Every season brings with it a different set of characteristics that impact your home in various ways. Just the way hot summers or the monsoon months can sometimes adversely affect your home, cold weather can also have an impact on the different elements in your living space.

Your windows are one of the elements in your home where the strong effects of the winter months can be seen. Not sure how? Here are a few ways the cold weather affects your windows:

Shrinking and Warping

Certain materials in your home are more vulnerable to weather changes than others. Wooden window frames are one such component that tend to shrink in extremely cold weather and warp in extreme humidity. These require protective paint and need to be stained often for preservative purposes. Frames made from other materials such as vinyl and aluminum are less likely to have such a prominent impact under the same weather conditions.

Ice Buildup

Ice buildup is likely to take place when warm air escapes through small openings between the open spaces in your windows and meets the cold air outside. This causes ice to start building up in those spaces, making it hard for you to open your windows without a struggle and perhaps some damage too. The ice formation in these small gaps can even cause window seals to break. To minimize this risk, it would help to ventilate high moisture areas of your home such as bathrooms and the kitchen.

Water Damage

This is a common problem that many homes face in winter. When the ice melts, water can easily leak into the window frames or walls. You will begin to notice stains and peeling paint, which are obvious signs that water has seeped into places where it should have not.

Hardware Damage

Windows have various components that make them function properly. Handles, hinges, and window latches are some of these components that are all vulnerable to damage in extremely cold weather. They can get jammed because of ice and very chilly weather.

Cracked Glass

Extreme temperatures cause pressure to buildup on glass. When this pressure increases beyond a certain point, the glass on your windows can start cracking. This usually starts out as small cracks and then eventually starts spreading across the whole window. This is most likely to occur when low quality materials are used or windows are improperly installed.

Falling Ice

Ice buildup occurs all over your home and this is a threat to your windows as well. When ice gets too heavy it can fall and crack your windows if it lands on them. This is most common when ice buildup occurs on your roof. This can also happen when ice begins to melt and starts falling off in heavy chunks. Removing these formations that are taking place close to your windows would be a good idea to keep them protected.

Just because your parts of your home are vulnerable to the extreme cold, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get to enjoy this weather! You can contact our team at White Aluminum to learn more about how to protect windows and for replacement windows that will remain sturdy and strong through the weather!