I don’t get my panties all bunched-up over broken seals in windows or skylights typically. Broken seals don’t “drastically” affect the thermal performance of the unit–certainly the cost of replacement will NEVER pay for itself in savings relative to the damaged seal.
I consider broken seals to primarily be a “cosmetic issue”–and mostly important if seeing through the unit is important. Depending on the windows location to views it may be very important or not important at all to most buyers. I have buyers tell me that is very important until they find out what it is going to cost to fix it.
A big exception to this is a seal in a skylight that is broken and is filling up with water.
The skylight in the picture below was over a stairwell. If the water were to freeze the glass could collapse into the stairwell–making it somewhat of a safety issue–compared to a little fogging typical of most broken seals.
This next picture shows an “overlay” of color to show where the water is between the two layers of glass.
Even with all this water it was not leaking into the interior.
Something else about this skylight—-and something I see in about 10 percent of all skylights–is that it was never attached–easily lifting out of place.
Do you know if your skylights are attached?
By Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle
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