Tired of the mold lining the cracks of your window frame? Unfortunately, a moldy window frame is a common problem for people – especially those in older housing. The question people are asking is, why? Why is your window frame molding, and how do you prevent it from happening? The answer is actually fairly straightforward. Let’s see what’s causing your window mold problem and how to fix it.

Long-Term Accumulation

The good news is, some of you homeowners are simply dealing with long-term accumulation. If you don’t have cleaning your window frame on your chore list, it’s possible that your windows have simply been growing mold for years. A little bit of moisture is all a window frame needs to start accumulating mold in the cracks and crevices. If left to its own devices, that mold can spread across the window track and leave it looking coated in grime. The solution is to simply buy some mold killer or a powerful cleaning spray and clean the window track out.

Rapid Accumulation

If cleaning your window frame has only temporarily solved your problem and mold has returned in less than a year, you are dealing with rapid accumulation. This isn’t caused by simply time; it’s a sign that your windows aren’t doing so great. Let’s look at why that is.

Window Insulation

Modern windows are made with two panes of glass. The space between those two panes is filled with an insulating gas. This insulating gas is heavier than air, which makes it hard for temperature to pass from the outdoors to the indoors, or vice versa.

As windows age, the seal between the window panes and window frame begins to weaken. As it weakens, the insulating gas can leak out. When the insulating gas is diminished or has leaked out entirely, you’re left with an uninsulated window.

Old Windows Cause Mold

When old windows have lost their insulatory properties, they become susceptible to two things: moisture leakage and temperature leakage. Both contribute to window mold.

Let’s start with moisture leakage. If the seal between your window panes has been damaged or weakened, rain water can begin to leak into the space between window panes. You can tell if this is happening if, on warm days, you can see condensation on the inside of your window panes. You can frequently spot this moisture along the edges of the panes. This is not a normal occurrence with functioning windows. This moisture can than cause mold growth between the window panes or further seep past the second pane and into the window track, encouraging mold growth there as well.

Next, we have temperature leakage. You know how a cold glass of lemonade will sweat with condensation on a hot, summer day? If windows aren’t properly insulated, they’ll do the same thing during winter. The cold temperature outside, if not mitigated by insulation, will leave both panes of your window cold to the touch. This cold will draw condensation from your warm interior toward the window. This is why your windows may fog up when it’s cold out. And, as the condensation collects, it will run down the windows and into the window track, leading to window frame molding.

Replacing Old Windows

The only solution for rapid window frame molding is to replace old or damaged windows. Aluplex offers high quality windows to the GTA and we look forward to helping you with your window replacement. Improve the appearance of your home and the quality of your air by ridding your home of window frame molding. Call us today if you have questions about our windows or the installation process.

Want to make your business interior more compelling for those who drop in? Designing a new shop or office that you want to blow away the competition? Let’s take a moment to talk about one of the often overlooked design elements of a business interior: the windows. In fact, let’s specifically talk about high windows and their benefits. High windows come with a lot of upsides that most people aren’t aware of. Let’s make sure you’re not one of those people.

Improved Lighting

Tall windows that reach up toward the ceiling of your interior may seem excessive. However, they do come with quite a few benefits, the first of which is improved lighting. One of the most overlooked parts of interior design is natural lighting. People simply love the clear and natural feeling of sunlight through a window. When compared to people’s opinion of electric lights, there’s a clear winner. Businesses with a lot of natural light are preferred destinations to those that feel more closed off and reliant on bulbs.

Opting for taller windows allows more of this beloved sunlight to make its way indoors, providing great light for reading, eating, seeing the faces of coffee dates, and so much more. In office spaces increased natural light can also improve employee morale and even mental health.

Greater Curb Appeal

High windows improve business exteriors as well. If you saw two shops, one with a small window, covered in cheap blinds, and one with tall windows, perhaps with a set of nice shades in front of them, which do you suppose you’d be drawn to? For most people, the answer is the latter. People love tall windows as much from the outside as they do from the inside. 

Exterior Visibility

One such reason that people enjoy tall windows on the exterior of a building is because of the improved visibility. You don’t know what lies behind that small window with the cheap blinds. However, tall windows are happy to reveal the contents of a shop. Seeing the smiling faces or beautiful displays on the other side of a tall window is great for luring in potential customers.

High Class Feeling

We can’t overlook the psychological perspective on tall windows. People don’t just like them because they offer more sunlight. They’re also loved for offering a higher class feeling to an interior. Perhaps this impression is leftover from the days when glass was harder to afford. No matter how you look at it, sitting next to a window that stretches high above you feels undoubtedly high class. 

Rely on Aluplex

When you’re in the market for glass, Aluplex is Toronto’s #1 choice. Give us a call if you need custom windows for your business or office. We look forward to providing you with high quality glass and installation services.

