Advice needed on egress window flashing
Hi Gang,
My condo association has been having problems with water seepage in some basement egress windows from day one. The attached PDF may explain the mechanics of this better, but basically, here’s the issue. The window is inset into an opening in a Superior Walls precast concrete foundation (FHB 186, May ’07). Inside the opening and flush with its edge are 2X treated framing members. The window itself has about a 1/2 to 5/8 gap all around and is shimmed into position with small scrap OSB or plywood. The sole barrier to water entry is a bead of caulk (typically not backed with anything) sealing this large gap.
In heavy rain, we get varying degrees of seepage between the concrete and the 2X sill, which runs down and pools at the base of the wall inside. I should add that for various (mostly stupid) reasons, the buildings were put up without gutters. The drip line straddles the well, which is covered with a metal grate. So in any significant rain, water is splattering through the grate and thoroughly wetting the whole window assembly, especially the bottom half. It is possible to add gutters as part of the solution, but we’re not sure it would solve the problem without other action as well.
We’ve tried various remedies, but nothing has worked. So far, nobody we’ve hired has tried to add any kind of membrane or pan flashing, mostly they have just tried to do a better caulk job and fill that big gap with something to back up the caulk.
Part of the reason for that (I think) is that the window well assembly is very tight to the opening. There is about an inch or less of clearance on the sides, and between two and six inches on the bottom. Plenty of room on top but that’s not where it leaks.
I’d like to come up with a solution that provides some redundancy so that a caulk failure directs the water outside instead of in. Anyone have any techniques or products to recommend? We’d much appreciate it. Thanks,
Ted
Replies
If you could work flashing under the edge of the frame and on top of the shim, that might work.
The other thing to do would be to grind the bottom of the opening to an outward-slope.