Is there a difference between cleaning windows with wood or vinyl frames?

Is there a difference between cleaning windows with
wooden window frames and windows with vinyl
window frames?

Glass is glass. So, when it comes to cleaning a window with a wood frame, or a window with a vinyl frame, the glass really won’t care. Is that to say there isn’t any difference? Not exactly.

In both cases, you’ll want to wipe the frames clean and dry. Who wants a clean window in a dirty frame? But, it’s also a matter of removing moisture from the frame. In the case, of the vinyl framed window, the biggest concern is spotting. If you don’t wipe that moisture away it will dry and leave spots.

Water can have a more damaging effect on a wood window frame. Moisture softens wood. It invades wood. It inspires mold and rot in wood. This is why it’s essential to paint and/or seal the wood frames of your windows. After all, they won’t just experience moisture when you wash your windows; they’ll also experience moisture from rain, snow, dew and that dew can also appear on the inside of your windows.

On the inside of your windows, that dew is called condensation. Of course, the moisture doesn’t care what it’s called. It will insidiously rob your wood window frames of their integrity if you’re not careful. Careful means sealing and/or painting your wood window frames with sufficient regularity. It also means wiping off moisture that collects on your windows, whether that moisture appears from the skies, from the atmosphere or from a squeegee wiping soapy water from the windows during the cleaning process.

Sometimes, wood frames are more of a hassle to clean. This is the case when the glass is divided by what are called ‘true divides.’ True divides are what you find in windows that are made up of smaller pieces of glass with frames built into the overall frame of a window. While you might find this with vinyl windows it’s rather rare. Instead, with vinyl windows, the appearance of ‘true divides’ is achieved by putting dividers in between the sheets of glass in a thermal-pane window. You have two full sheets of glass sandwiched over directive dividers.

With wood true divides, each piece of glass has to be cleaned individually. Then you have more frames to wipe and dry, and that can be a real pain.

How could something so beautiful be such a pane – those leaves will clog your gutters

Some folks will pile in the car and drive up to Door County, and other heavily wooded areas, to see the splendor of the varied shades of autumn leaves this time of year. Reds, yellows, oranges, purples, browns, greens, magentas: these are some of the colors that replace the almost universal green of summer leaves. They’re beautiful but the changing colors signify the changing of seasons and the falling of those leaves.

As the leaves come down they must land somewhere. They may land on the ground. This causes a rash of rakes to fly into the hands of homeowners who are coerced to join an army of yard-raking laborers. As inconvenient as that is, it’s not as bad as the leaves that get caught by gutters before the leaves can hit the ground.

You might tell yourself, ‘Well, if they don’t hit the ground, I don’t have to rake them.’ If that was the entire story, it would be a wonderful tale of increased leisure. But that’s not what it is. It’s not a good thing that your gutters catch a bunch of leaves before they hit the ground.

Autumn leaves that fill up gutters can cause substantial damage to your home. The gutters play a vital role in protecting your home. They channel the water that comes off your roof through downspouts and away from your foundation. Without gutters and downspouts, water comes straight off the roof and can find its way into your basement.

When your gutters are full of leaves, however, they conspire with elements of the next season – winter. In the wintertime, the water comes down as snow. As the snow piles up on your roof, the heat coming through your roof from your home can melt some of the snow or ice. Not a problem – your gutters will carry the water away. But your gutters are full of leaves.

With leaves clogging your gutters, the water builds up on your roof. ‘Building up’ is a contrary condition for the way your shingles were designed. Your roof shingles are designed to shed water as it comes down from clouds in the sky. But, water building up from a clogged gutter can work its way under the shingles. Instead of protecting the house from the water, water building up from clogged gutters gets in.

As the water comes in, it can rot the plywood sheets under the shingles. Then, it can move down into the insulation. When the insulation gets wet it loses most of its effectiveness. Now, more heat is coming up through the roof, more snow, or ice, is melting, and more water is coming in. Your gutters have started a vicious cycle. And all because those beautiful leaves clogged your gutters.

The solution is simple – clean the leaves out of your gutter. But, better than climbing a ladder yourself, or sending someone you love up that ladder, you might want to call in professionals to clean your gutters.