Before summer, what should we check on villa windows and sliding doors, ours leak warm air and one slider is stiff?
Heading into summer and our villa's aluminium windows and one big sliding door aren't right, we can feel warm air leaking in around the frames, and the slider has gone stiff and noisy to open. Before it gets brutal outside, what should we be checking on the windows and sliding doors so we're not just bleeding cool air and letting dust in? And is this usually a repair (seals, rollers) or does it mean replacing the units? Want to sort it before the AC's fighting the heat all day.
2 answers
Good timing to sort it before the heat, because leaky windows and doors make the AC work far harder. Check these: the rubber seals and brush strips around the frames and the slider (perished, flattened or gappy seals are the main air and dust leak); the rollers on the sliding door (stiff, noisy or dropping means worn rollers or a bent track); whether the door and windows sit square and lock properly; and the little drainage weep holes at the bottom of the frames, which clog with dust and cause leaks). The good news is almost all of that is a repair, not replacement, new seals, new rollers, a track clean and realignment usually restore a unit that feels shot, at a fraction of the cost of new glazing. Replacement's only really needed if the frame or the glass unit itself has failed. Getting glass works in Dubai to re-seal and re-roller the units before summer is what keeps the cool air in and the dust and bills down. Fix the seals and rollers now and the AC stops fighting the gaps.
We assumed our stiff, draughty slider needed replacing and a glazier just re-rollered it and replaced the seals for a fraction of the price, works like new now. Definitely try repair first on aluminium units, they're usually very fixable. And clean those weep holes, ours were completely clogged with dust and holding water.
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