We live in a new housing development in the North Kansas City, MO region. Many homes that are between one and five years old have window sills that are rotting.
The windows are double hung without aluminum or vinyl cladding. Windows appear to be standard contractor grade with Z flashing at top and caulking around molding.
Many have begun to replace the sills and brick molding on these homes. Some replace with new windows and others splice in new sill and molding.
We’ve noticed on the windows we have replaced that the sill is manufactured with finger jointed strips with waffle staples (??).
Can someone give us feedback on this issue which seems to be a rampant problem? We are also wondering if the way the windows are joined is allowing them to expand and the water to penetrate into the sill. Is the brick molding rotting because the water is wicking and holding water?
Does anyone know a remedy for this? This seems to be a significant problem in this area. Is it the manufacturer, the installer, or both?
Any help on this would be appreciated.
Replies
If there is a number of fellow home owners that have this common problem and if all the windows are of the same manufacturer, then I would get up a letter to the manufacturer to explain this premature decay to you and have it signed by all parties.
Give em 14 days to respond or you bump it up a notch.
Any reputable manufacturer will have a rep contact you and check it out. Regardless of the finger jointing or staples used, it's not normal for such premature decay that would cause replacement after only 5 years.
I can't see or touch your problem over the internet and neither can anyone else so it's impossible to make an informed comment on the cause.
Gabe
done- just out of curiosity whats the make, is there a direction (north/south) where the decay is more prevalent. frankly, off the top of my head, it sounds like the super economy model. is there any type of joinery frame to sill. and proper priming is imperative, a qualified painter is worth his weight .finger-jointed sill are on a few models wes- pine comes to mind, and marvin does but there painted finish as far as i'm concerned, is impeccable. is replacement completely out of the question? and can you post a picture that would be a big help. and gabe has even better advice with connecting with a rep. i'm really curious what these windows look like, for decay to set in that quickly the joinery has completely failed and would seem there is no drainage/or drying going on there. i would try to get a glue and caulking sample and get that assesed. cheers bear
Edited 6/17/2002 9:48:40 PM ET by the bear
Edited 6/17/2002 9:50:35 PM ET by the bear
d- one more Q; when you started to replace were the "waffle nails" rusted what you refer to waffle nails i'll speculate as being what i know as corrugated nails?? bear