Soft Lite Imperial LS - mold? Dirt?

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ctnj
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Soft Lite Imperial LS - mold? Dirt?

#1 Post by ctnj »

We had soft lite imperial LS installed 12/31/13. I have cleaned them 2x. Most face due east and receive pretty good morning sun. See picture below- what is this??? This is on most of the windows where the outside glass adheres to the vinyl. Installation company coming to look tomorrow. Thank you!
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HomeSealed
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Re: Soft Lite Imperial LS - mold? Dirt?

#2 Post by HomeSealed »

Hard to tell for sure, but it looks like its simply some dirt.

randy
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Re: Soft Lite Imperial LS - mold? Dirt?

#3 Post by randy »

What part of the country do you live in? Here in the south, where the humidity stays high, it's not uncommon for that to occur. If you're in a area with high relative humidity, and the window is not getting much direct sunlight, it could be mildew.

TheWindowNerd
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Re: Soft Lite Imperial LS - mold? Dirt?

#4 Post by TheWindowNerd »

It looks like dirt or mildew that is behind the soft part of the glazing bead.

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Windows on Washington
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Re: Soft Lite Imperial LS - mold? Dirt?

#5 Post by Windows on Washington »

Looks like dirt to me as well.

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Delaware Mike
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Re: Soft Lite Imperial LS - mold? Dirt?

#6 Post by Delaware Mike »

That there my friend is a glazing durometer which is kind of like a soft silicone based marine pressure seal designed by some genius to keep exterior water and moisture from running down the face of the glass and into the sash which typically has it's own drainage/irrigation system. Here's the problem. It should never be white!!!!!! When are these "Kitty Soft-Paws" engineer college boys ever going to learn to listen to use old crusty field guys. The Delman family from way back in the Great Lake's days realized this when they started Sunrise so they made theirs black which is a real good idea as one never sees the mold, dirt, and discoloration that occurs on these things. Black is kind of ugly until one understands why it's black and I tend to explain this once in a while on a demo of a Sunrise product.

The folks over at OKNA have theirs made is a dark gray which is super cleaver and I applaud them on this. Vista and Affinity have hidden internal gasket durometers in their glazing beads by design which is another method which I tend to like.

Good luck cleaning them as they tend to permanently stain to some extent and once it's behind sash bead it's game over. Sorry..........

I tried cleaning some SL Barringtons from 2005 with lacquer thinner just today and that dirt just laughed me back into my van. :(

TheWindowNerd
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Re: Soft Lite Imperial LS - mold? Dirt?

#7 Post by TheWindowNerd »

Mike,
Did you ever knife off the soft part and run a small bead of silicone before?

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Delaware Mike
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Re: Soft Lite Imperial LS - mold? Dirt?

#8 Post by Delaware Mike »

Never tried it. The cleaner one can keep their windows the less this will happen, and it doesn't happen to everyone

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