Leaking Windows

[conarb]

Over the last many years I've posted many times about the retrofit window fraud, my wife goes to Yoga on Thursday evenings and I asked tonight why she was still here? She said Jean (the gal who picks her up and takes her) has leaking windows so they are not going tonight, I thought she was talking about car windows and she said: "No she just had new windows put in her house and every one of them is leaking so she can't go tonight." I told her I'm retired and don't want anything more to do with helping these poor people who get scammed with these caulked-in windows anymore but she's got big problems and better get someone in who knows what they are doing. Today is the first real rain we've had this year and I expect we will be hearing of a lot more people who have been scammed by these crooked window replacement contractors.

Building departments do nothing about this, since the advent of the International Codes they no-longer are concerned with quality construction, they are now concerned with saving the planet and all the minorities on it, many AHJs don't even require permits for window replacement, if they do they don't even make them properly flash them in but allow them to stick them in with sealant and they all leak. Those walls are going to be saturated, she's going to have to get a remediation company in and remove all sheetrock and insulation, dry everything down, install new windows by removing and replacing stucco before the home can be rebuilt.

 

[cda]

Ok not in California,

So I do not have a stuckoup home, wood frame brick veneer.

Wife wants single pane aluminum windows replaced

So without tearing the house apart

What are the options

Or if I go with replacement windows, what should I tell them to do

I am Not a builder or building inspector

 

[steveray]

CA...It has nothing to do with the I-codes. Fact of the matter is that there is very little I can see as an inspector for roofing/ siding/ windows. It does not make me want to put my name on them, but it is part of the job. If I had the power to exempt them from permit, I gladly would because for the fee, there is not much I can do to guarantee any kind of quality or even compliance...

 

[cda]

CA...It has nothing to do with the I-codes. Fact of the matter is that there is very little I can see as an inspector for roofing/ siding/ windows. It does not make me want to put my name on them, but it is part of the job. If I had the power to exempt them from permit, I gladly would because for the fee, there is not much I can do to guarantee any kind of quality or even compliance...

I understand, just looking for pointers,, wife wants windows replaced, and trying to do it at a fiar price, and hope not to have problems in the future.

 

[steveray]

I understand, just looking for pointers,, wife wants windows replaced, and trying to do it at a fiar price, and hope not to have problems in the future.

I don't really know if there is a "good way" to flash replacement windows...Maybe the Brentser will chime in or google Renewal by Anderson, they used to have good products and installers, haven't seen their stuff or how it is installed recently...

 

[conarb]

I don't really know if there is a "good way" to flash replacement windows...Maybe the Brentser will chime in or google Renewal by Anderson, they used to have good products and installers, haven't seen their stuff or how it is installed recently...

Renewal by Andersen is cheap junk, the frames are made from "Fibrex" which is particleboard, it will deteriorate like OSB and PSLs in time, Andersen 400 Series is a good window and is installed like any other new construction window, in addition to junk frames they still don't properly flash and waterproof them.

There is no shortcut, I had a corporation installing windows for several years, the only way to do it is to cut the stucco, wood, etc. back and install them with flashing just like new construction, this means that to do it right on stucco homes a new color coat of stucco must be applied to the entire home, with wood homes they have to be repainted. When I came to brick veneer homes I installed them from the inside, that means I went inside the home, shored up the ceilings room-by-room, tore off the sheetrock and took the exterior wall down, installed the new windows on the floor and tipped the walls back up in place. Tearing off brick makes a mess, the grout joints always looks terrible, you can tear off brick and paint it if you like the look of painted brick.

 

[MASSDRIVER]

If you can't counterflash, chances are there will be a leak.If not now, later.

I think it's obvious that Conarb services a high level of client with more resources available to fulfill an actual correction, realistically out of the realm of possibility of most customers. My opinion is that you do it as correctly as possible within your personal confines, and accept some deviation from perfection.

Brent.

 

[conarb]

One of the worst things I saw was about 20 years ago I went to Sacramento to a State License Board meeting on an arbitration matter, when the meeting opened an old man in a rumpled tweed suit that looked like it came from the 40s walked up and took the stand, he said he had flown up from Long Beach, started complaining and crying about how his house had been destroyed by leaking new windows and how sick his wife was, his wife couldn't even get out of bed crying all the time, he started hollering and crying. The chairman told him he should talk to the building department and not them, he said he had been camped out for days at a time at the building department and they wouldn't do a thing. He kept saying that this was going to kill his wife. This went on for some time and they kept asking him to return to his seat, he refused and they finally asked the state police to remove him, several state police handcuffed him and took him out of the room. after this the chairman declared a recess, when we got to the hallway outside the meeting room he was there, the police had removed the handcuffs and were handing him Kleenex and trying to console him, one of the Board members went up to him and said he lived near him and would personally come to his house and see what he could do, but this was really a building department matter and not a State License Board matter.