Bay windows are an oft-romanticized feature of large houses – for good reason, too! These beautiful bay windows allow a wide view of the surrounding area as well as provide a place for décor or seating. They’re functional and beautiful and provide quite a lot of character to an otherwise ordinary home. With that in mind, we, at Aluplex, are wondering: have you considered bay windows for your luxury bathroom?

A Bigger Bathroom

Having a bathroom with an exterior wall big enough for a bay window isn’t the experience everyone has. However, even in medium-sized bathrooms, if you have that exterior wall space, you can make your bathroom feel huge.

Bay windows create a luxury bathroom. When you give a relatively small space a large window, you borrow some of the vastness of the outdoors. Make your bathroom feel like a retreat. Windows have enough spacial magic to make that happen.

Better Lighting

One of the immediate benefits of adding a bay window to a bathroom is the improved lighting. Bulbs can give you visibility, but they often make a room look yellow or so fluorescent that you feel like you’re under stage lights. Nothing can beat an open flow of daylight.

This lighting is generally a plus, but is even more of an improvement when you’ve been staying inside a lot. With our current inability to go out in public on a whim, getting to lie in the bath under the morning sunlight can be incredibly therapeutic.

Beautiful Views

Because bay windows aren’t flush with the wall, they provide a lot more visibility than other windows. A bay window by the bathtub will allow you to look out over a garden, a pond, your own well-maintained backyard, and more. Getting the chance to enjoy the outdoors from the comfort and warmth of your evening bath is a wonderful experience that everyone deserves to have at least once.

Improved Shelving

Bathtubs often don’t have much space around them for storing things. Shower/tub combos usually have built in shelving, but a free-standing tub is not as well-equipped. Placing a bay window with a waterproof shelf at its base will give you a great place to store bathtime necessities. Decorate your windowsill with plants, a bowl of soaps, fancy pump bottles, or just everyday shampoos. You’ll have plenty of space for all of your things and won’t have to fumble around in the dark to find any of them.

Ordering Quality Bay Windows

The question then comes down to: where do you get bay windows for your luxury bathroom? If you live in Toronto, the answer is an easy one. Aluplex is the leading provider of windows in the GTA. Our quality glass gives a crystal clear view of the outside while providing the insulation and longevity of something utilitarian. Give us a call if you’d interested in ordering bay windows in Toronto today.

Tired of your windows always ending up with streaks on them? Cleaning a window so that it ends up shining and streak free can be a mysterious thing. However, Aluplex is Toronto’s neighborhood expert on windows, so we have a solution or two. Here’s how to clean windows without leaving streaks.

Time of Day

The first reason your windows are getting streaks when washing them is something most people don’t know. The time of day can make a big difference in how your windows clean up. If you’re washing your windows in the warmer half of the year, like most people do, wait until evening to wash them. 

The heat of the sunlight can warm up the windows, making the cleaning solution dry too fast for you to wipe away. This is one of the leading causes of streaky windows. It seems natural to wash your windows when it’s nice and sunny outside. Around noon is the perfect time to get some chores done and it’s so convenient that the sun lets you see where all the dirty spots are. Unfortunately, using the afternoon sun to light your way will only end up adding to the mess being highlighted on your windows. 

Wash your windows in the evening, when the window has cooled off. Then, the cleaning solution will take much longer to evaporate, giving you plenty of time to do the next steps in window-washing.

Dust First

Before spraying any solution onto your windows, start by dry-wiping them. Using some paper towels or a clean, lint-free cloth (microfiber works especially well) wipe the windows down completely. This will clear off any dust along the window’s surface, which is important if you want to clean windows without leaving streaks. Dust is a common culprit to causing streaks. Once it gets wet, it clumps together and drags little dust particles all over the glass.

Apply and Dry

When it’s time to spray on some cleaning solution, start spraying at the top of the window. Give a few good sprays with cleaner before wiping horizontally across the glass with some paper towels. Paper towels are much better at drying than cloth, as they’re ultra absorbent. Plus, if you’re using an eco-friendly cleaning solution, like vinegar, they can be composted.

To avoid streaks, you must dry your window effectively. That means making your horizontal movements tilt back and forth, going over the edge of the last swipe with each new motion. As the cleaning solution runs from the top of the window to the bottom, you’ll be able to dry it and wash at the same time, all in one go. Ensuring all of the solution is dried off is the final step to getting streak-free windows.

Aged Windows

One hurdle that can really cause problems for window appearance is old windows. Old windows can have all kinds of microscopic damage that leads to fogginess or a lack of clarity when looking through. More washing won’t solve this problem. If your windows are outdated and you’re really looking for that bright, clear view of the outdoors, new windows are the answer. Give us a call at Aluplex if you’re in the market, and we’ll be happy to assist.

