Water coming in above window

ed89

Hi - wonder if anyone can help with find out the cause and solution for this problem I have just encountered this morning. There is water dripping slowly from above my dining room window. This is after a night of very heavy rain (haven't had this problem with light rain)

It doesn't seem to be coming from the window itself, but above it, which suggest perhaps coming through the wall? Pic below which may help.



Appreciate any help as I don't know where to start with this and would like to resolve it asap!

Thanks

ed89

I should maybe add that the rain (torrential) has been blowing into this window/wall all night due to the strong wind.

cattie

What is above the window outside, ie, is it flat roof felted, pitch tiled, etc?

It could be the flashing has failed (where the lead that meets the house wall to keep the weather elements out). Or it could be an over-flowing gutter.

With the kind of weather we've been having, rain water will find it's way in through any weakness at all.

Chunks

I have exactly the same problem. My wooden windows (all of them) are letting in water (on the west facing wall - location south west of England). The seal (mastic or whatever) has failed and I didn't notice during the (dry) summer when I bought the place!! Nightmare.

Windows frames and internal decoration are now damp and I am looking to a short term solution to see me through the winter (i will fix properly once everything is good and dry).

Have a close look outside around the window frame of the affected window. You will probably find a breach somewhere in the seal (between window and brick). Is the guttering above the window in question clear and working as it should?

Any interim fix solution ideas (no point in sealing in a damp frame, even if the weather improves a tad) gratefully received too!

Ectophile

I've been battling that problem for the last 3 years, and thought I'd managed to fix it last year. A combination of gale force winds and heavy rain will find every tiny crack. You may never work out where it's actually coming in.

My solution (which worked for 1 year, and has kept out most of the rain this year) was a combination of:

1. Check the pointing in the brickwork above the window - patch anything that looks dodgy.
2. Lots of silicone sealant around top of the window frame.
3. Apply lead-effect self-adhesive plastic flashing strip, using the brown gunky primer that you need to paint on to brickwork before sticking the flashing on.

The flashing strip was stuck across the whole of the top of the window, making sure that it hangs down in front of the top of the window frame (but not so far that the windows won't open). This encourages the rain to drip off, and stops it being blown against the top of the window frame. To be honest, it isn't pretty, but it does help a lot.

JohnB47

I've had this problem this year on just one window -at the top edge as per the OPs post, although there's thankfully no staining inside. I can see that the sealant between window and brickwork outside is cracked and coming away from the brickwork, so the fix is obvious.

I was wondering though, bearing in mind that the gap to be filled is about half an inch wide and presumably just a void behind, whether it would be good to scrape all the old sealant off, then squirt a load of that expanding foam in first, then cut it off flush with the front edge of the window, then apply a goodly splurge of new sealant. I feel that the gap is too big to fill with sealant alone.

Is this a good plan?

Ivana_Tinkle

Is there an upstairs window directly above this one? If so, check that water isn't getting in around the frame of that one and soaking through the wall until it comes out above this window. (That's what we had, and it took us two winters to figure it out...)

JohnB47

Thanks. Yes there is a window above and you may be right. Howeved the failure of the seal on the leaking window is very obvious. I'll bear your experience in mind though.

Anyone have any comment on my idea to inject expanding foam before applying new sealant?