Hurd wood window/doors leak water!

[lars]

Hi,

I have all Hurd windows on my house. The house was an old barn and was redone before we bought it, about 8 - 10 years ago or so. (we have lived here for 6 years, the old owners lived in it for about 4 after renovating it).

In the front I have a problem with the two Hurd units that form the entryway.

There is a two door swing atrium-type unit, with built-in side lights. Then above this, is a row of "top" lights. These may form one unit, or may be separate Hurd units "attached" in some manner.

Then, above the doors by about 5 feet, there is a unit that spans the same width, is square, and has 24 lights. They are all wood, with separate lights. The window does not open, but has a decent amount of trim or molding that makes me believe it is a single unit.

We've had a problem with leaking water. When the wind is hitting the windows/doors head on, some (about 2 or 3 in the doors and about 4 or so in the big window) number of lights have water leaking. The water seems to run on the inside corner of the "frame" of the light, on the vertical member, and collect on the horizontal member.

We recently had the house painted. It seems worse now, but then again, it's raining, 20 deg. F and 30 mph winds. I just may notice it more now.

The question is obviously, how do I stop the water? Do I a) use window putty (if it were warm enough, which it won't be until May!) b) use silicone chalk? (again, may be too cold!) c) something else...like sell the house!

Also, the door seems to give me problems in its operation. You need to do certain handle movements to lock the "fixed" side of the opening doors, and the moveable side has a hard time closing. The builder put this door unit right on the ground. that is, they built a cement porch of about 6 inches, then put the door right on here. So rain and show may have compromised the bottom of the doors. But this does not explain the leaks in the windows and doors.

Keep in mind, any repair I'd perform would be done on a ladder about 15 feet about ground ... in the snow!

Oh, if anyone wanted to fix this for me and lived in MA, you can email me...just "figure out" my real email address.

Thanks,

Lars

[AJScott]

Obviously, short of yanking windows and such and freezing your hiney off doing it, the only thing you can do right now would be to take a band-aid approach to your window leakage problems until you can get the problem fixed right during the spring. If you think you can isolate the outside source of where the water is getting in, might I suggest a really great caulk that works phenomenally well in some mildly cold weather and sets up very quickly should rain be on the horizon. The stuff I and construction-trade guys I know have used to great satisfaction is OSI Quad Pro Series window, siding and roof Advanced Formula Sealant. It's not silicone, either. Only thing is, while it costs only about the same as any other caulk ($3-4 a tube) you can't get it any just any plain old hardware store. You have to go to a construction or roofing supply house for it. But if you can get it, it initially sets up within maybe just under an hour or so, and you can even paint over it a few hours later.

As for your door problems, I imagine you've probably been screwed into a new rehab project that could have been avoided in the first place, methinks. Only an idiot sets anything right on the ground and expects to get away without stuff like water and bugs eventually mucking things up. I'm also willing to bet that you really start noticing the hard-close and handle-jiggering problems mainly once the cold temps of fall roll around, no?

AJS

[David Thomas]

Lars,

My house was built with Hurd windows and doors. After about three years some of the windows on a south gable-end wall began leaking. I caulked and painted... and caulked and painted... and caulked and painted for four years. Each round would stop the leakage for a couple of months only to start up again. By that time I had slimy mold growing out of the wall around the windows. Major repair of rot in the walls and re-work the windows fixed the problem for about six months. Three more years of caulk and paint. This summer dropped $11,300 on the problem and the leaks went away... and so did the Hurd windows.

David