How to Insulate your Windows for Commercial Buildings?

While insulating windows can be a universal practice, applied to both residential and commercial properties, it can be beneficial to pay particular attention to window insulation for commercial and industrial buildings, to make sure that your building envelope is systematically insulated. Throughout both winter and summer months, window insulation can help the building adjust to external climates, keeping the internal components and operations at a regulated temperature. Luckily for building owners, there are many ways in which you can prepare your property from window replacement to window insulation, all of which contribute to making the building more energy efficient. Therefore, what steps can you take to ensure that your commercial property’s windows are effectively insulated?

Property Window Inspection

It is important to thoroughly inspect the windows of your building, you can inspect the seals for cracks, stains, and leaks. Especially over time, seals begin to age, losing their robustness and flexibility, they can also shrink which will dramatically increase heat loss through the weakened area.

Any visible leaks or stains can be a common symptom of water leaks. If water makes its way into your windows and the framing around it, when it freezes, it can highly damage the structure, weakening the insulation effectiveness.

Inspecting your property’s windows will help you identify areas that need improving and provide the correct solution depending on the damage to your windows, whether you have leaking, old seals or more.

Window Installation & Insulation

Insulating Commercial Property Windows

Window installation is just step one of maximising heat retention in your property. In is important to also insulate the structure and seals of windows to ensure energy efficiency and insulation effectiveness is maximised. This solution can help re-insulate ageing windows without the need to replace them. For properties with many windows, this can be more cost-effective, with great insulation results.

Using window coatings and Low-E films can provide that effective insulation that you desire. Low-E coatings aid in managing interior heat, which is impactful all year round, in winter, the Low-E coating helps reflect or “bounce” heat back into the property, stopping it from escaping via your windows and keeping the heat inside.

Resealing Window Structures

Commonly, windows are installed in buildings with rubber gaskets, this acts as an insulated seal for the window system, preventing the escaping of heat throughout winter. However, over time, the rubber gasket will start to deteriorate and fail. Some common symptoms of a failing gasket are brittleness, cracking or staining. By simply repairing this window seal (also applicable to doors), you can improve the insulation of your area.

There are 2 key methods to fixing these rubber gasket structures, firstly, hiring a window installation specialist can replace the damaged gasket with a new rubber seal, this method is a longer lasting but requires specialist knowledge, a bit more complex than standard DIY skills. However, another method could be to apply acrylic chalking or silicone to reseal the window structure. This is more of a short-term fix and will require maintenance and top ups, however, can provide effective results. Although, this will not fix the issue with problems such as leaking, so you need to first assess and inspect the overall window damage.

New Window Systems

Although you can add insulation and reseal the frames for prolonged life and effective insulation properties, if the window itself is damaged or ageing, it may be necessary to replace the system entirely. Single-glazed windows and ageing windows contribute to major heat loss and can add a lot on to your monthly overheads simply by trying to regulate the property’s internal temperature. No matter your efforts to repair the window area, if the system is not up to standards, then your improvement via sealing, stripping, adding Low-E coating and more will be inefficient. Our professionals highly recommend the usage of double or triple-glazed windows for maximum insulation effectiveness, which over time, will help you save money on energy bills and require less maintenance and upkeep.