Window Condensation: What Your Windows Are Telling You
Condensation is normal on windows for short periods, especially when winter starts. But ongoing moisture on your windows can be a sign of trouble.
If you don’t deal with prolonged moisture problems, you can end up with mold, mildew and rot. This harms the window frame and trim, and your home’s air quality.
Here is an overview of what your windows are telling you when condensation forms.
Too Much Moisture
If condensation regularly forms around the corners and bottom of your windows, you have a humidity issue. You need to let the moisture out and let in dry air. Two ways to fix this are:
- Turn on an exhaust fan, like the one in your bathroom
- Or open one of your windows for 15 to 20 minutes a day
Bad Seals
If you have dual pane windows, you shouldn’t see moisture collect between the two sections of glass. It indicates that the seal has broken down, letting in air from outside. The trapped air causes moisture, which leads to a foggy appearance on the glass.
Leaking Gas in Double Pane Windows
Do you notice condensation in the center of a double-pane window within your home? Most likely, argon gas is leaking between the two panes. This makes the glass bend inward. It can even cause the two panes of glass to touch.
Argon is an insulating component. Since it is leaking, your windows are no longer effective and they need to be replaced.
Swollen Wood
If you have difficulty opening or closing a window with a wood frame, it’s probably because the wood is swollen with moisture. Reduce the humidity in your home. Over time, the wood will shrink to its normal size and the windows will be easy to open and close.
Leak in Your Roof or Siding
Does your window shut firmly but you see water inside? Is the water at the top? The trouble is probably caused by a leak in your roof or your siding. Water is dripping down and entering at your window.
If you have any questions about a energy efficient windows for your home, call Lynnrich Siding today.
Summer Storms and Roof Damage
Summer will be here in Billings before you know it, and while the warmer days and longer night make such an appealing daydream, it also means that dramatic hail storms, violent lightning storms, and even possible tornadoes are upon us. It may not be all that bad, unless you are someone who has had to struggle with an insurance company to cover your end of a replacement roof.
If you are concerned about damage to your roof from a storm, give Lynnrich a call to evaluate your roof for you, and Lynnrich can even help you to take the next steps with your insurance company to ensure that your home stays protected from the elements with a functional roof. Document, document, document… Document the damages to your roof , so that your insurance company can’t question the how or when damage happened.
Determine if your roof has been damaged
You should be able to check the majority of damage from the street or yard of your home. Obviously the best thing would be to walk the roof and check for damage up close. But the roof can be a dangerous place, and you may just want to call Lynnrich for an up close inspection. But, if you want to do the preliminary check on your own, head out to the street or backyard—if you’re in the street please be sure to check for cars—and inspect the roof.
With all of the hailstorms that we’ve encountered in the past few years, check to if the hail has taken out entire sections of asphalt shingles. Also, shingles will bruise or dent from hail, although these dents or bruises are not always visible. A set of binoculars to check the roof can be beneficial. Don’t forget to check the downspouts of gutter for grit that has been pelted from the shingles during the storm.
Even if you cannot see damage from the street, in the event that there is grit from the shingles either in the downspouts, on the ground at the base of downspouts, or in the gutters, it may be time to call a professional to check your roof. If you have spotted damage to your roof post-storm, make sure to document the damage, if possible, with photographs.
If your home or business suffered damage in any hail storm, please contact Lynnrich today!
Steel Siding Cleaning Tips
Steel siding has so many benefits, and one, which is often overlooked, is its ability to clean up well, with little effort. Vinyl siding shows signs of weathering and wear, and it’s difficult to clean, because it’s not the most durable material. Right now, here in Montana, we’re coming out of the winter months into spring, into the months when weather is unpredictable and storms can bring huge wind gusts that feel as if they will shake the house from the foundation. In that weather, not only will steel siding protect your home, but it can also be cleaned easily (consider all that debris—dirt and grime—being tossed against your house in spring winds). Here’s the best way to do it.
Cleaning Steel Siding
Steel Siding is more durable than, say, vinyl, so using a power washer is recommended—considering you have a power washer at the ready. A power washer may put holes in vinyl siding, the pressure may break free the panels from one another. The best part is that there are no chemicals needed (in fact, the chemicals used to clean vinyl or even wood sidings, can damage steel siding) and just a simple solution of warm, soapy water will work best.
