A window has one simple job: open when you want it to, shut tight when you don’t. When it starts letting cold air past, rattling in the wind, or fighting you every time you try to open it, it’s usually not the whole window that’s the problem. It’s one worn part doing its job badly. These are three of the most common complaints we get once the weather turns, and all three are ordinary repairs.
Let me take them one at a time, because the cause is different for each.
The draughty window
If you can feel cold air creeping in around a closed window, or a candle flame flickers when you hold it near the edge, the culprit is almost always the seal. Every uPVC window has a rubber gasket running round it that squashes shut when the window closes and blocks the air. Over the years that rubber hardens, shrinks and flattens, and once it stops springing back it stops sealing. You’ll often feel it worst on the windward side of the house, where the weather drives straight at the glass.
The fix is new seals. The gasket is replaced with fresh rubber that grips properly again, and sometimes the hinges are adjusted so the sash pulls up tighter against it. It’s a modest job that makes a surprising difference to how warm the room feels, and to your heating bills over a winter.
Worth ruling out one thing first: if the draught seems to come with condensation and cold glass rather than a felt breeze, you might actually have a blown sealed unit rather than a draught, which is a different (also fixable) problem.
The rattling window
A window that rattles in the wind has usually gone slightly loose in its closed position. Either the seals have worn down so the sash isn’t held firmly any more, or the locking points and keeps have drifted out of adjustment so the window isn’t pulled in tight when you lock it. Wind gets behind the gap and the sash chatters against the frame.
It’s the same family of fix as the draught, and often the same appointment sorts both, because the thing that stops a window rattling (a snug, well-adjusted sash sealing against good rubber) is exactly the thing that stops it being draughty. If yours rattles, it’s very likely leaking heat too.
The stiff window that won’t open (or won’t close)
Stiffness is nearly always the hinges. uPVC windows sit on friction hinges, metal stays that hold the sash open at any angle, and these take a beating from the weather, especially on exposed elevations. Grit works into them, the moving parts corrode, and eventually the window either becomes a real effort to open or won’t pull closed evenly.
A lot of the time a stiff window just needs the hinges cleaned and lubricated and the moving parts freed off, genuinely a quick job. If the hinge itself has corroded or worn out, it gets swapped for a new one, and the window swings freely again. What you shouldn’t do is force a stiff window repeatedly, because that’s how you end up snapping a handle or cracking the sash and turning a small job into a bigger one.
A related one. If the window has “dropped”, so the sash has sagged and a corner catches on the frame or the gaps look uneven, that’s usually hinge wear too, and it’s adjusted or the hinges are replaced to bring it back square.
Why it’s worth sorting sooner rather than later
None of these faults fixes itself, and all of them get worse. A tired seal lets in more cold as it ages. A rattling sash works itself looser. A stiff hinge that’s forced eventually breaks something. Caught early they’re small, cheap repairs. Left for a couple of winters they can drag other parts down with them.
The parts themselves, the seals, hinges, keeps and handles, are inexpensive, and it’s all done on your existing windows. No replacements, no mess.
Get it looked at
We fix draughty, rattly and stiff windows all over Wishaw and Lanarkshire, and it’s rarely as big a job as people fear. There’s no call-out charge. If you can, send a photo of the window on WhatsApp and tell us what it’s doing, where the draught is, when it rattles, which way it’s stiff, and we’ll give you an idea of what’s involved before we come out.
Call us on 01698 604 278 and we’ll get your windows sealing, sitting and swinging the way they should.
Stiff and draughty usually share the same root cause, and both come under standard uPVC window repair.
Related advice
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Written by the team at Wishaw Window Repairs. Over thirty years repairing uPVC windows and doors across Lanarkshire.