Wooden stop split, leading to water infiltration?

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chrisexv6
Posts: 83
Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:27 pm

Wooden stop split, leading to water infiltration?

#1 Post by chrisexv6 »

Recently noticed a musty/mildewy smell in our living room. Its happened before, a window high up on a stairway had a rotted exterior stop, led to water (and carpenter ant!) infiltration. Fixed the carpenter ant problem, fixed the wet/rotted sheathing, had the window and stops replaced.

Same issue again (minus the ants, thank goodness). The exterior stop is sun beaten, dried out split (not as bad as last time, but still). The smell is sort of back, and I can feel dampness in the wall below....I left notches cut out of the drywall since the first time it happened........glad I never got around to patching them up because I can confirm its damp again.

So Im thinking water is getting in thru the split in the stop. note that they are not wrapped in aluminum......its just white painted wood.

What are the best options to replace it? Im just a home-moaner, so no fancy aluminum break at my disposal. Id love to have it capped professionally, but its pretty tough to find someone willing to do just 1 window (and the rest of my windows are fine........the window in question was a geometric window so it was replaced at a different time from the rest of the windows in the house.

I was thinking Azek-type (PVC based) "wood" from Lowes or HD. The current stops are 1x4 on the sill and 1x2 on the sides and top. I was thinking buy 1x4, maybe round over the edge (router), or if I can get really nuts about it actually try to bevel the whole 1x4 (harder to do though) to make sure the water runs off better. if I cant bevel it, is it a good idea to shim it so it sits higher at the window frame? After the material is prepped I figured I would remove the existing stops then caulk the new one up against the window and down to the wood in the rough opening. Add a few nails and be done with it.

Sound correct?

Thanks in advance.

-Chris

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