The Ace Service #1: How do you regulate windows and doors by yourself?

If you want to enjoy hermetic windows and doors for many years, it is necessary to correctly maintain, regulate and care for it. You can check what you can do yourself before the winter and summer seasons to guarantee the comfort of using window joinery.


Start with the gaskets

Seals serve a key role in every window - protecting against humidity, reducing heat loss and limiting noise from outside. They are particularly exposed to atmospheric conditions and high temperature changes, which occur very frequently in summer and winter. As a result of these changes, they can lose their flexibility, become deformed or crack, losing their effectiveness.

Regular and simple conservation will help to keep the gaskets in good condition, but requires a little time. We start by cleaning them very thoroughly, using moist wipes, glass cleaner and a cloth. The cleaning process must be carried out very accurately, and in hard-to-reach areas, use cotton buds.
Then we use a gasket cleaner, which can be found at any hardware shop or builders' market. However, make sure not to spray it all over the gaskets, but apply it to a cloth and then rub it all over the gasket. Done! Once the product has been thoroughly applied, let's wait a few minutes and easily - by applying pressure to the rubber we can see that the seals have regained their elasticity and returned to their original form.

Maintenance and adjustment of fittings

Correct opening, proper closing, soft handle operation - among other functions, the window hardware is responsible for these. Their correct step-by-step adjustment is presented in our instructions.

The adjustment of the fittings is also demonstrated in the following tutorial video:

It is worth mentioning that our strategic partner Winkhaus has created a mobile app for smartphones and tablets to help you take care of your windows by yourself. The app is called Window Service and is available on both the AppStore and Google Play. It intuitively guides the user through the steps, step-by-step indicating the next steps to be taken to complete the entire process. After a careful adjustment, the hardware should be completely cleaned and oiled. However, please note that the hardware should not be lubricated with cooking oil, industrial grease or other corrosive preparations. For lubrication of the window hardware, specially designed preparations or machine oil are recommended.

Places such as corners, hooks on the frame, mouldings, hinges and all those parts that are exposed to friction require special attention.

Take care of the profile

The profile is the element of the window most exposed to external factors - not only atmospheric, but also impacts, damage or dirt. When maintaining PVC window profiles, we must be very careful and use products designed for this purpose.
 

We absolutely should not use any objects with hard bristles (e.g. a wire brush), as these can scratch the profile. For cleaning of more serious dirt, do not use solvent-based liquids, or any liquids with an acidic PH and chlorine-based agents which react with PVC, leaving yellow stains. Using these could lead to changes in the PVC profile with irreversible effects.

When cleaning the profile, you should use products suitable for the job. It is important to remember that dust must be removed from the inside of the profile with a dust broom, a small brush or a soft bristle brush before "wet" cleaning.

A vacuum cleaner will also be useful to remove all dust and prevent scratching of the surface during cleaning. Then clean with water or a cleaning product adapted to the degree of soiling. Then dry the profiles with paper towels and leave the window open until it is completely dry. For maintenance, use polish or polishers available from specialist shops. These products will not only restore the shine and aesthetic appearance of the woodwork, but will also protect it from the weather.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Łukasz Chamioło - Quality Control Department Manager at PAGEN Sp. z o.o.. Associated with the company for 21 years. Responsible for, among others, product quality and managing the work of the Service Department. Privately, a lover of wild animals.