Kudos to Andersen

[Andrew R.]

I just finished trimming this job and had a perfect fit spanning all 4 upper windows with flex mold casing across these four custom made arch tops. I had built the shell a few months ago and was able to get the rest of the interior finished before these upper windows arrived. The oak floors are in the sanding stage now, more and better pics to be posted. The owner actually cried when she walked in and saw the window install.

[Andrew R.]

the deck and shell

[someguy]

Looks good Andrew, we did a job with anderson architectural windows. Took forever to come in but they were exactly the right dimentions and they match the roof pitch perfectly. So I second you kudos

Joe

[Mark Parlee]

Very nice Andrew

[Pete Engle]

I hate to be a wet blanket, but I've got a bit of heartburn with Andersen right now. I'm working on a nearly-complete very fancy house on the beach in NJ. The windows are mostly pairs of casements with fixed transoms above. The builder got as far as completing the cast stone trim & stucco on the exterior, and the sheetrock and many of the finished floors on the interior, before he realized that almost all of the windows are leaking. Of course he pointed at the stucco guy first. We've been able to do testing that shows all of the Andersens are leaking at all the mulled joints. Andersen came back and sealed the hardware openings and the mullions, but the windows are sill leaking. This is going to be very expensive.

In general, I've been pretty kind to Andersen, and I think they make a great product. But I've got to raise a flag about their ganged windows. This kind of leakage is just not acceptable.

[Dick Seibert]

Pete:

Andersen has a 6" "rubber" dripcap that's glued over mullions to seal the break in the fins between the mulled windows, I checked their site and don't see it listed, I have a sample mulled Andersen window and can take a picture of it if you can't find it. I also install a sheet metal dripcap over all windows, see attached pages from the AAMA InstallationMasters manual, and I also install Vycor bending the head piece 90° to seal the fins to the frames on all wood windows, wood windows don't have welded fins like PVC windows, Andersen uses the vinyl cladding as the fin but water can get behind cladding.

[Mark Parlee]

Pete

I see this at all mulled windows. I am going through that in some reports right now on some homes that have these very problems. Was there a sill pan installed?
I just did an inspection on a home that has the wrapped trim around all of the windows. In seven years all of this trim at the bottom edge of the window is at 100% MC. I believe a large part of this is due to the drainage at the mullion trim; even with the cap it will still be driven in at the edges with a wind driven scenario.

[Dick Seibert]

Mark:

Even with a dripcap?

[Mark Parlee]

Yes
I have not found it on Andersen windows yet but just looked at some Pella windows that the bottom trim is bad.
This is not a window problem but rather a window installation problem. Where are the sillpans?

[Dick Seibert]

Mark:

The class action against Pella is ongoing, Freed & Weiss is handling it, read more about it. The rotting window cases all involve aluminum clad windows, so far Andersen's vinyl clad have been immune, to my knowledge.

[Mark Parlee]

Thanks for the info Dick.
I will file it as I run into this situation quite a bit.

The issue with the leak between the mullion however does not discriminate, it is due to improper detailing of the bottom of the windows at install and all of them that we currently use will have this problem if you wrap the windows and block off this area to the relief of moisture.

[bobkni]

I don't think the pella problem is just with the proline, I have a customer who has 16 Architect casements and picture units with that same problem. All of them are rotting under the cladding, the cladding is coming away from the glass letting water behind. Once the windows are open they cannot be closed unless they lift the glass up to resquare the frame, soon the glass will fall out of the frame. Pella charged $250 to come out and say it's not their fault.

The Andersen double hungs have a problem with the sills, the wood under the vinyl rots because some of them had exposed wood at the ends or the plastic plugs were loose fitting. Water entered and the entire sill rotted inside the vinyl. I saw some where there was no wood left at all in the sill after ants found it.

[Mark Parlee]

Bob
What age are the windows

[Dick Seibert]

Most of the aluminum clad windows have had a serious rotting problem, Pella and Marvin blamed it on their preservative supplier, PPG, most have stonewalled, the only one I know of to step up to the plate and make it right was Sierra Pacific, they replaced them themselves including all sheetrock and painting without argument, of course Sierra Pacific owns a good chunk of the private forest land in California, they can afford problems, I've always wondered why they ventured into the liability of the window business. The Marvin suit against PPG.

The last Pellas I installed had big gaps in the aluminum cladding top and bottom corners, I called service and they told me to leave the gaps open so the water could run in and run out, I put silicone in the top gaps and left the bottoms open, I swore no more.

[retro-patrick]

I'm putting in a Windsor 4-gang aluminum clad this week. It's about as big as a garage door. Anyone got any horror stories about them? I need some good indigestion to keep me up.
rP