Synopsis of a VERY long story:
I bought my house in October of 2004 with the seller disclosing 1 window was leaking. After much investigation and finally repair I found out the following. My house had incorrectly installed windows by the builder. They used incorrect caulking and didn't flash over the fin of the windows. At some point after the house was built, the seller of my house got some of the original windows replaced with Simonton vinyl windows. Well...whoever did the replacing again used incorrect caulking methods and AGAIN did not flash over the nail fin. AND whoever did the stucco job did a sloppy 1 coat job. The 2nd story master bedroom windows were leaking, water was running down the side of the house UNDER the stucco, hitting the windows on the 1st floor, causing inner wall leaks and dry rot to the plywood underneath the stucco.
2 double sliders, 3 picture windows, 1 sliding glass door all had some sort of bad flashing, leaking, bad caulking, etc. Turns out the windows that were replaced by the seller were still good. So my contractor re-installed those and I got the rest replaced. I also replaced 2 more picture windows, and another sliding glass door because they were on the same side of the house (south side) and they would have probably leaked anyways. I also got 2 windows replaced in my son's room because his room was freezing cold. I replaced the windows with Milgard Classic Series and I could immediately tell the difference in sound and temperature compared to the original crappy aluminum dual pane windows. So that makes 8 windows replaced and 4 re-installed. The leaking ones had to have some sheetrock repairs on the inside.
Here's some nice dry rot pics:
And here's the same area after installation and before stucco:
I talked to probably 10 or so window companies about my issues when I first discovered them back in October. Some were clueless, some wouldn't take the job because they said the damage was probably worse than I expected (it was) and they just didn't want to get involved. I was finally told to talk to 2 different contractors who do a lot of construction work and both of them upon seeing my house guessed the problem originated from the 2nd story. One of them got the job and fortunately knows how to do windows, stucco, sheetrock, texturing, etc.
Turns out one of my neighbors sued the builder 11 years ago when his house was built for faulty window installation. The builder is now out of business. I'm going to have a chat with the seller and possibly their window installer to *ahem* talk about how much this stuff cost and why 1 leaking window instead of 6 was disclosed to me...
Thanks to this forum I am more educated on windows than I was in the past! I'm very happy with the Milgard Classic Series Windows. They operate smoothly and meet all my expectations in a window.