curious (Milwaukee: sale, house, home inspection)

[robren]

My daughter bought a home in Milwaukee this past summer. She paid to have an inspection done. Now in the dead of winter, she has drafts coming in every window in her house. Is there any recourse she can take against the previous owner. She has a 4 year old daughter.

[gold*dust1]

Originally Posted by robren

My daughter bought a home in Milwaukee this past summer. She paid to have an inspection done. Now in the dead of winter, she has drafts coming in every window in her house. Is there any recourse she can take against the previous owner. She has a 4 year old daughter.

Over drafty windows, I seriously doubt it. How old is the house? Has she put window insulation kits on?

Windows can pass inspection and still let drafts in. Usually deal breakers in home inspection reports are safety issues.

[johnrex62]

Home inspections are designed to identify safety and structural issues. Drafts are non-structural items and have little safety impact. Inexpensive weather stripping can easily solve this problem. Should run under $10 per window, less on sale and off season. If the drafts are coming through the panes rather than under the frames, then reglazing the panes is the cure and will cost a bit more than the weather stripping, but can still be cheap if she is handy with a putty knife.

[robren]

Thank you for the info, this was my suggestion also.

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by robren

My daughter bought a home in Milwaukee this past summer. She paid to have an inspection done. Now in the dead of winter, she has drafts coming in every window in her house. Is there any recourse she can take against the previous owner. She has a 4 year old daughter.

Probably not. Keep in mind, drafts in windows are going to be bad during the coldest, windiest weather. Summer, of course, will be much less so. If I'm not mistaken, there are inspectors that do energy surveys, and they're not the usual home inspectors. Home inspectors do the major items. I saw a program on PBS or HGTV about this very issue. There is actually a really cool pressure test that some inspectors can do, to determine what the major energy loss issues are.

There are a lot of things that can be done about the windows, up to and including replacement. For the worst offenders, the afermarket weatherstripping is a good move. After that, there's always the heat-shrink route (which I hate). Also a lot of older windows are leaky around the outside frame of the windows. Filling gaps behind trim can help a huge amount. It isn't too hard to do, no more difficult than re-roping those ancient weight-type double hung windows. However, one usually must remove the trim around the windows to do so.

[Andrea_Mamie]

(I think) WE Energies has a program that they come and restrip and weatherize the windows for you. Im not sure all the details or qualifications, but its worth lookin into.

[susancruzs]

When I bought my house in 2007, I had an inspection done. He said my Cape Cod windows needed attention because they'd been painted, caulked and repainted. He explained this was for my info not something that had to be done for the purchase.

He told me I needed to have additional insulation added to the attic and knee wall areas. I had it done but not until the end of Feb. last year. The temperature difference between downstairs and upstairs was over 10 degrees, it was awful. I ended up having the windows replaced but that is a very pricey venture. House is still cold because of the way it was built no insulation in the walls.

[tully]

Is the forced air system (if that's her form of heat) getting enough air intake? If not, it might be creating a vaccuum effect and drawing air in. That's just a wild guess.. perhaps an inspector-type can weigh in on whether that's possible.

[Drover]

Drafty windows are not considered a material fact over which recourse can be taken for failure to disclose, unless "drafty windows" was specifically part of the inspection process and overlooked in which case she would have recourse against the inspector, but that seems highly unlikely. Nobody is entitled to the presumption that the windows are not drafty. Your daughter has three options: 1) put plastic over the windows, 2) put weather seals around them, or 3) replace them.