Many old homes have been changed in many ways throughout the years. Part of the reason is that old homes are usually bought and lived in by one family for a long time – sometimes for generations. One timeless way to improve a long-term home is by converting an outdated and unused porch into a porch enclosure, or sunroom. Unfortunately, after many years of serving their owners faithfully, the windows in these enclosed porches must be replaced, just like those in the rest of the house, to preserve insulation. Here’s why you should replace porch enclosure windows.

Stabilize Temperature

To start, you should know that your porch enclosure windows are a vital part of stabilizing the temperature in your home. All windows in the house are weak points for insulation. Because your porch enclosure has a lot of windows, it’s easy for it to become the weakest link. This is especially true considering people often forget to replace the windows there.

The reason why windows are so important to insulation is because of how they’re made. Old windows are often made of a single pane of glass. These single panes do very little to keep out heat or cold. More modern windows are made with two panes of glass with a layer of insulating gas between them. This insulating gas is heavier than air, making it harder for the heat or cold to travel through it. 

Even if your porch enclosure windows were put in a few decades ago and are double-paned and insulated, this insulating gas leaks out over time. Once the gas has escaped the windows, they no longer insulate much at all. This is why replacing old windows is so important.

Save Money

With stabilizing the interior temperature comes saving yourself money. Because insulation does such a good job blocking out unwanted heat and cold from the outdoors, it keeps your heater or air conditioner from having to run so much. This can save you a significant amount of money on your electric or gas bill. As you can see, buying new windows is a truly worthwhile investment into your home. If you plan to live there for a while longer, it’s always worth it to get new windows sooner, rather than later.

Improve Appearance

Lastly, when you replace porch enclosure windows, you are making a massive improvement to your sunroom. Because closed porches are often the product of decades past, the windows in them can begin to look rather aged. This is especially true if your porch is home to plantlife or if it’s been neglected for a while. Aged windows in a room with low insulation and potentially years of neglect can look pretty bad. 

Older windows without a good seal on the panes can gather condensation between the panes. This condensation rarely wants to go away. Even when it’s not dripping down the panes, it’s often fogging up the edges. Moreover, because of the moisture issues with older windows, they frequently harbor mold. Not only does mold look terrible on your window, it can spread to the windowsill and then even further.

Shop Aluplex

If you want a new set of windows to improve the appearance and functionality of your sunroom, replace porch enclosure windows with Aluplex glass. Our windows are high quality and affordable, making the ideal replacements. Call us today if you have any questions about replacement and installation services.

If you’ve been researching ways to improve your security or the safety of your home, you might have heard of window film. The next question you may have is, “Does window film damage windows?” However, this is not a yes or no question. Let’s take a look at how window film can affect your windows.

What Is Window Film?

If you don’t know what window film is, let’s take a moment to get you up to speed. Window film is a thin coating applied to windows to strengthen them. This makes them more able to stand up to impact, storms, and intentional attempts at damage, such as during a break-in.

This film is similar to a phone screen protector in that it’s clear and is applied across the window to protect it. Although, in the end, it isn’t just protecting the window; it’s also protecting you, your family, and your belongings.

How Is It Applied?

In order to understand how window film can affect your windows, you need to know how it’s applied. Window film is created using layers of laminated, polyester film. One side is coated in an incredibly strong adhesive while the other has a scratch-resistant coating. The resulting film is completely transparent and is applied to the inside of a window.

The application process is not as simple as sticking the film to the window. You must clean the window of any dust or debris, thoroughly, then apply the film very carefully so as not to trap air or dirt. Any air bubbles or dirt particles trapped between the film and window will remain stuck there. Trying to remove window film after its adhesive has adhered to the glass may result in sticky residue being left behind. This may remain visible after reapplying the film, unless the remaining residue is successfully removed. Therefore, it’s best for professionals to be the ones installing window film.

Bonding

After the window film is applied, the adhesive takes 24 hours to bond completely to the window. Once this bonding has happened, removing window film is nearly impossible. If one does manage to get the film off, there will residual parts of the adhesive left that will be basically impossible to remove or clean off.

The Answer?

So, does window film damage windows? If you try to apply window film and fail to apply it correctly, you may be able to remove adhesive residue before it bonds to the glass. This will require chemical solvents to do.

If you try to remove window film after it has already bonded to the glass, your window will remain solid, but not attractive nor entirely functional.

However, if you are wondering how window film interacts with the window, rather than removing it, the outlook is completely positive. Window film does not hurt your window by bonding to the glass. It is proven to increase the durability as well as improve safety, should any window break. The security benefits are undeniable as well. Nothing about the adhesive bonding to the glass will harm the glass, even after many years. The most important thing is to hire a professional, should you want this kind of film applied. Messing up installation can lead to permanent flaws due to trapped substances or the remaining adhesive, should you remove it.

Window Replacements

Should you remove window film and find your windows in a terrible state, Aluplex will have your back. Our windows are high quality and strong, even without window film reinforcements. Give us a call if you need new windows today.