Metal window frame oxidation can make your building look old and dirty even if it’s been freshly cleaned. Restoring your commercial building’s metal window frames can make it look new again while maintaining its charm. And more often than not, restoring tarnished windows is more cost-effective than painting them.
Presto Restoration has years of experience dealing with the unique challenges that come with restoring a building’s metal surfaces, including window frames. Our technicians are skilled in choosing the right tools, techniques, and products to protect your building’s exterior metal surfaces, preserving its natural luster, and extending its life.
Causes of Window Frame Oxidation
Anodized aluminum has long been the ideal material for building exterior finishes. It’s lightweight yet strong, flexible yet durable, and protective against the harshest of elements. If only you could install it and forget about it!
Like most exterior building materials, aluminum window frames eventually begin to fade, weather, and degrade. The good news is restoration services can bring damaged window frames back to nearly original condition.
Oxidation has long been aluminum’s toughest foe. For while the metal has impressive strengths, it does have a particular vulnerability to weathering. To prevent degradation, many aluminum window frames are treated with anodization, an electrochemical process that give the metal a hard protective coating.
Anodization does a good job of protecting metal window frames, but over time it, too, will degrade and take on an ashy white appearance. What’s more, moisture and oxygen can create pits that burrow deep into the anodizing coating. Other causes of exterior metal degradation include:
- Direct environmental pollution.
- Indirect contaminates such as leaching for precast and deteriorating coatings and caulkings.
- Failed UV-sensitive water repellent performance treatments.
Once this occurs, the window frames have, as they say, “passed the point of no return.” That’s why it’s so crucial to give metal window frames the same regularly scheduled maintenance care and attention as other building elements.
Commercial Building Window Frame Oxidation Solutions
While many building owners and managers decide to paint over damaged metal window frames, restoration services are highly effective at bringing metal window frames back to life, saving you money over the long term.
Presto’s professional restoration services for window frame oxidation include cleaning, repairing, refinishing, and restoring anodized aluminum surfaces on site. Our environmentally friendly proprietary products and methods are guaranteed to restore the sheen and visually pleasing appearance of your building’s metal window frames while preserving and protecting the finish for years to come.
How do we do it?
Presto’s metal window frame restoration teams are trained and experienced in removing hard water stains, pollutants, hard water stains, caulking and coating residue, and more from anodized aluminum surfaces. We never use abrasive techniques so often used by other metal restoration companies. Our gentler approach removes stains and adds protection using products and processes that avoid burning and scratching.
- To safely and quickly remove surface stains from aluminum materials and provide temporary surface protection, we use our EnviRestore® Metal Stain Remover followed by the application of our Metal Protector® MD or Metal Protector® HD to protect the surfaces from further staining and or damage from the elements.
- Presto’s non-abrasive Metal ReSurfacer® restores anodized aluminum frames to their natural luster. Applied with a special polisher and pad to obtain the most effective results, it efficiently removes Stage 1 and Stage 2 stains, corrosion, and oxidation from a metal frame’s surface layer. Environmentally safe and acid-free, this non-greasy, water-based product also fights grease and grime. Again, we follow up with an application of one of our Metal Protector products.
Once the restoration process is complete, maintaining the appearance of your metal window frames is simple. You need only clean the frames using deionized water.
During the metal window frame restoration process, we’ll also:
- Resurface the glass.
- Wet glaze the glass if the rubber seals are leaking.
- Caulk window frame perimeters if they’re leaking.
Presto’s Restoration Services for Window Frame Oxidation
We like to say that the proof is in the results. One of our most challenging yet rewarding metal window frame restoration projects was The Meadows Building in Dallas. Built in 1955, it was one of the city’s first high-rises, named for the president of General American Oil Company, the building’s owner.
One of the few remaining examples of classic Midcentury Modern architecture left in Dallas, The Meadows Building is a testament to historic preservation. We were proud and honored to be given the opportunity to work on this designated landmark building.
Presto Restoration consults with building owners and managers to provide comprehensive commercial building restoration recommendations and services, including for metal window frames. As the country’s leading exterior restoration and waterproofing company, we’ll save you time and money on extensive repairs or painting and help you avoid expensive window frame replacements. Talk to us today to learn more.
Call us at 1-800-785-9927 or Request a Quote.
