A double-pane window is two pieces of glass held apart by a spacer and sealed around the edge. When that seal lets go, moist air gets into the space between the panes and condenses there. That is the haze you see, and it is why the window looks dirty in a way that never comes clean. You can wash both surfaces you can reach and nothing changes, because the surfaces holding the moisture are on the inside of the assembly.
Over time a failed unit often gets worse looking, picking up streaks and a mineral film as moisture cycles in and out with the temperature. It is not an emergency and it is not dangerous. It does mean that particular unit is no longer doing what it was built to do, and it usually means the units around it are the same age and heading the same direction.
The biggest cost driver here is how much of the window has to be replaced. Swapping a sealed glass unit into a sound sash is a smaller scope than replacing the sash, and both are smaller than pulling the whole window. Size and shape matter, since large picture glass and arched or shaped units are more to fabricate and harder to handle. A second-story opening adds access work. And if the frame or sill turns out to be soft once things are opened up, the conversation shifts toward full-frame replacement, which is a different job with a different number attached.
Cleaning does nothing, because the moisture sits on surfaces inside the sealed assembly that you cannot reach from either side. As for resealing, you are dealing with a manufactured unit whose seal has already failed once under real conditions. Most homeowners are better served replacing the glass unit, the sash, or the window, depending on what the rest of the assembly looks like.
No. Nothing about it is unsafe and it will not suddenly get worse overnight. What it does mean is that the unit is no longer performing as designed, and that it will keep looking worse as moisture cycles through the space. Most people handle it on their own schedule, often grouping several failed units into one visit rather than fixing them one at a time.
Sun load and exposure. South and west facing openings take the most heat, which works the seal harder through the day. Utah's swing between summer and winter adds to that. If the failures cluster on one or two walls, the exposure explains it, and the same-age units on the shaded sides are usually a few years behind rather than fine forever.
Not automatically. If the frame is solid, the sill is sound, and the hardware still works, replacing just the glass or the sash can be the right call. Replacement makes more sense when the frame is deteriorated, when the window fights you every time you open it, or when enough units have failed that doing them piecemeal stops making sense.
Old windows swapped for new ones, either full-frame down to the rough opening or as an insert inside the existing frame. We help you figure out which one your house actually needs before anyone quotes a number.
Learn more →Sliders, French doors, and entry doors are a related but separate job with their own problems: thresholds that leak, weatherstripping that has gone flat, and slabs that no longer sit square in the opening. We handle those too.
Learn more →Finished basement bedrooms have to meet code for the size of the opening and the well outside it. If yours was flagged during a sale or an inspection, this is the work that corrects it, well and drainage included.
Learn more →A sash that will not stay up, a crank that spins, a window painted shut. These are usually hardware or balance problems, not a reason to replace the whole unit. Worth checking before you buy anything.
Learn more →A few quick questions, then we match you with a contractor who works on Utah homes.