Pella ProLine Casement Window Rot:
The Class Action, the Settlement, and What to Look For Now
Owners sued Pella in 2006, alleging that water got behind the aluminum cladding on ProLine casement windows and rotted the wood. The case took 12 years and two settlements to finish. The windows are still in a lot of houses built in the 1990s and 2000s.
Casement windows crank open on a hinge, and when they close, the whole sash presses into the frame. Pella’s ProLine line was a clad-wood version: wood on the inside, aluminum on the outside. A lot of them went into houses built in the 1990s and 2000s.
In 2006, a group of owners sued, alleging those windows let water get behind the cladding and rot the wood.
What the lawsuit alleged
The case started in federal court in Chicago in the summer of 2006 as Saltzman v. Pella (N.D. Ill. No. 06 C 4481). According to the 7th Circuit’s later opinion, it covered ProLine Series casement windows made and sold between 1991 and 2006. The owners alleged water got “behind the window’s exterior aluminum cladding,” damaging the wood frame and, in some cases, the house around it.
Pella denied that the windows were defective. It still denies it.
The court of appeals upheld class certification in 2010, which let the case go forward on behalf of owners nationwide.
Two settlements, 12 years
The first settlement, approved in April 2013, didn’t last. In June 2014, the 7th Circuit threw it out in Eubank v. Pella. Judge Richard Posner’s opinion called the deal “scandalous” and “stacked against the class.” It capped most payouts at $750 per house, paid lawyers $11 million, and drew only 1,276 claims from more than 225,000 notices. The court ordered new class counsel and sent the case back.
A second settlement came in 2018. It covered a wider group: ProLine aluminum-clad wood casement, awning, and transom windows, including the 250 and 450 Series, made from January 1, 1991 through December 31, 2009. The terms, from the court notice:
- A $25.75 million fund for claims.
- Owners whose window damage was repaired within 15 years of the sale could get their actual costs back. After 15 years, 25 percent.
- A discount program on replacement ProLine windows, starting at 45 percent off in year 11 after the sale and dropping to 25 percent by year 15.
- Claims due by June 20, 2018. After that, claims went through Pella customer service, and Pella agreed to honor warranty claims through 2019.
The settlement notice called the problem water “penetrating between the aluminum cladding of the window and the window Sash,” and treated it as the plaintiffs’ allegation.
Where that leaves an owner today
The settlement’s cash claim deadline passed in 2018, and the windows it covered are now 17 to 35 years old. The 15-year benefit periods have likely run out for most of them.
That doesn’t change what’s in the wall. If a house has clad-wood casement windows from that era, the questions are the same ones you’d ask about any wood window: is the wood sound, does water get past it, and is the wall around it dry?
If you think a window might still qualify for something, Pella customer service is the place to ask (1-888-977-6387, the number the settlement notice gave for later claims). Have the serial label or sill stamp information ready.
How to tell if they’re Pella, and which ones
Pella’s support page says wood and clad-wood units carry a serial label between the panes of glass or on the glass at a lower corner, and that the label isn’t the small etching in the glass. Windows made before about 1997 may have a product identity stamp on the sill, a few inches in from one corner, that gives the product and date.
When the 2013 claim forms asked owners to identify their windows, they asked for three things: the glass etch, the product identity stamp, and the unit ID label. If you can find any of them, a Pella dealer or customer service can tell you what you have.
Pella wasn’t the only wood window maker sued over rot. The Associated Press reported in 2001 that Marvin settled a class action over windows and doors made from 1985 to 1989, which owners blamed on a wood preservative. That claim period ended in 2004.
Real Inspection Photos
Window Staining and Rot From Russ's Inspections
Two windows from Russ's reports showing the kind of water damage the lawsuit was about. Neither was identified as a Pella window.
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Staining on a casement sash, consistent with water getting past the window. The brand wasn't identified. -
Rot at the corner of a wood window sash in a garage. Sash corners are where water tends to sit.
What Russ looks for at the windows
On an inspection, Russ operates a representative number of windows, which is what the Oregon and Washington standards call for, and on casements that means cranking them open and closed. A sash that binds, won’t latch, or has a stripped crank gets noted. So does anything he can see that suggests water:
- Soft, dark, or flaking wood at the sash corners and along the sill
- Water staining on the inside of the sash or on the wall under the window
- Paint failing on wood windows over and over in the same spot
- Fogged glass from a failed seal, which can travel with leaks around the sash
- Gaps or failed caulk where the window meets the siding
Thermal imaging, free on every inspection, can show cool spots around a window that line up with air or water getting in. It doesn’t detect moisture on its own, so a cool spot is a reason to look closer, not a finding by itself. And nobody can see the wood behind aluminum cladding without taking the window apart. Rot found at one window gets written up with a recommendation that a window contractor or qualified contractor evaluate that window and the others like it.
Pella ProLine clad-wood casement, awning, and transom windows made from 1991 through 2009 were the subject of a long class action over alleged rot behind the cladding. The settlement deadline has passed, but the windows haven’t. Check the sash corners, the sill, and the wall below for staining and soft wood.
Russ’s post on single-pane wood windows covers the older wood windows in Portland houses, and failed window seals explains fogged glass. For rot in the rest of the house, see dry rot in Portland homes, and for the house era most likely to have ProLine windows, buying a 1990s home in Portland. To book an inspection in the Portland metro or Southwest Washington, schedule online.
Pella ProLine Window FAQ
