A window in Birch Bay has two jobs that fight each other: frame the view across the bay toward the Strait of Georgia, and stand up to the same salt wind that makes the view dramatic. Plenty of windows here manage neither — fogged between the panes, crusted with salt film, rattling in their tracks every time a southwesterly builds. Alpine Exteriors replaces windows throughout Birch Bay with units chosen specifically for waterfront duty.
What Salt Air Does to Windows
Marine exposure attacks windows from three directions at once. Salt spray etches and films exterior glass, dulling the very view the window exists for. Airborne salt corrodes hardware — locks, hinges, slider rollers — until operable windows stop operating. And wind-driven rain exploits every weak perimeter seal, feeding moisture into walls that may not show the damage for years.
Birch Bay's housing adds a wrinkle: a large share of homes here are cottages and second homes that sit closed up for weeks at a time. Unoccupied houses do not get ventilated, so winter moisture condenses on cold glass and frames day after day with nobody there to wipe it up — a slow-motion mildew and rot problem we uncover constantly during replacements.