Weather-stripping and Replacement Windows

Are you getting lots of bugs or critters crawling through the window? Do you have too much light, wind, or even bad smells coming through the cracks between your windows and the jamb? Are the replacement windows on your San Jose, CA home not doing their jobs?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you might need to add some weather-stripping to your replacement windows. Weather-stripping is a tight seal that is semi-permanently affixed to the sides and top of a replacement window. It’s designed to boost the window seal, acting as an airtight final layer that helps keep moisture, air, and other outdoor annoyances outside where they belong.

Weather-stripping offers a whole host of benefits for homeowners like you. Some of these benefits include:

• Reducing the intake of smells and noises from the outside into your home, from a neighbor’s loud lawnmower to the smell of a forgotten garbage or recycling bin
• Building an additional barrier against unwanted light
• An extra defense against insects, rodents, and other outdoor pests to prevent them from getting into your house
• Creating an effective air, water, and moisture barrier to help prevent leaks, drafts, and rainwater from getting into your home
• Adding to the replacement window’s energy efficiency, often saving 10% to 15% on your energy bills

Weather-stripping goes a long way in boosting your window’s energy efficiency, even if the window is already very efficient on its own. Weather-stripping can also be used as a verb to describe the act of applying a weather strip on a replacement window, or any other kind of home opening like exterior doors, patio doors, and more. While there are many different kinds of weather-stripping, in its noun form, most varieties have two main components: weather-stripping and a window bottom. The weather-stripping plugs air leaks and covers the top and sides of a window. The window bottom is a flat piece of material, usually plastic, aluminum, or stainless steel that’s fitted with a strip of plastic or nylon to serve as an air and moisture seal on the bottom of the window.

Weather-stripping comes in many different forms, but it is usually made of metal, felt, foam, plastic, vinyl, or silicone. Not all weather-stripping is made equal, as some kinds are not effective, or are made of materials that rip, compress, bend or wear down easily. You can find some replacement windows that come with weather-stripping pre-installed for your convenience. These modern windows have weather-stripping that is resilient in the face of years of use and offers compression resistance, shrink, or stretch prevention, sound absorbance, and resistance to mold, mildew, and rot.

Although weather-stripping is an extremely important aspect of your window system – not all replacement windows come with weather-stripping. California Custom Creations is here to help if you need more efficient San Jose, CA replacement windows. You can pay us a visit to see options in person or give us a call to learn more about what we can do for you and your windows.