Obviously, a power washer works well, because its direct spray can be angled and concentrated on areas. Go over a section of the siding with the power washer, then use a long-handled broom to scrub free the dirt and debris. Once the siding has been scrubbed well, simply turn back on the power washer. Continue to work this way: breaking the entire house into small, manageable sections, and then, once a section is cleaned, you can leave it to air dry.
A few tips for using a power washer
If you have never used a power washer, try it on an area that you won’t damage: concrete on the driveway, for instance. Because power washers live up to their name—power washer—understand that it may be difficult at first to control. Keep practicing, and make sure you feel comfortable using the power washer, before you turn its spray loose on the house.
If you have any questions about a steel siding for your home, call Lynnrich Siding today.
Rain Gutters Care Tips
Rain gutters are one of the most overlooked and undervalued protections on your home. You don’t notice them, they work unfailingly (that is until you don’t maintain them and they fail), and they protect your home by carrying water away from the home’s foundation. Water that drains into the home’s foundation can cause damage. Water damage can be extremely expensive.
Rain gutters can become damaged when they are improperly installed, or when they are left unchecked and uncleaned for lengths of time. Oftentimes, rain gutters that are not cleared of leaves in the fall, can back up with un-drained water, and that water can freeze and refreeze in the winter months, damaging the gutter systems and sparking the potential for the devastating ice dam. Rain gutters should be installed with downspouts that progress to elbows which move the water out and away from the home.
If your home’s rain gutters are damaged, or have just survived one too many Montana winters to be effective, it may be time to consider a new gutter system at Lynnrich.
Lynnrich sells seamless rain gutters that seemingly blend into the home’s façade. These gutter systems carry water effectively from the home’s foundation, and maintain a home’s curb appeal in the process. Because the gutters are installed by professionals, and heavy duty hardware is used to attach the gutters to the home, there is little chance for sagging. Seamless gutters also use seamless hangers, so the old, more invasive and noticeable, method of hanging gutters is obsolete. Also, certain products such as gutter guards, which prevent leaves and grass from going into the gutters and clogging them, while, at the same time, allowing water through, make the gutters practically maintenance-free.
The gutters sold at Lynnrich come in numerous color choices to match or contrast with your home’s siding. Also, even though the gutters are seamless and maintenance free, gutters will still include elbows, downspouts, and miters that travel water away from the foundation.
If you have any questions about a new gutter system for your home, call Lynnrich Siding today.
Winter Roofing Care Tips
Icicles hanging from the roof can appear beautiful, like a nostalgic image of winter. But icicles, especially an abundance of icicles are also a sign of a poorly ventilated roof. And an ice dam on the roof can be a big problem. Ice dams can damage the roof shingles, the siding, the soffit, tear out the gutters, even drip down water into your home, drip water into the walls, through electrical wiring, etc.—it’s a big problem. But, there are ways to fix an ice dam, having quality venting at the eaves, and properly insulate the attic spaces. Lynnrich Siding offers several products which work in combination with a properly insulated home to ensure that there will virtually never be an ice dam on your roof. And Here’s how to make sure that an ice dam never appears on your roof.
Ventilation
While the products at Lynnrich are wonderful to look at, and add real beauty to the outside of your home, the soffit/fascia/gutters systems are also designed to move water away from your home properly, and also to properly vent the ridge line of the house, where it’s possible for hot and cold zones to meet. An ice dams develops when the warm air inside the home heats the underside of the roof, causing the melt to then trickles down the roof to the cold eaves, where it then freezes; the water continues to melt, freeze, backs up beneath the shingles, leaking the melt up and beneath the shingles and down into the home. Soffit vents circulate cold air beneath the entire underside of the roof, thereby keeping the roof at a constant temperature.
Insulation
In addition to the soffit/fascia/gutters systems Lynnrich offers, you can also add insulation to the areas of the attic that most need it. Ice dams are also a sign of an improperly vented attic. Adding proper insulation keeps the heat retained within the home where it belongs.
If you have any other questions about ice dams, or how Lynnrich’s products will protect your home from the elements, while also contributing greatly to your home’s curb-appeal, call Lynnrich today.
