We recently installed new construction Integrity windows as well and for the money they are really dissapointing. They use some high quality materials and have a very nice appearance, but the design detailing is piss poor. I'll be able to address all the problems I think, but it is frustrating that I'll need to spend several days working on them. Here's my list of problems
1) The bottom weather strip is a rubber lip seal that is compressed. The seal for most the windows we received were crushed so that the lip is inverted at portions along the seal. Since they were delivered the way, they've taken a set. These seal inversion will have small air leaks.
2) The side bulb seals for the sashes are just not designed/implemented correctly. These seals are mounted in an aluminum (I think) channel. There are 2 problems with the bulb. The first is the bulb portion that is within the aluminum channel. Ideally the foam would completely fill these channels which are square/rectangular in cross section. It doesn't and this introduces our first area of air infiltration about the middle sash portion of the window. Additionally the outside of the bulb should seal tightly against the side of the sash, but the tolerance variability between the parts is too large and not enough compression or allowance exists at this junction. All my windows were installed square and you could see visible light along the length of a few of the sash bulb seals. I actually needed to bow in the frames on most of my windows in order to have an acceptable amount of seal compression.......
3) At the mid sash Marvin has installed an adhesive back piece hair style seal to try to address the obvious leak paths about this area as I noted above. This kind of helps but it is a Mickey Mouse bandaid that does not completely fix the problem and actually introduces a new one. The size of these pieces vary and the positioning of where they are adhered varies as well. Due to the stiff backing on the seal, several of these parts actually push the sash bulb seals around and can open up more area for air infiltration. If you look closely you can see all of these small ingress holes in the day light.
To summarize, these are massive design flaws and problems and these are not associated with installation whatsoever. I plan on addressing these issues by purchasing adhesive backed closed cell silicone foam and systematically and tediously cutting and applying it to all of these areas of ingress. A total pain in the ass, but it should make a noticeable improvement.
Q
farmhouse
Q