Ok, I will see if I can give enough details for this to make sense. I live in a three level split. The kitchen is in the front. We have a bay window (without the seat) on the front wall of the house. We just purchased the house about a month ago, and recently noticed some water damage around the window. Now the roof does come out about a roof farther than the window. Could this water damage be from a bad roof or does it sounds like a window issue? There is zero damage anywhere else and unfortunately there is no way to get in the area above the trouble spot. I really don't want to spend $5000 on a new roof it isnt' the problem. We do know at one point there was an ice dam but that had been fixed. Can anyone give some insight??
i got the same problem water damage around my windows everytime it rains my window leaks from the top and it is the roof my landlord is having a new roof put on to stop the water damage.so i am betting it is your roof.
Since you only owned this house for a month, that water damage had to have been happening with the previous owners.?? Get a lawyer to send a letter to the real estate person and previous owners to fix the problem.?? They did not give you full disclosure of the problem.?? They will end up paying for the damages to get this area fixed.??They have to fix the problem it's the law. They may say that they did not know of the problem, but that does not matter. The problem pre-existed. Get a construction builder in to look at the problem and get costs on what it will take to fix the problem and make sure your lawyer has this info also. Don't worry because they have to take care of the problem. I have had several friends who bought houses where there was water damage in the bathrooms and the previous owners had to pay to get these areas fixed. Good luck.
What about the soffets above and next to the window. Are they sealed? Check the caulking or sealer around the windows, if it looks like there could be a problem with that I would start removing the old and adding new. I don't know how your window attaches to your house, but I am assuming it extends from the house, if it has its own little roof, it could easily be how the little roof attaches to the house. You might also look to see if there are some loose shingles above your window that during a strong window and rain storm could have flapped up and allowed wind to blow the rain under. Another possibility is if you have guttering, check to see if the guttering is glocked with leaves, sometimes if there is a seam in the soffet next to where the blockage is then the water can get in. You can easily fix that with cleaning the gutters and putting a bead of caulking on the seam. My guess at this point isn't that you will need an entire new roof. Watch for the next time it rains and go out and see how the rain is blowing. I would contact your real estate agent that sold the house to you and ask for some advice, because if the house was fixed from the ice problem there may be a warranty and it could be that the workmanship was not good. Either way, it may not be of cost to you. Start with the realtor and see what can be done that route.
Unless there are missing shingles or holes in the roof, it probably isn't the roof per se. Bay windows are notorious for leaks. Check flashing around the window. Make sure your gutters are clean. The 1st place to check is blowing rain hitting the window. The easiest way to check this is with a garden hose (this way you control how much it rains!) until you find the problem.
