I just spent a whole entire month in New Hampshire... again. I was only supposed to go for 9 days while new windows were installed in our house. I didn't want to be home with any fumes, mold, dust, etc. that would make me sick. Well, our contractor was hurt and needed a couple of weeks to recover. I stayed a whole month waiting for the windows to get installed, but as it turned out, I needed most of the time out there for medical reasons. That will be my next post. It's not easy being away from my husband that long, but in the end I'm grateful for the extra time with my doctor.
In this post, let me tell you about these windows: Marvin Infinity. When you have MCS, any home project is a major headache. There's the fear of hidden and obvious toxins that will keep you sick, the fear of off-gassing, the fear of the quality of natural safe materials vs synthetic highly rated materials, etc. I'm writing this post to help anyone with MCS in need of new windows.
We had Brian Fettig install them. They are casement windows made from fiberglass, supposedly the most MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitives) friendly windows on the market. Supposedly, they have no fumes except for the stain, but they're stained in the shop, not in your home. The advantage for an MCS person is that they do not rot like wood does, they're not made from plastic/ vinyl that constantly out gasses, and they last much longer than other types because they don't warp or deteriorate.
They are not cheap, but we had several companies with different types of windows give us quotes. The wood and vinyl options were only a few thousand dollars cheaper - there wasn't a huge difference in price. I came home the day after they were finished being installed, when my intention was to come home around a week after they were installed. I feared the fumes! And I was right to. The windows did in fact smell. I could smell it in the whole house for a few days, but it was faint. It was less bad than low VOC paint. I can no longer smell the windows at all. That said, I don't know what part of the window was off-gassing. It may have been the factory smell that was stuck to them, or possibly the stain was still smelly.
Our contractor also used fiberglass insulation instead of the spray foam kind, keeping in mind my chemical sensitives. This is my parent's house, not mine, but I'm very grateful for every effort to use less toxic materials since I'm living here now! He also reused our wood frames. The fiberglass stain matches the original wood frames so well that it's hard to tell they're different materials. It's good that he did this not only because it was cheaper, but also because it means less new materials - so fewer potential new toxins.
The reason we had to have new windows installed was because our old Marvin wooden windows were rotting. Yes, literally rotting. There was black spongy rot all over the bottom of the casements, and one of the windows was sliding down in the casement because the bottom had rotted so much. We had to keep plastic shrink wrap up over the windows so that the rot wasn't getting into our air. This rot was actually my greatest concern with the windows, and I did not want to be home when the windows were removed and the rot was kicked up into the air. Our contractor told us that he also found rot inside the walls on the sheet rock. Is there mold? Very possibly. We knew there was mold in the bathroom ceiling, which was replaced and fixed last year. It's very possible I'm living in a moldy house, which could definitely explain a lot of my health problems! We'll tackle this and the siding issue next year.
How am I feeling at home with the new windows and no longer breathing in the rot from the old windows? Hard to say at this point. I actually slept very well and felt better than normal for the first 5-6 days after coming home, but I've slowly been getting worse and worse again. It's probably not our house. It's probably my job, which got much smellier while I was away. I can say that I'm not reacting while at home, except to my bed (that's a huge issue unto itself.)
What I can tell you is that the windows look great! I love the screens (much easier to see through,) the handles that operate very smoothly, how easy it is to clean the inside and outside of them, the tint that makes it hard for people to see in during the day time, and that they are insulating well! We have actually been struggling to cool the house down at night, even when it's cool outside, without opening the windows (which we can do now!) Before, our house cooled down on its own, even when the windows were shut. The real test will be winter, but that's not far away!
I may have to update this post with photos later. It's very hard to take photos of windows when it's bright and sunny outside!
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