The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
First Aid For The Ailing Houses
WEATHER-STRIPS
Leakage is chiefly through the joints around window sashes. Even with a window considered to be tight, a 20-mile wind will blow enough air through the joints around the sashes to fill completely a room of ordinary size once an hour. This entering air is at the temperature of outdoors and must be warmed in order to make the room comfortable.
Weather-strips will close the joints around the sashes and check or stop the entrance of outdoor air. With no entrance of outdoor air to displace it, wanned air will remain within the house. Good weather-stripping will make a saving of from 15 to 20 per cent in the fuel burned.
The best permanent weather-strips are metal; in the form that will remain tight for the longest period, sheet metal is shaped into a ridge that fits snugly into a groove cut into the edge of the sash. For a tighter fit, the strip or the groove may be lined with felt. Applying these weather-strips is not a job for an amateur because of the special tools needed for cutting the grooves as well as for the variety of forms that must be at hand to meet differences in types of windows and doors. A professional carpenter should be called in.
Well-fitted metal weather-strips do more than seal winow joints against air leakage; they also prevent the entrance of dust and should make a sliding window proof against sticking. In the desert areas, weather-stripping is widely used to keep out wind-driven sand.
Metal weather-strips that can be installed by a nonprofessional are attached to the window frame outside the window, making a spring contact with the surfaces of the sash. These give good results when new; but if the metal loses its springiness or is accidentally bent, the joint will no longer be tight.
Weather-strips of fabric and other flexible materials are satisfactory when carefully and tightly applied but will not be permanent; the joint will open as the material ages.
With wood-frame windows, weather-strips are attached by nailing. For metal-frame windows, weather strips are secured by other means. Weather strips for metal-frame casement windows are made to snap into the grooves around the edges of the sashes, being held in position by their springiness. Felt or rubber can also be used for closing the joints of a metal casement; it can be had in rolls at a hardware store or a 5 and-10. Along the edges of the frame and sashes where the material is to be applied, the metal is scraped clean of paint, rust, or corrosion and wiped with benzene. When this has dried, felt strips are attached with plastic cement. Rubber may be attached with rubber-to-metal adhesive.
