Window leaking - any advice? - UPDATE: Problem Solved! Thanks!

Clean to snow from your roof, so it can drain.

Gt a better operating system.

Sounds like you ought to divert some water somehow until it melts.

It's not easy to imagine how it all connects from your OP

You have windows on your roof?

Does the window have black rubber strips? Theyre the seals and they need replacing.

get a compressor, a 5 gallon pail of gasoline and a hose. spray your roof and light it on fire.

Engineer for a window manufacturer.

Please describe your issue.

Sounds like water damming. Your roof should not be causing a leak into your window, unless you are talking about some form of a skylight.

If it is your regular windows, then what type of window are we talking about ?

Casement, Awning, Vertical Slider, Horizontal Slider ?

Please more details. I can probably help.

move out the projecs

I'm certain that I'm dealing with an ice dam... I have a flat roof that is pitched downward toward this window at about 10 degrees. The gutter runs along that pitched side and there is definitely ice in the gutter.

The window is original to the house which was built in the early 50's. Vertical slider. The leak is coming through the trim at the top of the window, which is further evidence of damming.

Should I just get up there and try to break up the ice? I don't want to damage the roof as it's a rubber roof though, and I don't want to break the gutters..

We had this same exact problem at my work. They did nothing

because it's so dangerous to get on the roof.

We're replacing some roofs though now that the snow is gone...

The window is likely not your problem. You have water in the wall from the ice dam.

Do not try to break the ice. You *will* damage the roof no matter how careful you think you are being.

You could get some heat tape designed for roof edge snow and ice melting but trying to lay it out over slippery ice is not ideal.

You could throw calcium chloride or similar ice melt products on the ice and into the gutter. You will need a lot of it, since it dissolves quickly.

I've seen people fill up a cutoff pantyhose leg (sandbag style) with ice melter and lay it along the edges of their roofs.

If the ceiling and/or space below the roof in question has recessed can lights or any other kind of heat source, turn them off. If you can reduce the temperature below the area in question it can help reduce the drawing in of the water.

Good luck mate. Ice dams really suck.

Thank you for the ideas.. Would at least shoveling around the window help? Perhaps with a plastic shovel so as not to damage the rubber roof?

It's 40 degrees right now, sunny and the gutter in question is southern exposure. Could I just try to pull the ice out of the gutter?

And a more extreme thought: what about removing the soffits above the window to stop the flow of water going to the window? The soffits need replacement anyway.

flex seal & other hydrophobic pastes sprays and putties

You could pull the interior trim of the window inside your house. Spray foam around the window, and tuck tape if its not already.

Make sure that your weep holes or drain holes are clear and not frozen at the bottom of the frame of the window.

Sometimes these can be hard to find, but they should be there. Clear them if you can.

Lastly gently remove the snow on your roof, salt if necessary but as others have said, don't try to break it off.

You may also have some insulation issues at the outer part of your roof near the eaves.

If you can remove the snow without damaging the roof that will help. Definitely pull the ice out of the gutter if you can without damaging it. I did the same thing yesterday, the ice came out of the gutter pretty easily and it let the water flow into the downspout.

Not sure on the soffits, all depends on whether that is the actual source of the water. Hard to tell for certain where it is coming in without removing the siding or poking a hole in the interior wall.

I'm chasing ghosts myself in one area of my house. I found that a piece of vinyl siding had shifted, leaving a 1/4 inch gap near the gutter and overflow water was getting in behind the siding. It must have gotten behind the house wrap too because water came in where rim joist and plate meets the foundation. My subfloor got wet and it buckled the hardwood in that corner of the room. Its going to be a real bastard to fix, my plan is to remove the siding when the weather gets warm (avoids breaking it) and see exactly wtf is going on.

Get a quote for triple glazing strong sealed windows

Be careful on a flat roof. Call whoever has the guarantee on it and have them break the ice and clean the gutters and then make sure they still guarantee the roof when they're done.

The only way for water to get to the wall is back flow from the ice dam in the gutter, which there certainly was an ice dam. There is no siding; it's a brick exterior, and no rafters: only ceiling joists between the ceiling and the roof. The only way water could get to the window from the ice dam is back flow along the soffits.

The ideas about ensuring the weep holes in the window are clear that another poster mentioned is a great idea. Especially since the leaks are on the two opposite sides of the window. This makes me think there's blockage there.

Water problems really suck. I've had basement issues too, partly due to the design of this damn roof.

You know what's kind of funny, two winters ago, I watched with amusement as a neighbor down the road used a snow blower on his roof.

Actually, that gives me a great idea for clearing the snow.... I have a hand-held snow blower for porches/sidewalks made completely of plastic. That could do the trick!

ask someone who knows construction, who can assess/fix the situation, in person?

as opposed to chit chattin' with randos on the internet

me? if duct tape or my mallet doesn't fix it, it don't get fixed

one time, I wailed on a leaky faucet with that mallet, it hasn't leaked since

Chalk works for me!

...and shoveling off the fucking snow from your roof!

Use Apple

Go to the hardware store and ask for some big white calk

Well, having a buddy with free time on his hands is working out.. He got up there with the plastic hand-held snow thrower and removed about 2 ft of the snow along the gutter. He's now working on trying to carefully pull the ice out of the gutter..

Removing the snow seems to already be helping and the leak is getting slower. But on the down side, it's not just the window anymore. Now it's pretty much the entire length of the house.

Last Edited by BoatyMcBoatface on 02/23/2021 01:39 PM

No windows in Linux just terminal.

I'm considering this for the weekend project too. Thanks for the explanation. I think I'm gonging to have to get rid of something, perhaps insulation but maybe more.

My window is not being affected by the roof, it's just leaking all on its own. (I think)

That's an interesting idea with the pantyhose leg. I have a similar situation, maybe 30 degree pitch roof but the north side of my house is very slow to thaw. And there's one downspout where lots of water drains, so I have to make darn sure that stays open or it dams easily.

Chlorine is what melts ice. Don't bother with a hammer, use chlorine. Chlorine is very cheap in the form of Clorox bleach. So what I do sometimes is:

(1) put a Roof-Melt (TM; it seems they're the only ones who make these) puck on top of an ice dam, wait an hour or two. That puck will sink down and make a nice cylinder. Ideally the puck has broken through all the way to the bottom, where the gutter often contains a somewhat open channel.

(2) then pour Clorox into that cylinder. It will either help the melting down to the bottom, or go into the gutter at the bottom and spread, and the chlorine fumes from the Clorox will weaken the ice above it and to the sides, generally opening things up.

Also

(3) Put roof-melt pucks around each downspout. These will keep the downspout open.


You have to go up on the ladder to do these, but not onto the roof itself; you stay on the ladder. Once up there you can't do much without the chemicals. Chlorine, in the form of calcium chloride or chlorine bleach, works.

Go up there with a powerful gas blower and blow your gutters out then run a bead of indoor outdoor waterproof all around the gutter seam pronto before mold starts developing .


Then get your faimily out of the house for a few hours and run the heat on like 90 to kill any mold that got started .

You should be good .

Also, to avoid going up on the roof, get a roof rake. They aren't too expensive. Pull that snow off the edge of the roof while standing on the ground. You only get it at the edge, but that's the most critical part and can protect the gutter from damming.

But we've had 3 weeks of continuous sub-freezing weather, so there was very little melting and I actually had a glacier coming down from higher on the roof toward the gutter. I had to keep making holes in that, pour Clorox in, etc. to keep things from getting too far out of hand.