Infinity Windows Are An Investment
New windows are an investment, an investment both for the long-term beauty of your home and also for the energy efficiency of your home. Thankfully, Infinity windows do both. Infinity windows have the traditional beauty of wood windows with modern features.
Quality windows work as great insulators of your home. One way that quality windows, like the Infinity windows, accomplish this is by allowing less heat to escape through the glass. Another way to think about the qualities of well-insulated windows is to consider the draft you feel when you’re standing next to a poorly efficient window. The draft you feel isn’t a draft of air at all, but the cold from the outside pulling your body heat through the window.
Obviously to replace inefficient windows throughout your home would be very beneficial. The trouble areas, however, are where there is warm, humid air (think rooms near or inside bathrooms), or kitchen areas, or areas where there is a woodstove or a fireplace constantly at work. The warm, wet air will come into contact with the colder surface of inefficient windows and cause condensation problems. Condensation can freeze windows shut, or drip down into window trim and soak in, grow mold, etc. Oftentimes today’s modern construction is built with a bathroom included within the master suite, and, oftentimes in these master suites, there isn’t enough ventilation in the bathroom to adequately clear the humid air from the shower. Oftentimes a high efficiency window will help to control the amount of condensation on the window pane, because the inside of the window pane will in fact be warmer than a lower efficiency window.
A higher efficiency window can have as much as a ten-degree greater temperature on the inside of the glass panel than a lower efficiency window. Conversely, in the summer time, this translates to less transferred in through the window, and therefore cooler temperatures.
Infinity Windows at Lynnrich can be purchased in most any size and shape, with numerous trim packages and colors, hardware packages ranging from quiet and sophisticated to antiqued brass.
Your Front Door Is A Direct Expression Of Your Home’s Exterior
Your home’s front door is a direct expression of your home’s exterior. Doors are often overlooked areas of the home, but doors are responsible for so many things, like keeping out the elements, keeping out drafts, and keeping out intruders. A solid door from Lynnrich can do all of those things, and do it well. If your door isn’t doing one, or any of those things well, it might be time to consider a new one, and here are the reasons why.
Signamark Entry Doors
Signamark Entry Doors can be purchased in a variety of styles with different decorative elements. If you choose to have glass panels on your door, the glass is cut by professionals into an artistic pattern.
The doors are built strong, exposing no natural wood to the elements, wood that could rot or warp. Wood doors are beautiful, but they are also susceptible to adverse weather conditions, the wood shrinking and expanding. The best wood door, overtime, is going to change its shape in occurrence of the seasons.
Signamark Entry Doors are also built with valuable add-ons such as a weather strips that is durable, and easily withstands drafts. At the center of a Signamark door is a polyurethane foam core, which is strong, and also environmentally friendly. The exterior of the door can be adorned with a number of styles and colors of finishes.
Signamark Entry Doors are also energy efficient, receiving an energy star rating. It achieves this through the previously mentioned foam-core, and also, the glass on every Signamark door is triple-paned, and has been awarded the energy star rating for all fifty states. To have a door that’s this efficient is to help use less energy in the cold months, when the furnace heats the home, or in the summer months, when many of us rely on air conditioning, and, purchasing products like Signamark doors that are energy efficient in any month, will help to lower the energy bills in your home. It does all of this, and still looks show-stopping beautiful on the front of your home.
Benefits of Steel Siding
Obviously steel siding is a durable material, much more so than, say, vinyl siding, which can be dented or cracked easily (remember Superman was the man of steel). Steel siding doesn’t fade like vinyl, nor also does it need to be replaced as frequently.
Steel Siding
Steel siding is an environmentally responsible building material, because of the way it’s installed, with very little to no waste, and also because one day the materials can be recycled easily (although, with such a durable, dependable product, it will be a lot of years before anyone would consider having to replace it).
But, who needs steel siding? Who would benefit most from it? Steel siding has such a beautiful and luxurious appearance, it must be way, way too expensive for most people, right?
Who needs steel siding?
Everyone can use a product like steel siding. Any home, from the most expensive chalet to the tiniest modular, can benefit from such a terrific material. It’s because of its strength that steel siding is such a quality option for most people: it’s going to protect you and the ones you love from the elements for a long, long time. Also, it’s going to stay beautiful, helping to keep up both your home’s curb appeal and its value. Your home’s going to have that extra special touch, that perfect combination of quality and beauty.
