Is a foggy window covered under the original manufacturer's warranty?

Many window manufacturers offer a limited warranty on seal failure, often 10-20 years depending on the brand and product line, but it typically only covers the glass unit itself, not labor or installation. Check any paperwork from the original installation, since warranty terms and transferability to a new homeowner vary significantly by manufacturer. If you don't have documentation, the frame or window brand stamped on the hardware can sometimes help track it down.

How do I check that a window contractor is actually licensed to work in Washington?

In Washington, contractors are required to hold an active state contractor license, which you can look up directly through the L&I contractor lookup by license number or business name. It's worth checking that the license is active, not just issued, and confirming they carry current liability insurance and bonding. A legitimate local contractor won't hesitate to give you their license number before you ask twice.

Does the type of glass coating matter for a coastal property like Birch Bay?

Low-E coatings and tempered or laminated glass all perform differently, and for a bay-facing home, glass with good UV and solar heat control is worth asking about since west-facing rooms take a lot of afternoon sun off the water. Coating durability can also be affected by salt air over time, so it's a fair question to ask when comparing replacement glass options. This is a case-by-case decision based on which direction your windows face.

What's the actual difference between argon and krypton gas fill in a window unit?

Both are inert gases used to fill the gap between panes for better insulation than plain air, with krypton offering slightly better performance in narrower gaps and argon being more common and more affordable for standard window spacing. For most homes, argon fill is the standard choice and performs well; krypton is more often reserved for specialty or narrow-profile units. Once the seal fails, whichever gas was in there has usually leaked out regardless of which type it was.

Why do windows on the bay-facing side of a Birch Bay home seem to fail faster than windows on the other side?

Direct exposure to salt-laden air off the water accelerates corrosion of metal spacer bars and hardware, and that same side of the house usually takes the brunt of driving rain during winter storms off the Strait. Combined with more direct sun exposure causing extra expansion and contraction, bay-facing windows are simply working harder year-round than sheltered or north-facing windows on the same house. It's common to see one elevation age noticeably faster than the rest of the home.

Foggy Windows: What Failed and What to Do

Why Your Windows Are Fogging Up From the Inside

If you've got a window in your Birch Bay home that looks permanently smudged no matter how many times you clean it, you're not dealing with dirt. You're looking at a failed seal on an insulated glass unit, or IGU. Most windows installed in the last 30-40 years use two (sometimes three) panes of glass with a sealed air gap between them, usually filled with argon or krypton gas to improve insulation. That seal is a strip of material, often a metal spacer bar with a desiccant inside it, bonded with sealant around the perimeter of the glass. When that seal breaks down, moist outside air gets pulled into the gap, and you get condensation trapped between the panes where you can't wipe it away.

It's a cosmetic problem and a performance problem at the same time. Once the seal fails, the argon gas that was doing real insulating work has usually leaked out too, so the window's energy performance drops right along with its looks.

Why This Shows Up So Often in Whatcom County

Seal failure happens everywhere, but Birch Bay and the surrounding Whatcom County coastline give it a head start. Salt air is corrosive to the metal spacer bars and fasteners inside a window unit, driving rain forces water against and around window frames for days at a stretch, and our long moss season keeps north-facing and shaded walls damp for months on end. Add in the constant expansion and contraction from temperature swings between our cool, wet winters and warmer summer afternoons, and the sealant around that IGU is working harder here than it would inland. We see seal failure show up years earlier on bay-facing and west-facing exposures than on sheltered sides of the same house.

What's Actually Failing Inside the Glass

There are three components at play in a sealed unit, and it helps to know which one is giving out:

The perimeter seal — a bead of sealant (often silicone or polyisobutylene) that holds the two panes to the spacer bar and keeps outside air and moisture out.
The spacer bar — the metal or composite strip that holds the panes apart at a fixed distance. Older aluminum spacers conduct heat and cold and are more prone to corrosion from salt air than newer "warm edge" spacers.
The desiccant — a moisture-absorbing material packed inside the spacer bar. It's designed to soak up any residual humidity sealed in at manufacturing time, but it has a finite capacity. Once it's saturated, any new moisture that gets in has nowhere to go, and that's when you see fogging.

Once fog appears, the desiccant is already overwhelmed and the seal has already let moisture in more than once. This isn't a one-time event you can head off — it's the sign of a seal that has run its course.

Can a Foggy Window Be Fixed, or Does It Need Replacing?

This is the question we get asked constantly, and the honest answer is: it depends on what you're trying to fix.

