Wood Windows

All those natural finished wood windows set against the beige stucco, the green grass and the woodlands behind, not to mention the world-class architecture…this house and its setting may be worthy of a painting, don’t you think?

And while we must confess to the obvious aesthetic appeal of naturally finished wood windows…they do not weather well in the Willamette Valley unless thoroughly protected from direct exposure to moisture.

And even then, they would need to be touched up every couple years or so wherever they were exposed to direct sunlight. And yes, those are “True-Divided-Lite” windows. No Simulated-Divided-Lites here.

Case in point: almost every single window on the south and east elevations of this house are showing water penetration. This was among the tamest evidences.

This was among the worst, and (we were told) this structure is just over a decade old.

So we were consulted and then contracted to re-glaze the bottom (and some sides) of every window (pane) shown in these photos, plus the ones beneath the other gable at the other end of the house shown in photo #1. And by re-glaze, we’re talking about taking the sticking off the bottom, and many along the sides and really re-glazing the glass on the exterior. Not simply CAP-GLAZING.
Yes, that’s a radius-glass window. You might want to enlarge this photo.

We’re thankful for the work, we really are. We’re a little mystified at the architects and builders who are apparently not privy to these limitations of related physics. Maybe they’re from the sunbelt where Willamette Valley type weather is a non-issue.

Our client, the property owner expressed his mystification over his expensive windows having these kinds of problems already.

There are those who probably think we should keep our mouths shut and just be grateful for the never ending source of revenue. Well, we’re grateful. But there are limitations to the satisfaction that can be realized when you’re profiting off the “easily avoidable” misfortune of your fellowman.

There’ll always be the need for door and window repairs, but this just seems excessively wasteful. These windows will never stop having these type of problems. We slowed down the 2nd law of thermodynamics, but mother nature will trounce these windows.