The Conquistador on S.E. Belmont Street in Portland.

There is water showing up at the top of the lower windows. So holes are cut in the drywall in the ceiling to trace back the water trail.

And upstairs, more holes are cut below those windows to confirm the suspicion that the 2nd story windows are the point of entry by which the…

…water infiltration is accessing the tops of the ground-floor windows. And indeed, confirmed it was.

No siding to remove here. The solution is actually fairly simple on this one. Provide & install “Sill-Pans” below the top-floor windows to reroute the water back out to the exterior if the sealant fails.

So the first Vinyl Window is removed from the masonry rough-opening.

Conan goes about cleaning the excess sealants from both the windows and the rough-openings…

…while Tim Afonin goes about field-fabricating several aluminum sill-pans.

Another mystery solved and another problem resolved.

Wikipedia defines “Commercial property” as (among other things) multifamily housing or residential property containing more than a certain number of units.

This old apartment building that has been turned into condos has the old steel sash casement windows with putty-glazed single-pane glass. Above is a shot of the original “push-bar” operators by which the steel sash were opened and held in position.

This is a photo of the original casement latches.
The problem was that our client’s condo had all the original hardware replaced at some point in history prior to his purchasing of the condo.

This is a shot of the “after-market” crank-mechanism that our client’s condo had currently, and that were either broken or not working well. Since the latches had been removed for some reason, the crank-mechanisms were being used to hold the sash closed, but without the latches, the top of the sash did not close tightly.

And since these sash had absolutely no weather-stripping, that made for extremely leaky windows. This is one of the replacement latches we outfitted his windows with, that substantially resolved that problem.

This procedure required that we modify the steel jamb and the “catch” portion of the latching system that is affixed to the sash. But customization and modification is among our strong suits.

And these are the casement sash “push-bars” we came up with to replace the after-market crank-mechanisms, thus returning the hardware system back towards something much closer to the original hardware.

I failed to get a shot of it, but when the sash is closed, the handle tucks in close to the window jamb, and sits parallel with the window assembly.

A commercial masonry building in Southeast Milwaukie.

A very common main entry with second story window configuration found in buildings of this ilk and use. A wood accent set between two aluminum storefront type assemblies.

Water showing up at the suspended ceiling and the drywall surround above the door.

An obvious potential culprit…a lack of metal flashing above the wooden header-trim above the door and sidelight assembly.

But more evidence above the suspended ceiling suggests that water is migrating down from the upper window assembly. Nothing a “sill-pan” wouldn’t likely resolve.

So we set up our pump-jacks…

…and Steve Hilt goes about lowering the harness ropes as required.

The glass is deglazed from the aluminum-frames and the window assembly is pulled from the rough-opening.

A sill pan is provided and installed, the aluminum window reinstalled and the glass is reglazed into the assembly.

Jared goes about applying the finishing touches with his caulking gun.