Defogging Services

Some companies advertise a "defog" service that drills a small hole in the glass, extracts the moisture, and applies a coating or refills the gap before sealing the hole. In our experience, this is a temporary cosmetic fix at best. The original seal is still compromised — you haven't restored it, you've just given the trapped moisture somewhere to go for now. Most of the time, the fog comes back, sometimes within months, because the root cause (a failed perimeter seal or exhausted desiccant) hasn't changed. We don't offer this as a long-term solution because we don't think it's honest to sell a repair that we expect to fail again.

Sash or Glass-Only Replacement

If the window frame, sash, and hardware are all still in good shape and just the glass unit has failed, it's often possible to replace only the IGU itself, or the whole sash if the window uses a removable sash design. This is a legitimate, cost-effective repair when the rest of the window is sound. It requires an exact measurement match and, ideally, the original manufacturer's specs, since glass units are made to precise thicknesses and spacer widths.

Full Window Replacement

If the frame is also showing wood rot, corroded aluminum, warped vinyl, or if the window is old enough that finding a matching replacement sash isn't practical, full replacement is the more sensible path. It's a bigger job up front, but it resets the clock on the whole unit — frame, glass, hardware, and weatherstripping together — rather than patching one failed component while the rest of the window continues to age.

How to Tell Which Situation You're In

Before you decide anything, it helps to know what you're actually looking at. Here's a rough guide:

What You See	Likely Issue	Typical Path
Fog only, frame and sash feel solid, window opens/closes fine	IGU seal failure, frame otherwise sound	Glass or sash replacement
Fog plus soft or discolored wood around the frame	Seal failure with frame-level water intrusion	Full window replacement
Fog plus visible white/chalky mineral deposits on the glass	Long-term seal failure with mineral buildup	Glass replacement, sometimes visible etching remains
Fog on multiple windows on one side of the house at once	Exposure-driven failure (sun, salt air, wind-driven rain)	Evaluate that whole elevation, not just one window
No fog, but window feels drafty or hard to open	Hardware or weatherstripping wear, not a seal failure	Hardware repair or resealing, not glass replacement

What Drives the Cost

We won't quote numbers here that don't reflect your specific windows, but a few factors consistently move the price up or down on this kind of job:

Window size and glass type — larger units, tempered glass (required near doors and low sills by code), and specialty coatings all cost more to source and replace.
Standard vs. custom sizing — older homes with non-standard window openings often need custom-cut glass units, which takes longer and costs more than a stock size.
Number of windows affected at once — if seal failure is showing up on several windows the same age, doing them together is usually more efficient than one at a time.
Frame condition — sound frames keep the job to glass or sash replacement; frame damage pushes the job toward full replacement.
Access — second-story or hard-to-reach windows take more labor time regardless of the glass itself.

Can You Prevent Seal Failure?

Not entirely — every sealed glass unit has a finite lifespan, generally somewhere in the range of 15-25 years depending on quality and exposure. But a few things do slow it down, especially in a climate like ours:

Keeping gutters and downspouts clear so water isn't running down the wall and pooling at window sills.
Clearing moss and organic debris off nearby roof and siding surfaces so damp material isn't sitting against the window frame.
Making sure exterior caulking around the frame perimeter is intact — this protects the frame-to-wall connection, not the glass seal itself, but it keeps water from reaching the frame and accelerating everything nearby.
Choosing warm-edge spacer systems over older aluminum spacers when you do replace windows, since they hold up better against corrosion and temperature cycling.

None of this stops a seal from eventually failing. It just buys you more years before it does, which matters when you're dealing with the kind of sustained wet weather and salt exposure that's normal for this part of the county.

A Quick Checklist Before You Call Anyone

Note which windows are fogging and on which side of the house — this pattern matters for diagnosis.
Check whether the frame around each foggy window feels solid or soft when pressed.
Look for any visible gaps, cracked caulk, or peeling paint at the frame perimeter.
Find out the age of the windows if you can — original builder-grade windows behave differently than a prior owner's upgrade.
Avoid drilling or attempting a DIY defog fix before getting an honest opinion — it can make later glass replacement harder if the frame needs modification.

What to Expect From an Honest Assessment

A straightforward window inspection should tell you, window by window, whether you're looking at a seal failure with a sound frame, a seal failure with frame damage, or something else entirely, like hardware wear that just looks similar. We'd rather tell a Birch Bay homeowner that three of their ten windows just need glass replacement than sell a whole-house job that isn't needed yet — and we'd rather flag frame rot early than have someone pay for new glass in a frame that's not going to hold it much longer anyway.

If you've got foggy windows anywhere in the house, we're happy to come take a look, tell you plainly what's going on with each one, and put together a free, no-pressure estimate for whatever combination of repair or replacement actually makes sense for your situation.