Why Is My Window Leaking Water? (And How Do I Fix It?)

Hey guys, Sean with American Window Concepts, and today I'm gonna answer a question about water coming into the tracks. Stay tuned. Okay, so let's say it's raining outside, you got your brand new windows installed, and what you're noticing is that you have some water puddling up here in the main track where this window slides back and forth, and it concerns you. For anybody who gets brand new windows and they notice something like that, that usually comes with concern, and I understand the concern. Any window, either the ones you have currently or any replacement window, they're all gonna have these weep holes here, and there's a main job of these weep holes. In these inner chambers, they have this punched out so that way any water that makes it into the track has a way out. If you have regular rain that just comes down and it's sheeting off the top of your glass, it's gonna hit the backside of this and it's going to want to go into the track past the weather stripping, so it'll all end up ultimately in this track. Once it goes inside the track, there has to be a place for it to go, otherwise it's just gonna pull and spill right over the top and onto your windowsill. So you're gonna have a weep system that is built into this. So if you see that, that is gonna be unit normal. What you don't wanna have happen is your regular rains are creating huge pools to where they spill over on the inside. That could be the manufacturing defect where one of these didn't get punched correctly and all the water is standing inside. If you have wind-driven rain, right, so you have rain plus really good gusts that are going up against your window, what happens is more water, more rainwater, is sheeting on this panel and is dumping into your track. You might actually see a little more water pulling up. What you really want and what we're hoping for is that the weight of the water is going to outperform the amount of water actually being introduced to the window. And most times, that is the case. The window will outperform it. But there will be these special occasions where if you have really, really good gusts, 45 mile an hour gusts that are hitting this window and just showering water, the window could get overrun. That is something that you would have to make sure you cover with the manufacturer. There is gonna be performance data as to how much water and wind load this window is able to deal with before it actually does pull. You're not gonna see that really in single-pane aluminum windows or wood windows because of the design of the window itself. But the problem with that system is that during a regular day, all the wind, they're drafting incredibly. And that's bad news for you. You don't want that. So the window systems of today are created to really alleviate the drafting of the window. But there's a caveat, and that is whenever it is raining really hard and wind-driven rain, you can get some water pooling up in here. That doesn't mean that you can't go on vacation because that next week, they're forecasting rain. Don't worry about that. The worst thing you can do, and I'll tell you now because this is coming from my service side of the business, never put a towel or something in there because you think that's gonna help. You've just created a bigger problem. So just keep that in mind. The other issue of leaky windows would be an improper installation. And that is usually gonna be found from the top. You're not gonna see it so much in the track. You're gonna see it from the top. If you see water pooling from the top of your window frame and you just had them replaced a few years ago or whenever the case, you're probably looking at behind the retro flange, there's gonna be a gap. Or the caulking from the mainframe has split. So that will allow water to go past, land on top of the frame here, and then ultimately into your home. You'd wanna have whoever installed them come back out and fix that. Hopefully this helps. You guys have any questions, always reach out into the comment section and I'll try to reply as fast as possible. Thank you guys so much for watching. Make it a great day. Hey guys, if you live in the Ventura or Long Beach area and are interested in a free in-home estimate, go to our website, americanwindowconcepts.com and we'll reach back out to you as soon as possible. If you guys find this information valuable and you wanna continue to learn more about windows and doors, subscribe to our channel. Thank you so much.