Window nightmare resolved
Last week I shared my tale of window woe along with details of a do- it- yourself solution that triumphed over corporate doubletalk. The approach I developed has wide application for all kinds of household leak repairs, but before I fill you in, here’s a recap of my situation.
I bought and installed $20,000- worth of Repla windows in a showcase project I’m building, only to find that the windows leaked badly along seams in the vinyl extrusions. A design flaw was at the root of the trouble. Since taking delivery of my windows, Repla declared bankruptcy, and the new owners of the trade name refused to offer any assistance, except the suggestion that I rely on caulking to keep water out. My windows also happen to carry the CSA A440 performance designation. But as I discovered, the Canadian Standards Association had nothing to do with administering its own standard in this case. That job fell to the Canadian Construction Materials Centre ( CCMC).
It was their sticker that was on my 11 windows ( bearing the CSA designation), but it shouldn’t have been there. The CCMC revoked permission for the manufacturer of the vinyl window extrusions to use the sticker back in 1998, though it was still being applied illegitimately more than half a decade later. No mechanism to police the use of revoked CCMC designations halted the misrepresentation in this case.
It took three months of phone calls and emails to discover all these facts and to realize that I was on my own.
I needed a technical expert, and that led me to Adrian Russell, a sealing guru at Construction Distribution Supply. He made several suggestions based on digital photos I sent, including the use of Eternabond ( www.eternabond.com; 705471-0282). I’d never heard of this product before, but it was to be the key component of an excellent and elegant solution to my problem. Eternabond is probably the stickiest tape on earth. It’s a family of astonishing roof repair products that come in several variations.
I chose a cloth- backed version called WebSeal as a cap for my defective windowsills and used it in conjunction with the best polyurethane caulking I could find. WebSeal can be painted, which is why I chose it over the other plastic-backed and foilbacked Eternabond products.
Eternabond was originally developed for use with sealing pipes under the ocean. The adhesive backing is pressure- activated. Once you put the tape in place and squeeze it down, it’s not going anywhere. Ever. Eternabond comes in rolls ranging from two inches wide and up, with a peelable backing. That way you can cut the shape you need, put it into position, then peel the back before final adhesion.
I made a cardboard template to match the top of my windowsill shape, then used this to trace and cut pieces of WebSeal to match.
I nestled the tape down over fresh polyurethane caulking applied to the leaky gaps and seams, then smoothed over the caulking with my finger.
After that, three coats of exterior latex paint completed the repair.
I’d be very surprised if this paint ever peels. It has soaked right into the cloth backing, seemingly for good. Steve Maxwell is technical editor of Canadian Home Workshop. Email steve@stevemaxwell.ca.