Basement Window Leaking Around Frame

In the page top photo shows water leak stains below a basement window.

Basement window leaking around frame.

Apply more flashing tape at the top. Poor drainage around your home can allow water from rainfall melting snow or the ground to fill your window wells and enter into your basement. Basement window well woes. Fine but where does that water come from.

Apply flashing tape over the nailing window flanges of the window sides draping it over the sill pan and behind the house wrap at the top. Unless you re comfortable around a caulking gun fixing old caulk or glaze should be left to the professionals. Many homeowners see water stains near the windows and automatically assume that the glass itself must be leaking. This accumulated water when high enough can pour straight into your basement between the window frame and the top of wall or leak through the window itself.

Wellduct drains water from the window well before it can leak through the basement window. Caught early this issue can usually be repaired by stripping the old sealant and replacing it. Keep a space of about 3 inches. Basement window wells are designed with gravel at the bottom to allow water collecting in them to drain away.

More often than not the answer lies in the window wells. Sometimes the drainage system breaks down or perhaps there s no drainage system to begin with. A window well is the area outside a below ground level basement window that both retains the surrounding dirt and drains away rainwater. This article explains the causes of water entry leak or actual flooding of buildings when water is entering at or near basement or crawl space windows.

Inspecting outdoors it is often easy to recognize where this water is coming from and thus how to stop it from entering the building. If your window is leaking around the top of the frame you may not actually be experiencing a window leak at all. So your basement windows can leak if water s on the other side. Re seal the glass to the gasket with clear silicone caulk.

Check the gasket between the window frame and the glass. Dig about 2 feet below each basement window sill and fill each hole with crushed stone that is about 1 2 inch in size if you would rather not use window well covers. You can try some simple maintenance work such as. Here s what you can do to keep as much water away from your house as possible.

Unfortunately stains on the top of the window frame are more likely to indicate a leak within the walls of your home. If this happens the window well fills up during heavy rains. Flashing tape photo 6 is a thick pliable waterproof tape that goes under or over nailing window flanges sill and top flashing and house wrap. When a window well is not installed improperly sized or if the window well drain is clogged window well drainage problems cause water leaks into the basement.

However over time dirt leaves and other debris will collect in the wells every year. If the gravel in your window well doesn t drain well water can pool in the window well as if you had an aquarium outside.