Shared Knowledge
“Getting Stuck Marvin
Windows to Move”
Some number of years ago, we renovated our current home and as part of the renovation installed Marvin, wood-frame, double paned, low E, Argon gas filled windows throughout the house. Marvin makes a nice window.
After all renovations
were complete to include the complete painting of all walls, ceilings, trim and
all Marvin window wooden-frames, when we moved in, we found that none of the
Marvin windows would slide open. At first
I thought that perhaps that the window installer (not Marvin) had somehow
jammed the window into too small of an opening in the framing of the house but
that really did not make sense as all windows were a custom order for our home. Then I thought the problem was that because
the windows did not have handles on the lower window (guess an option we did
not know about or did not choose when ordering), which could be used to life
the window with that, that was the problem, so I took the effort to find nice
handles and install 2 on each and every window and still the windows, none of
the windows would open.
Now, we do not open our
windows often but after a while, it became the principle of the thing. Windows should open and open easily and so
if it was not that the windows were installed in too tight of a frame (how
could all windows have been installed that way?) and it was not that the bottom
window lacked handles to pull up on, then the only answer had to be that the
wood frame was too tight against the vinyl track on each side of the window.
So, I began the process
of taking each wooden-frame window out and sanding the wooden edges, which are
supposed to slide against a vinyl track installed in the window frame. But when I took the very first window out, I
discovered that when the painters painted the wooden frame of the window, they
were not careful about not getting paint on the raw wooden edge of the window,
which slides against the vinyl frame.
No wonder the window would not slide or open. So using a powered sander which had a triangular shaped pad and
100 grit sandpaper, I began removing all paint from the slider side of each
window. With 100 grit sandpaper, it did
not take long to remove any traces of paint and then when I replaced the window
into the frame it did slide now but still was not as smoothly and easily as I
wanted it to be. So if there was no
paint on the window slide edge, what about track itself and sure enough, there
was also paint on the vinyl track into which the wooden-frame of the window
sits and slides. Here, a sander could
not be used as I did not want to ruff up the surface of the vinyl but rather
used a paint scraper and got most, if not all paint off the vinyl side rails. Now when I installed the window into the
vinyl sliders and latched it into place, using my installed handles the window
slid up and done easily. Paint! Paint on the slide side of the window and
vinyl track had been the cause of the windows not opening all along!
Finally, as one last
step, I went to a craft store and bought a box of paraffin, which comes in
sticks and proceeded to wax the raw wood side of each window so that the edge
was waxy. Now when I lifted up on a
window handle, the window slid open easily, just like it should.
So the bottom line and I
suspect that it is true for all windows, is that you cannot have any paint on
the slider side of the window or the frame it slides in and that waxing the
slider side of the window will help make the window slide more easily.
Oh, as a side note, when
I took out the lower window in some window frames, I discovered that the sash
hardware (spring and small pulley and cord) was broken. Sash hardware is an assist to lifting heavy
windows and also to allow for the latching of a window into a position other
than fully open or closed. In my case,
some of the sash pulleys had broken and in other cases, the metal clip to which
all associated sash hardware is attached had broken free of the vinyl track at
the top of the window. In all I had
about 7 broken window sash units and had to call Marvin to get them
replaced. Marvin was very good about
replacing the sash hardware, which was not expensive, and they sent an
installer to do the job.