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Do I have a construction problem in my Marvin window?

15 years ago

Hello, I've just received my Marvin Ultimate Aluminum clad window - paint-grade douglas fir wood.

Generally, the window seems good in its visible pieces. Nice wood in all the exposed areas. They could have done a better job, I think in sanding down the wood in a couple of areas to make it smooth for the finish, but I suppose we'll deal with that.

What I'm particularly concerned about is the construction or the wood used along the sides - the parts that will be in the wall. The window frame (I'm sorry, but I'm forgetting a lot of the window construction terminology) seems to be constructed from laminating 4 layers of wood. There are two places where the wood that was laminated appears not to have perfectly square edges and as a result, there is a bit of a gap in two areas between 2 layers of the wood. I have pictures to show this. Could you please take a look and tell me if this is a problem with the construction or if it is par for the course in the construction? Through the rest of the window, the laminated wood pieces are perfectly perfectly square so they form a thick contiguous block of wood. Here, they is clearly this wrinkle.

I'm not in the business and I don't know if I'm focusing on the correct measures in assessing these - I just know that I'm nervous about the window as I don't want to wind up with something that will be defective, rot, get water-logged or whatever.

So, if you window experts could please tell me to either worry or not worry, it would help me very very much.

This first picture gives you the distant view of the problem I'm referring to. If you look at the edge facing you at about the same height as that of hte top of hte lower sash, you'll see this wrinkle I speak of:

This second picture zooms into that area some more:

This same phenomenon is repeated at the top of the window also:

So, is this a defect? Well, it is, but is it a defect in window construction parlance or is it nothing to worry about? What should we be doing about it? Wood putty? Leave it be? Return the window for a new one?

Any help much appreciated.

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Comments (3)

windowtech
15 years ago
I don't think you really have any worries there. The adhesives they use there will keep it very solid. Inside there is like tongue and grove paneling and the fit is tight.

Because I'm only looking at a picture, I recommend having your carpenter look at it closely to make sure that the adhesive is there and creating a seal between those pieces of wood.
mindstorm
Original Author
15 years ago
Windowtech,
Bless you. Bless you a thousand times. Yes we will have the carpenters look it over but frankly, I trust the people here a lot lot more to be properly and critically analytical. Also we've never dealt with this company before so they are actually the other variable in this whole thing that is making me nervous. ;-)

We'll have the carpenters look it over certainly, but in general, given that there are no structural or construction worries here, would you wood putty this before installing it?
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afsa
15 years ago
I agree with Windowtech, the frame is constructed of finger joint lumber which is almost like tongue and groove pieces and a part of the laminated wood is missing, I have scene it before and there should be no problem at all with it. But as Windowtech said we are looking at a photo just have your builder dbl check.

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