As the owner of a home repair business, I have seen an alarming trend of homeowners reporting window leaks. These leaks are often the result of improperly installed windows or poor home construction techniques leading to the need for expensive and premature repairs. The following article reveals the warning signs every homeowner can use to determine if he or she has a serious window leak.
Telltale Signs of a Window Leak
Visible moisture inside your home near a window is a fairly obvious sign of a window leak. But there are often more insidious window leaks whose symptoms take much longer to detect. Unfortunately, these symptoms arise after significant damage has been done. The description (and pictures via the link at the bottom of this article) will help you spot those problems before they can cost you thousands of dollars in preventable home repairs.
Case study on the damage of leaking windows
To illustrate how a small, insidious window leak can cause enormous frustration for a homeowner, let’s examine a case study from a recent customer we helped in Amelia, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. This home was about 8 years old, and like many stretch homes built in the Cincinnati area, it has large 2-story rooms with windows making up much of the exterior wall. While this is a wonderful architectural feature, the vinyl siding and construction techniques used on these homes usually don’t prevent a large wall of windows like this from leaking.
The homeowner reports that he has been struggling with window leaks in this part of the house since shortly after purchase and indicates that the builder was unable to resolve the problem. Also, his neighbors are experiencing similar issues. While one cannot automatically conclude that there is a common construction defect in these homes, it is a clue that should lead any home repair professional to examine the quality of the window or flashing installation.
Window leaks are often the result of poor construction
In the case of this homeowner, leaking windows are the result of inadequately flashed windows and a lack of wrap around the house. Flashing is simply a material used to shed water away from areas particularly vulnerable to water intrusion. House wrap is exactly what it sounds like: a material that covers the wood slats and prevents water that seeps behind the brick or siding from soaking into the wood it “wraps.”
In the pictures (link at the end of the article) you can see how the absence of proper window flashing and house wrap has allowed water to penetrate and rot the wood around the windows, causing significant damage to the paneling. plaster and insulation. More alarming is the growth of mold on the wood framing and drywall around the windows inside the house. Aside from the nuisance of water entering the house during a storm, mold growth presents an unacceptable health problem for the family living inside.
If you suspect a window is leaking
If you suspect or witness a leaking window, there are several things you can do to help your home repair professional diagnose and resolve the problem. During the next rain event, ask yourself the following questions and record your observations:
- Does the window always leak when it rains? Or does it only leak during heavy rain?
- Does the window leak when the wind pushes the rain from a particular direction?
- How long has the window been leaking? Can you identify any events associated with when you first noticed the window leak? (ie significant storm, ice event, extreme winds, etc.)
- Has the leak worsened? Or has it remained constant over time?
- Have you tried to stop the leak? If so, what has been done? Has that helped?
- If you can get this information, find out who built your house and when it was built.
Help with window leaks
To learn how you can recognize the warning signs of window leaks in your home, view the video and images associated with this article at: http://www.mastermylist.com/windows/warning-signs-that-your- home-has-a-serious-window-leak/.