Hi Everyone,

I have a major problem on my hands.

The house is 4 years old and we are the original home owners - the windows have leaked since we owned the home but we never knew until recently - we barely ever used the room before.

Recently it has gotten worse and we have been putting towels on the sills as a temporary solution.

Fast forward to tonight - we have been getting a lot of rain and the towels on the sills are soaked and the garage ceiling is now soaked. I poked my head in the garage ceiling to see what was happening and it is leaking down the cinder blocks in several location.

See pictures http://s123.photobucket.com/albums/o302/shugalou/


I am planning on calling the window manufactorer once I find out who they are...the builder hasn't been easy to get a hold of, when I mentioned this problem when I originally noticed it neither the home builder or the Home builders warraunty program would help me out.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Any help is appreciated

 

Some pictures of the exterior would help. The exterior of the windows that are leaking, a picture of the entire side of the house where the windows are leaking, and the exterior of the roof above where all your garage attic pictures were taken.

 

OK let me see what I can do tomorrow morning when I can see what I'm doing on the roof.

I check earlier before it got dark and I couldn't notice anything glaring. My neighbour told be that sometimes the windows can be installed upside down or plugs aren't popped out - but I don't see any plugs.

Thanks for the quick reply

 

Being able to actually see the windows, along with the type of siding might give us an idea of what the problem is.

Usually leaks over windows are due to improper flashing over the top of the window. The source of the leak can also be somewhere else and just show up once it reaches the window. I assume the water is dripping from the top of the window?

 

If you run into difficulty finding the builder and your claims for warranty repair go unanswered, then its time to sue. See an attorney immediantly. The builder and warranty people can run but they can't hide.

 

OK I got out to take some picts of the exterior http://s123.photobucket.com/albums/o302/shugalou/
some of the picts are a little big - I left them that way so the detail could be seen - incase I'm not seeing something.

The exterior of the house with all the windows is labeled with letters to help illustrate the problem areas better.

A&B are windows that leak - these leak inside the house and they leak from the bottom of the window.

C&D windows do not leak but the area is leaking into the garage below.

I think I have found a few problem areas that I will caulking up - I have circled these areas and put a letter beside them for reference - But I'm unsure why area D is leaking and it is leaking the worst. Could it be the flashing?

Any help or insight into this problem would be extremely appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Well I think I found teh problem - looks like the windows where installed upside down...damn builder.

Looks like I will be rotating them and re-installing

 

If your house is still under warranty, don't try to correct it yourself. Get after the builder to make the corrections.

 

In Ontario - Home warraties really aren't set up to protect the home owner - after 2 years very little is covered.

The house is 4 years old now.

I called the window manufacteror and they said that they would plug the hole and drill new holes at the bottom for $100 for 2 windows - this is a half ass fix so I decided to do it myself.

I have already fixed one window - so just a couple of more to go. It is a pain in the ass though - took about 4 hrs to do the first one - so I'm hoping for 3 hrs for the next any shorter and I'll be happy

 

I am sorry to hear that you are not going to pursue this through an attorney. Irregardless of the home being out of warranty. As you are the first owner of this home, you have a right to get craftmanship in the construction of the house. This appears not to have happened, attesting to the many leaks you have. By doing the work yourself, you may be eliminating any claims you may have in the future.
How do you know if the building developer or contractor and the warranty company are not in bed with each other?
What you should have done is to get a reliable general contractor to get an opinion on your problem. If he sees mistakes, then your next step would be to get an attorney. The warranty company may not be liable I guess; but I am sure the building contractor would be and his insurance company would have covered him for any repairs to your house. You have leaks now! What's going to happen next year? A general contractor would check out the whole house for faulty construction. I think you are screwing up big time.

 

I appreciate your concern rjordan392 but to go through the hastle of an attorney would not be worth the time and money. I did call the Home warraunty people and basically if the house is 2 years old you aren't covered for anything other than major structural flaws.

I had a contractor come out and check it out and he pointed out one the problems.

There were a couple of problems 1. The windows were installed upside down and the drain holes were on top instead of the bottom. So the run off water had nowhere to go. I contacted the builder and the sent someone out to fix the problem even though they didn't have to - so hats off to the Marshall Homes for making good on that.

2. There is stone work on the window sills and the mortor between these pieces had cracked and shrunk - you could see calcium deposits underneath the stonework when you looked under the sill from across the street. I used concreate caulk to fix these gaps.

Now I am happy to report that I have had zero problems since these things have been fixed.

Thanks to everyone that contributed to this post!