I’m with you—ventilation feels like the unsung hero here. We tightened up our 80s place and suddenly had condensation everywhere, especially on the old double panes. Triple glazing sounds nice, but unless your windows are rotting or drafty, I’d rather spend that cash on a good HRV or just sealing up the obvious gaps. My neighbor did triple glazing and honestly, he’s still running a dehumidifier half the winter... so it’s not always the miracle fix.
Triple glazing sounds nice, but unless your windows are rotting or drafty, I’d rather spend that cash on a good HRV or just sealing up the obvious gaps.
Couldn’t agree more with this. I see a lot of folks jump straight to new windows thinking it’ll solve every comfort and condensation issue, but honestly, if your frames are still in decent shape and you’re not feeling drafts, you’ll get way more bang for your buck tackling ventilation and sealing first. I’ve worked on plenty of older homes where people dropped a small fortune on triple glazing and still ended up with foggy glass and that musty smell in the winter. It’s almost always because the house isn’t breathing right.
A lot of times, people don’t realize how much tightening up a house changes the whole airflow. Suddenly, all that moisture from showers, cooking, even just breathing, has nowhere to go. That’s when you start seeing water on the windows and sometimes even mold behind furniture. Adding an HRV (or even just running your bathroom fan more) can make a bigger difference than new glass.
Triple glazing is great if you’ve got really bad heat loss or crazy street noise, but it’s not a magic fix for everything. And yeah, price-wise, it’s a big jump—often double the cost of decent double glazing. Unless your energy bills are through the roof or your windows are falling apart, I usually tell people to look at weatherstripping, caulking, and maybe some storm windows first. Sometimes just swapping out a couple of the worst offenders does the trick.
Funny enough, I had a client last winter who insisted on triple glazing for every window in his 70s split-level. Looked great, but he still called me back two months later because of condensation. Ended up installing an HRV anyway... could’ve saved a lot of hassle if we’d started there.
Bottom line: windows matter, but airflow and moisture control are just as important—sometimes more so.
Triple glazing is great if you’ve got really bad heat loss or crazy street noise, but it’s not a magic fix for everything.
This hits home. I was all set to go triple until I realized my main problem was leaky frames and no bathroom fan. Sealing and adding ventilation made a way bigger difference than I expected. Triple glazing just seemed overkill for my situation.
Sealing and adding ventilation made a way bigger difference than I expected.
Same here. I was convinced new windows would fix everything, but turns out my drafty old frames were the real culprit. Did you notice your energy bills drop after sealing stuff up? I’m still debating if triple is worth the extra cash, honestly.
I was convinced new windows would fix everything, but turns out my drafty old frames were the real culprit.
That’s been my experience too. I thought splurging on triple glazing would be the magic bullet, but honestly, the biggest change came after I tracked down all the sneaky air leaks around the frames and sealed them up. The old windows themselves weren’t as bad as I’d assumed—it was the gaps that were killing my heating bill.
As for triple glazing, I’m not totally sold unless you’re in a really cold climate or you’ve already maxed out everything else (insulation, airtightness, etc.). The energy savings over double glazing just don’t seem to justify the extra upfront cost in most cases. I did see a noticeable drop in bills after sealing and adding controlled ventilation, but when I ran the numbers for triple versus double, the payback was... let’s say optimistic.
If your frames are still drafty, even the fanciest glass won’t help much. Maybe worth focusing on sealing and insulation first, then see if upgrading the glass is still needed.
I had the same thing happen—spent a bunch on new windows but didn’t realize the cold was sneaking in around the edges. Once I actually weatherstripped and filled the gaps, it made a way bigger difference than I expected. Triple glazing sounds cool, but unless you’ve got everything else sorted, it feels like overkill for my place.
Honestly, I had to laugh reading this because I went down the same rabbit hole. Put in double glazing, but the drafts were still there until I finally tackled the gaps and old caulking. Triple glazing gets all the hype, but unless your walls and attic are sorted, most of that extra insulation is just wasted. I’d rather spend on sealing and insulation first—made a bigger dent in my bills than any fancy window ever did.
Triple glazing gets all the hype, but unless your walls and attic are sorted, most of that extra insulation is just wasted.
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been called in to “fix” cold rooms after fancy window upgrades, only to find air sneaking in through old floorboards or that one weird spot behind the radiator. One client had brand new triple glazing but you could still feel a breeze under the baseboards—turned out there was a gap straight to the crawl space. Out of curiosity, did you notice a big difference in comfort after sealing things up, or was it mostly on your bills?
Yeah, I totally get what you mean about drafts sneaking in from the weirdest places. When we moved in, I was all hyped about new windows but ended up crawling around with a smoke pen and a flashlight... found a bunch of little leaks I never would've guessed. After sealing up the attic hatch and some gaps around pipes, honestly, the house just *felt* less drafty. The bills dropped a bit, but it was the comfort—no more cold spots or random chilly feet—that made the biggest difference for us. Triple glazing probably helps, but it’s not magic if everything else is leaky.
That’s exactly it—triple glazing sounds impressive, but if you’ve got gaps around doors, pipes, or the attic, you’re still losing heat. I did double glazing and focused on sealing everything else first. Noticed way more improvement from the draft fixes than the window upgrade, honestly. Triple glazing might be overkill unless you’ve already handled all those sneaky leaks.