On Thu, 09 Nov 2006 03:40:51 GMT, "jaynews"
wrote:

I can't make any sense of your description, but yes, if there's
a water-path through the sill, that's bad.



On this particular window it appears that it has:

1) The inner sill which is the lower side of the wood trim that surrounds
the window on all 4 sides inside the house. (Sort of like a giant fat
picture frame on the inside.)
2) A horizontal block of wood further outward, which is at the same level
as the inner sill. The inner frame that holds the crank sits mostly on top
of this block of wood (that I'll refer to as #2).
3) Then, further out there is the outer sill which is aluminum clad. At
start of the outer sill is a lip in the aluminum that sticks up holding a
gasket pointing outward.
4) There is a gap between block of wood (#2 above) and the outer sill
(albeit small). There also appears to be a gap between that block of wood
and the inner sill as well. There are gaps on the sides of that block of
wood as well, between it and the vertical blocks of wood that exist on the
side of it. There are also gaps between the outer jambs and the vertical
blocks that I just described.

Key Question: Lets say water drips down from the gap at the TOP of sash and
then drips onto the gap at the BOTTOM sash. Seems to me that it could easily
hit block of wood #2 (especially since there is the gasket touching inner
window frame). Once the water hits the inner block of wood #2, then it
could get into the gaps between it and the outer sill as well as the gaps
between it and the inner sill, etc. Could water getting into these gaps
cause it to get behind the drywall and then the floor? Unless there is some
(totally hidden) mechanism to direct the water back outside if it got into
the gaps surrounding block of wood #2, then I'm not seeing how the water
could get back outside, and this could potentially explain why it got behind
the drywall, could it not?

Just seems to me that once water gets further inward then the aluminum clad
part, that the water simply isn't going to be making its' way back outside
the house, the way this particular window was designed. Does that sound
right? (Again, this is an unlabeled window from an unknown manufacturer.)

Thanks,

J.