Zootal wrote:
I'm fixing some broken window panes in my basement windows. The
windows are rectangular wood frames with three 8x10 glass panes:

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2009/...s/DSCF0016.JPG

They fit into wood frames built into my basement walls. This is the
frame with the window removed - I put a piece of plexiglass over it
to block the hole:

http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2009/...s/DSCF0020.JPG

This is what an installed window looks like. The outer frame is 2x4
framing fastened to the basement walls. The wood/glass window fits
into this, and you can see the 1/2 inch trim that holds the window in
place.
http://zootal.no-ip.info/stuff/2009/...s/DSCF0021.JPG

So, I'm replacing broken and missing panes, and repairing and
painting the frames. My questions have to do with sealing the whole
mess. Currently, the windows are fitted to the frame without any
sealant, and when it rains water leaks past them. My idea is to fit
the window into the frame and secure it, and then go outside and run
a bead of sealant around the frame where the window meets the frame.
My other option was to use rubber weather stripping around the window
when I put it into the frame.
Does this make sense, and does anyone have any practical experience
mounting and sealing windows like these?

I doubt the weather stripping would help much. Caulk might help some,
depends on where the water is entering (not where it comes out).

Water goes downhill so there are three areas where water could enter...

1. Between the glass and the rabbet in the window frame. This would only be
true if the rabbet were on the inside of the window frame. If on the
outside - as it should be - water could not go past the rabbet because the
upper edge is higher than the bottom of the glass.

2. From the joints - particularly the lower two - between the horizontal
and vertical members of the frame holding the glass.

3. From the joints - particularly the lower two - between the horizontal
and vertical members of the frame holding the window itself.

Hard to tell from the photos but I suspect the biggest culprit to be #3.
The bottom 2x4 in your #2 photo ahould have a rabbet in it so that the
window sits down into the rabbet. That bottom should be sloped toward the
outside. The end 2x4s should have their bottom ends fitted to the rabbet;
those bottom edges need to be caulked or epoxied so that water can't pass
around them. All four 2x4s need to be caulked where they meet the masonry
wall. It wouldn't hurt to have a aheet metal drip edge overhanging the top
one on the outside.

The wooden members of the frame holding the glass should be as above.

Do the above and it doesn't much matter how you hold in the glass, nothing
will leak.

--

dadiOH
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