixing a bunch of big drafts can let those little drafts suddenly become obvious.
Call the Professionals
If you're still baffled, if the second match test found nothing, or if you just can't seem to stop a draft in a particular spot, call a window repair company. There's no sense in spending more time on the window than you have to. The company will send a repair person out; they may repeat the match test or do something similar. But they will find the cause and either fix it, or let you know that a replacement is necessary.
Repairs for drafty windows can be frustrating, but once they're complete, you're going to feel so much better. Don't give up if you can't find the source of a draft. A window repair company can fix it for you.
For more information or to schedule with a professional, contact a local company.
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