Caulking Question

[tbob]

My sister's house is a 2 story tudor style with a brick and stucco front. She has lived there for 20 years. A couple of weeks ago, after a severe thunderstorm, she called and told me the carpet in the dining room under the bay window was soaked and if I could help find out the reason. This was the first time it had ever been wet. Out side of the house where the brick meets the wood frame for the bay windows there is no caulking. This runs upward two stories! On the left side the gap is about 1/8 inch (The water came in from the left side) but on the right side the gap is almost 3/4 inch(enought to make out the writing on the kraft faced insulation underneath). . Is this the norm? Should I seal it and what type of caulk should I use. I have theorized that a swinging lawn chair with it's top tilted toward the front of the house caused the heavy downpour of rain to splash against the front of the house causing the leakage inside. That's the only condition that has changed recently with the house before the rain. We changed the position of the chair's top and last week with another downpour and blowing winds, the floor inside stayed dry! All of her gutters are working properly and the basement below stays dry. Sorry for the long rant but I wanted to give as much details as possible. Caulking will be a pain with all the landscaping and the shear height, but I can do it if I have to. Any thoughts? Terry

 

[MustangRick]

One way to do it is to get some foam backer rod and shove that in the gap first to build it up and then smear caulk across the outside to seal it up. You could also try to use spray foam in the bigger crack and wipe it down with some thing to keep it from coming out too far and then put caulk on top of that. Or, for a little better scenario, you could get some vinyl brickmold, rip it down on a table saw to the right size and glue that in the hole first then caulk around it. I am calling it brick mold but it may have a different name, it is the white vinyl board that looks like painted wood that is used to go around windows and such when they are replaced. Lowes or Menards carry it, not sure if Westlake does or not.

 

[ron in sc]

Do those windows have any flashing issues?

 

[PAToyota]

At this point, MustangRick's directions for backer rod and caulk are correct.

However, the fact that you have that large of a gap and can see the insulation means that it was not properly flashed. Proper flashing at this point would mean removing the brick and stucco...