How do I isolate where the rain is getting into the walls of my house?

Question

I have a home that's 4 years old with vinyl siding. When it rains the areas at the baseboards on both sides of the window are damp - and sometimes quite wet.

I'm assuming the rain is getting somewhere through the siding or framing of the window, but don't know how to isolate the area to patch.

As a test I put duct tape all around the window on the outside (to simulate what it would be like if I totally caulked it up) and there was still water getting in.

1. Is there a way to pinpoint the leaky area?

2. And what should I use to seal?

3. Does siding tend to leak... are there common vulnerablilites to look at?

Thanks

Answer 1

Siding should not leak at all.  The shape of the siding, if installed correctly should cause the water to be shed completely. Exterior grade silicon caulk will do most of the job. But also look closely for deformations in the siding.  Builders often don't pay real close attention to the quality of their work.

If you can get your hands on a moisture meter, you might be able to find where it is getting in.  Or you may have to remove the siding and re-install it with proper sealing in place.  that ain't cheap, but its a lot cheaper than the water damage and mold that is probably building up right now.

Answer 2

yes you need to remove the sheet rock and flood with a hose responce above me wins give him the 10

Answer 3

find a contractor or a well versed ''handyman'' to look the house over. the

the place is only 4 yrs old. It seems to me that none of this should be happening and theres a good possibility that the bldg wasn't put together right in the first place.

So you need someone whois going to really look everthing over before he comes up with an answer.

A lot of contractors just want to get some sort of job ($$$$) out of an inspection-- a roofer says a roof,,a gutter guy says a gutter,,etc.

And a lot of these clowns cannot build a house from the ground up and so thier answers are useless. ( just like getting a car fixed--sound familiar??)

Answer 4

Of course it shouldn't leak.

The only true way to find out is to remove the interior wall surface (probably drywall). Then have someone flood the whole outside area with a hose until you can see where the moisture is coming from.

I had the same type problem with my home. The builder came out many times and "guessed" where it was leaking. They would seal this or that. It wasn't until they removed the drywall that we were able to see the water coming in through poor exterior wrap job and the water was leaking in through the staples holding the warp in place.

We also found that the water was leaking in from the bottom corners of the aluminum framed windows. A little caulk in the bottom corners took care of that.