Defect / Water Leak Remediation

This particular project doesn?t fall into the construction defect category in as much as the water damage wasn?t due to the usual improper application of flashing materials.

This bank of three Pella wood double-hung windows, and the two mulled double-hungs in the adjoining wall had rotten sills as shown in the next photo.

As you may be able to discern, this is not just the beginnings of some minor water-damage. This is a hole. And you probably needn?t be told what the ramifications of the hole were going to be.

So we carefully removed the jamb assemblies from the rough-openings.

We employed the use of a lift, which we were going to need to access those afore mentioned ramifications related to the hole in the sill,?

?and used it to retrieve the jambs, and carefully lowered them to the area below?

?that we had set up for repairing the various window assembly components?

?a sample of which is shown here. And yes?we repaired them, as in milled new sills and jambs & exterior trim components as needed. This is what we do. And while some will ask if it isn?t less expensive to replace them with new windows?and while the answer sometimes is yes, it?s instructive to remember that this particular line of Pella windows are no longer made, so replacement is not always a viable option.

And then back up to those ramifications related to the hole in the window sill. Now technically now days?a sill-pan would be considered by some to be part of a flashing system.
And indeed, a sill-pan would have kept this subsequent damage in the wall below from occurring. And I can assure you that there is a growing chorus of construction related folks who would scoff at the notion of installing windows without sill-pans.

But even now, as of this writing, 8 years since we completed this project?sill-pans are still not used in the majority of window installations. Although high end construction would probably be an exception to that ascertain, I do suspect that it?s just a matter of time before general building-codes will require it in regions with weather patterns such as ours in the Willamette Valley.