It looks so beautiful. It must be really expensive
Steel siding is more expensive in up-front cost than, say, vinyl siding, but with the upfront cost you’re getting something vinyl cannot offer: quality, durability, dependability, and longevity. Steel siding is going to outlast vinyl, it’s going to better protect your home from the elements; hail and wind won’t have as big of an impact thereby possibly negating the costs of repair or replacement every time a storm happens. If you have any questions as to the cost, contact Lynnrich Siding and request and estimate for your home. If you’re in the process of remodeling you may also find it beneficial to check out the other products Lynnrich offers such as windows, doors, and soffit, to name a few.
Energy Efficient Soffit and Fascia
What do new or clean soffit vents and fascia have to do with energy efficiency? After all, don’t soffits allow air to flow freely into a home’s attic? In the wintertime isn’t this counterproductive?
The answer is no, and it may surprise some as to why: keeping an attic cold is important, because when the attic’s cold, there’s less of a chance of an ice jam, and this constant circulation of air in from the soffit, in combination with the use of proper insulation, keeps these areas of the home well-vented, and circulating properly.
Heat trapped in the attic can cause a moisture buildup, or a warm pad on the underside of the roof where snow melts and refreezes, causing an ice dam. Also, in the summer, this free exchange of cold air allows the heat trapped within the house to vent out.
So soffit and fascia play a crucial part in the energy efficiency of any home, and also help keep the home from being damaged by mother nature. It’s a tie-in between the roof and the siding. Then why is it that soffits are so often overlooked as a vital component on a home?
Lynnrich Siding carries soffit and gutters which are entirely seamless, integrating into the design of the home. Older gutter systems rely on a spike and ferrule method to hang in place, and often this has in invasive look on a modern home’s design.
Lynnrich’s gutters are manufactured on site, meaning that they are built as custom as is possible. Also, the spike and ferrule method of hanging rain gutters, often leaves gutters looking sagged after a few years of use, but a seamless rain gutter is hung on the home with a much greater support, which virtually all but eliminates sagging.
This makes a soffit, fascia, & gutter system from Lynnrich all but maintenance free! Also, Lynrrich carries a full color assortment for both soffit and fascia and rain gutters to match any home’s exterior. If you have never noticed the sleek designs of our soffit-fascia-gutter systems, take a look at the photo gallery on our site for ideas.
Contact us today for all of your soffit, fascia & gutter needs.
Log Cabin Look, Strength of Steel Siding
A log cabin getaway in the woods or mountains is a dream for many people. Imagine it: lying in bed at night, the windows open, listening to a creek tumbling over rocks, or a breeze shaking the leaves of trees; imagine the feeling of pulling into your drive after a long day at work to the warm look of a cabin.
This could be your getaway! The only problem with most log homes, however, is the logs. A log moves, contacting and expanding with the elements, shifting in position against the logs its opposite. Overtime, logs can even crack as they settle or dry. What if you could have the look of the log cabin in the woods, but with the strength of steel siding? It’s possible with the Montana Collection at Lynnrich Siding.
The Montana Collection, like all steel sidings, is durable and built to last. The siding is even maintenance free! This is especially great for those of you that would like a log cabin as a weekend getaway to be used sporadically throughout the year. The siding’s strength is in its nine layers of finish which are applied to a galvanized steel core.
The paint finish then is applied, and this finish has excellent protection from the elements. So much so that the siding panels come with a limited lifetime warranty against fading and or chalking of the paint finish. The best part of it all is that the finish on the siding panels captures the textures of wood grain, while also remaining consistent colors throughout.
Log Cabin Look, Strength of Steel Siding
The siding also is seam-free, it wont fade, chip, crack, dent, warp or bubble. This saves you money in the long run. Imagine a rustic home in the woods with virtually no maintenance to its siding, and a dependability guarantee.
You can buy the siding panels in numerous colors matched to most hardwoods. The colors of siding have the look of either a solid color, or wood grain. Give Lynnrich Siding a call today to discuss the options for your new home, or even your new home away from home.