AboutBill Rodgers Expertise I have years of experience dealing with water infiltration issues associated with windows and doors. I have been a certified EIFS installer and am familiar with all types of stucco.
I can help you select the best windows and doors for any residence or multifamily building.
Experience I've been a building contractor since 1977. Prior to that time I was the building official for Frederick County Virginia. I'm currently licensed in five states including: Oregon, Arizona, California, Hawaii and Florida. My primary business is solving and correcting water infiltration problems in residential structures.
Education/Credentials Bachelor of Science from the University of Maryland, 1972. I am an accredited instructor for the Installation Masters Institute. I regularly teach window and door installers how to be Certified Master Installers of windows and doors. The Installation Masters Institute is currently licensed to and administered by Architectural Testing Inc. for the American Architectural Manufacturer's Association.
I live in east-central Iowa, and we've been experiencing a very wet summer so far. During periods of driving rain, we are seeing instances where water is infiltrating around our windows in our vinyl-sided home. Our home was built in the '98-'99 time frame.
Visual inspection from the outside of the home suggests that one potential cause could be small gaps or openings around the tops of the windows where the J-channels above the window and/or headers above the windows aren't providing full protection.
My question is whether the problem can be tamed by applying caulking to these gaps, or will this just make things worse? Any suggestions you can provide will be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your assistance.
Answer Vinyl siding is not intended to be water tight! Don't bother to try to caulk vinyl siding unless your trying to stave off a flood, during a storm.
Let's start in the beginning wood frame construction and vinyl siding depend on a weather barrier to achieve a weather tight condition. Typically this weather barrier would be tar paper or some sort of house wrap. National standards require that the windows be integrated with the weather barrier. If your home lacks this basic protection you have no choice but to remove the vinyl siding and retrofit the weather barrier. If you have a weather barrier but it is improperly installed you will still have to remove the vinyl siding to properly integrate the vinyl siding withe weather barrier.
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