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water leaks

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 7:09 pm
by kim porter
hi all,my wife and i just bought a 1999 oakwood doublewide that has a water leak in one of the walls,this became known to us as we were taking up the carpet.
the water is coming in somewhere around the window but we cant seem to pin-point the exact spot,anybody got any tips or ideas on how to get the location of the leak?i know trying to find out where it starts is a crap shoot,but any help will be most appreceated

Re: water leaks

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2004 7:31 pm
by Tom
Check the weather seal around the window outside. If it cracked or missing, recaulk the entire outside rim of the window. There is the possibility it could be coming from behind the siding. Make sure you have a bead of caulk around the very top of the siding at the roof line. Tom

Re: water leaks

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 8:11 am
by J. Jay
Thanks for the response. We will check that out. My husband is at work now..

A bit more information... The window shows NO WATER in it at all.. nothing is wet inside that double pane area.... (I checked it while it was raining and the big puddle was on the floor) however... all the windows on the home have aluminum frames and there is no visible seal around any of them.. the siding is "open" to the building... (wavy siding not sealed down)... Is this normal? (does my description make sense???)

Of course ALL the windows are like this.. and only ONE room has leaks... the water seems to be coming down through the walls.. and leaking out where the inner wall meets the flooring... in the edge.

When they (my husband and his uncle) removed the wall board and insulation... from the last rain this past weekend, the insulation was soaked from the height of the bottom of the window to the floor... from (facing the window) about two sections right of the window to one section past the left of the window. Again.. no water appears to be coming out of the window at all.

They did not mention to me any wet insulation from higher up in the wall...

To "fix" it.. they caulked all the seams (vertical) where the siding overlapped siding. They then replaced the damaged insulation.. sprayed the mold/mildew with clorox... dried it all out and then replaced the wallboard. They did a super job... but unfortunately.. that apparently was NOT the cause of the leak.

Appparently this is not a "new" problem from the amount of mold/mildew in the insulation.

SOOOOOO my question is..... if this is true >> ... then how high up would we be finding wet insulation???

Also any other suggestions/ideas?

Lucky for us we were ripping up all the carpet to replace it with vinyl and it rained while the carpet was UP.. We have not yet put down the new vinyl.. and again were lucky that it rained before we had a chance to do that!!

JJay

Re: water leaks

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 10:55 am
by Tom
From your description it appears its either coming in thru the siding(But it really doesnt make sense how this would happen. But that would explain how its only appearing toward the bottom of the window. Or the other possibility is that its running down from the roof from a leak and somehow bypassing the insulation till it pools at the bottom. Are you getting a picture here that this is not easily solved, lol? You have to be sort of a water detective and cover all the bases. Tom

Re: water leaks

Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 8:01 pm
by David Oxhandler
Pull the window. Look at the wood frame once the aluminum widow is removed. The coloring of the wood will tell you if/where the water is seeping in. Scrape off all the old caulking and putty. Use a heavy layer of new putty tape when you reinstall the window. if the old aluminum window frame is bent dented or warped consider replacing it. Then caulk across the top edge.


Often in older homes the addition of gutters will create enough roof overhang to stop the rain water from cascading down the siding and stop the vast majority of seepage problems.


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Re: water leaks

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:51 pm
by J. Jay
Tom:

Thought you might like to know what we found.. and hopefully fixed the problem.

Husband and Uncle removed all the interior wall board and then one of them stood on a ladder and ran water through a hose along the building .. working their way up from the bottom to the top of siding, window etc.. to roof.

A leak was found at the top of the window.. water coming in at the top and going around the frame inside the wall.. and coming along the window frame (not inside the glass area but in the wall area) finally then falling into insulation and to the floor.

They caulked.. let it dry then tested again... no rain yet to truely test it.. but there was no leaking with water going directly at the home or from top down...

Guess this was th SEAL you mentioned..

Thanks for your help... now to fix the "running ' toilet!! LOL
At least it is OURS!!
JJay

Re: water leaks

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2004 8:41 pm
by Tom
Yep, thats what I was talking about. Glad you got it solved. Tom