Moving/2169 Mission/Windows

This is what I found on my close inspection of the windows at 2169 Mission. I approached this with an eye towards what we can do to improve the current state, what we might want to include as a rider to our lease to have the landlord fix and what it is going to be like to live with these.

What to expect

Landlord Fix

First, since it's good to have handy, what we should hit up the landlord to fix:

• The glass in the sliding door to the fire escape is not only not to code, but quite dangerous. The whole thing wobbles if you even bump against it. Someone will injure themselves when (not if) the glass breaks. This glass needs to be replaced with heavy, tempered glass suitable for glass doors, and should be done before we take occupancy.
• The window in front next to the glass door is broken and needs to be replaced. Tape is not a suitable repair for glass.

Fix ourselves

What we probably should do upon taking possession or have the landlord do:

• Almost none of the windows have been caulked at all. A small bead run all the way around the outside will keep them from leaking in.
• many of the windows have mold on them. For health reasons, this should be removed. I believe there's some California law surrounding mold

Live with it

What we will probably expect to live with: These are the cheapest windows you can get. They're uninsulated single pane aluminum frame windows. This means a number of things:

• They will sweat when there is any temperature differential or humidity. This causing mold to grow on them and is pretty inescapable.
• They provide very little sound or temperature insulation from the outside world.
  • If we get loud, closing the windows won't help much.
  • Although no wind will be blowing through (convection), if it's hot on one side of the window, it'll be equally hot on the other side (conduction).

Technical Details

I'll provide information on technical details once I have my notes and computer in the same place at the same time.