Window repair

This has become a regular phone call for us, generally early in the morning after (surprisingly) a rainy night.

“Can you please help us?  We woke up this morning and there was water leaking from the window.  We have put buckets out and towels to mop up the water but it is still raining and water is coming in our house”

It happened 4 times yesterday and again first thing this morning.  We want to help and give you peace of mind and I thought it would make sense to post about the process.

First, I will ask you a series of questions

• How old is your house? How old are the windows?
• Has this ever happened in this spot before, to your knowledge?
• Is the window underneath a dormer or large roof overhang or close to any angles and flashing or junction of brick/siding/stucco?
• When were your eavestroughs last cleaned/inspected?
• Did you recently have any work done on the exterior or interior of your house? (roof, new windows, exterior or interior caulking, capping, flashing etc.)
• Have you called your insurance company? (more about this later)

Depending on the answers, I usually try to dig deeper to find out over the phone what the possible sources are.  Generally, there needs to be an initial inspection done on site, at which point we can make some suggestions.  I usually tell people to call their insurance company first off to describe the problem, as your insurance company wants to make sure that the least amount of damage happens, so they have a lower potential payout.  For example, if you have hardwood floors, and the water is seeping into them at a fast rate, it is in the insurance company’s best interest to get to your problem faster, or they possibly have to pay to have your floors redone.

An initial visual inspection costs $175 + HST and includes a question process on site, a visual inspection from inside and from the ground or stepladder (up to 10 ft) and a checklist of potential reasons that we go through.  The inspection is carried out by a construction professional, well versed in all aspects of home building, repair and maintenance.  If further inspection is warranted (roof, dormers, flashing, behind drywall etc.) adjustments will be made to the inspection fee to diagnose the problem.   Depending on how invasive we need to be, this amount need to be determined as we progress with the inspection.  This fee is dependent on the house and the location of the leak, and the initial assessment as to potential origin of the leak.

Please call us to help you with your leaking issue.  We will ensure that the right people get to your home to find the source.  Sometimes the source of the leak is obvious, and there is a straightforward repair to rectify the problem.  With water, however, it is not always cut and dry finding the problem, and in some cases, extensive inspection is required to determine the source of the leak.   We will work with your insurance company if need be to find a solution and repair the leak.  Our workers are fully insured and we carry $2 million in commercial and general liability insurance.  We are committed to helping our clients with all their home repair and maintenance needs.

Lakeshore Home Maintenance – 289-242-8439

If you have called us about replacing a window crank, these are the instructions to measure the crank.

If your window can be opened and closed (manually), take a tape measure and measure the long arm and of the crank as below:

How to measure window crank for replacement

And if there is a short arm, measure as below:

How to measure a window crank short arm

Some cranks only have one arm, and some will have different configurations.  Information that is helpful is:

1. Whether the window opens to the right or to the left

2. Wood or vinyl windows

3. Quantity of cranks that need to be replaced (volume discount for 3 or more windows)

4. Age of house and windows

Call us at 289-242-8439 and we can coordinate the replacement of your cranks.

The pictures on this page are courtesy of our valued clients, George and Glenna.  Thank you so much for your great photography skills!

Time for a basic post on window repairs.  Cracked, moisture, won’t open? Read on.

Is your window Broken?

Funny, when we started this business 4 years ago, we figured that we wouldn’t get one call for window repair after December 1st, until the early spring when people start opening windows again.  We were so wrong!  For some reason, people open their windows in the winter, just as much as in the spring and summer.  Our theories on this range from excessive cooking (and burning – hence window opening) to that awesome Canadian mentality that there is no air like fresh air – we agree!

But there are TWO panes of glass and moisture between them…what do we do?

We replace the thermal unit!  NO need to replace the whole window (but this is what a window company will tell you.)  Sorry peeps, we don’t sell windows  We repair them.  This is a bad word in the window sales business.  Want to know a secret?? 90% of problems with windows can be repaired by us.  For the 10%, yes, you will need new windows, but that is truly a last resort!

Broken window cranks.  Window opens but won’t close…Closes but won’t open…

Mark my words… (and please, quote me and test this theory) “we have not found a window crank yet that we could not replace and fix”. As my kids would say…True say!  Never happened.  We keep waiting to be stumped, but we love a challenge, and even when faced with the challenge from people that they have been “trying for years to get this fixed” we fix it.  We’re just awesome…I can say that cause we kinda are when it comes to window crank repairs.  If your crank doesn’t work, call us and we’ll get it working.  To facilitate the process, we ask you to send us one of these pics (see post) that will allow us to being the right hardware to do the repair.

Proper measurement of window crank hardware

While your hardware might look the same, there are numerous different sizes and styles and having an image really helps.  If you can’t open the window, we understand.  If you can though, its super helpful!

Window hanging by a thread?  Wind ripped it off while it was open? No problem

Seriously, can you tell how much fun we have with this stuff?  Craziest call we had from a lady  in the Oak Park area of Oakville who had her THIRD floor window open on a windy day.  Wind darn near ripped that puppy off the house.  It was literally hanging at an angle by the top.  Shoulda taken a picture but I was not in the blogging frame of mind.  We fixed it.  Window reattached with new hardware and everybody happy.

Final words of wisdom… Ask yourself.  Do I want to pay $1000 to fix my window, or $200.  You decide.  289-242-8439.  Experienced, Insured, and Insanely good at what we do. Serving the Oakville, Mississauga and Burlington areas.

Window repair – what does that mean? Contrary to popular belief, windows can be repaired. In fact, all windows can be repaired…of course in some cases it makes more sense to replace but you can always ask us first before calling a window company. To date…we have not found a window that we couldn’t fix. That’s right, we have replaced many thermal units (The two panes of glass separated by an airspace), window cranks, window slides and of course, the actual window frame. The only way to learn these skills is by doing window repairs. Every window is a little different, and when you have fixed as many as we have, the time to fix them is reduced each time based on our ever growing knowledge of each manufacturer. After you have investigated the problem, determined the best course of action for repair, you then need to aquire the damaged part from local companies. Fortunately we have worked years searching and creating strong relationships with local suppliers that have helped us every step of the way.

Window repair is not rocket science, but it is a skill that we have honed and have become the resource for Oakville residents to come to for their window repair needs.

Call us today for all your window needs at 289-242-8439