Window replacement

As you can see, the seal is broken in the window on the left. This actually was the 2nd replacement but was due for replacement because the window broke either in transport or during installation (there is a small crack in the bottom outside corner).

In order to for the window guys to be able to work without being bothered by the dogs, I put them in the kitchen and then put the towel rack in front of the door (because Taz knows how to open the doors). We have a towel rack by the back door to hold the towels we wipe the dogs feet with when they come in. Another reason to have these doors closed was that it was -27C that day, so it would keep the cold air from getting into the whole house.

Here are the guys trying to remove the clips that held the old window in place. Steve Lalonde, owner of New Look Windows, is kneeling, and his assistant (I think it was Jeff) is standing in the blue coat. Because this window was essentially a single pane, there was a lot of ice/frost on it. There was a lot of ice on all of the windows because Steve said our humidity was too high. (See photo below for example.) The new window was slightly bigger in both dimensions than the old one, so Steve had to take the shims out.

Replacing this window is the last item outstanding on the list from Tarion. Unfortunately, the window cracked when Steve was putting it in, so he will have to order another replacement. He said he had an order coming in 2-3 weeks, so we won't have to wait more than a year this time. That will be the fourth replacement for this window.

This photo shows what the ice buildup was like on the windows. The one getting replaced had more on it though. The white moulding adjacent to the window snaps into a little track on the window frame and holds the window in place. The bottom moulding was difficult to remove because the ice was holding the piece in place.

We had a lot of condensation and frost on the family room windows. Steve said we needed to turn down our humidifer. We had it set to 50% because the Torlys people said it needed between 30%-60%. Steve said that was way too high. I looked up on the web and found a recommendation by Jon Eakes that said maximum of 25% RH (relative humidity) when is is -18C to -24C, and a max of 20% RH down to -30C and 15% RH below that. So clearly it was too high. We have been getting some mould on the windows too, and Steve said that shows the RH is too high. I have sent an email to the Torlys people so will see what they have to say.

As it isn't normally below -20C here in Ottawa, I have set the humdifier to 40% RH - will see how that goes. Oh, and we have our ceiling fans on too, to move the air around and reduce condensation on the windows. Steve recommended that we remove the screens for the winter, so we have done that as well.

Fixing up the caulking (part I)

One of the big problems we had with our terrible builder was the caulking which was incredibly poorly done. Since we were forced to take responsibility to correct the deficiencies, we had to fix the caulking problems too. I have been working on it a little bit at a time, when I am able. I haven't posted hardly anything to the blog for almost two months so this represents work that has been done in that time. This doesn't show the six weeks of running around and back and forth it took to get the right brand and colours of caulking. (You have to use the same brand/colour to do any patches otherwise it will be very obvious.)

This is the base of the laundry room door. I don't know why the caulking failed so dramatically here. If we had rain with wind, we would sometimes get water on the laundry room floor - not sure if it was from this failed caulking or from the poor caulking that runs underneath the threshold (it had holes/gaps in it).

You can't put new caulking over old otherwise your new caulking is no better than the old stuff. So I had to remove the old caulking (wasn't too hard), clean out the area (there was a lot of sand and other dirt/debris in there which would prevent the caulking from sticking), and then apply the new caulking. Believe it or not, the original caulking that I removed was white, as I could tell when I peeled it off.

This is the outside of the doors to the family room. I applied a small bead of white caulking between the green brick mold and the white door jamb. There is not supposed to be a gap there, but obviously the brick mold was loosened when the door was installed.

This was one of the cracks that I had complained to Tarion about. There was just a small crack at the time and Tarion said it was a normal shrinkage crack. I thought it was a bit bigger than I would have expected for that, but since Tarion's inspectors are supposedly experts, I had to take their word for it (had no choice, actually). Clearly the mortar was too dry and it had just fractured and disintegrated.


This is what the crack looked like after I cauked it. I would have preferred it if it had straight edges and was neater.

That's all the caulking fixups that I have been able to do so far. There will be a part II, stay tuned but don't hold your breath.

Of course, I have to end with a picture of the doggies. Sadly, none of the pictures of Tawny were very good so I have chosen this one of Taz enjoying his rawhide "bone".

Looking for Mr Responsibility

Charles showed up this morning and dropped off a letter saying he would like to come on the morning of October 10th with some subtrades to address the deficiencies. I told him he needs to show up with a replacement broom (he broke one when he threw it off the room), replacement ladder bumpers (he removed them when they used my ladder), and the balance for the delayed closing compensation.

Charles tried to claim that he doesn't have to replace the ladder bumpers because he doesn't have them and Dave doesn't have them. I think he needs to look up responsibility in the dictionary, that will save him the $$ for the legal advice where he would need to ask about duty of care.

Result of Tarion inspection

Well, since Charles hadn't addressed our deficiency list, we had to have a Tarion inspection. We hadn't heard from Charles and Tarion hadn't either, so we didn't think he would even show up. I had sent Charles a fax asking him to come with a replacement broom for the one he and Dave broke, and the replacement ladder bumpers that he and his crew took off my extension ladder. Charles made some lame excuse that he hadn't received the fax. I didn't believe it for a minute.

To make a long story short, Tarion found that Charles had a lot of deficiencies he had to fix, and gave him until October 17th to make it right, which is just over two weeks away. I will be surprised if Charles does anything.