Annoying Leak Getting Into the Basement

SteveW2993 · 07-02-2019, 08:36 AM

About 3 months after we purchased our 2670BH last year, we started getting water in the basement in the front. One time we caught it could actually see it on the inside in the front bedroom, running down the wall just under the front corner of the window you will see in the attached picture. It went to the floor, along the wall and under the bed, and eventually into the basement The gutter had gotten blocked a couple times, causing water to pour over the window.

Our dealer's warranty solution to the issue was to silicone caulk the window. In fact, they caulked every window just to be sure. Never had a problem after that, and also a regularly clean the gutter of tree debris.

Last week we had an unexpected rainstorm, shortly after our pine trees blew their needles, and the maples dropped their seeds. Gutter got blocked, and water poured over the window once again in the area I marked blue in the picture below. All of a sudden, I had water in my basement again. after not having it for months. Dealer checked all the caulking and seals last month when it was in for it's spring checkup.

I went over the whole thing with a fine tooth comb and could not find anything. The caulking on the window is still also good.

While getting down, I did notice something I hadn't noticed before. This exit is an emergency exit window. It has no drain holes. The window is attached to the frame by a hinge. It is riveted to the frame and the window pane.

There is a substantial gap between the hinge and the frame, and you can easily see the middle of some of the rivets.

This is the only place I can find where water may be getting in, and may only be an issue when the gutter blocks.

I'm kinda surprised there is no seal on this. I'm thinking I should just caulk this area. Anyone else ever run into this situation with their Passport?

Tnx
-Steve

66joej · 07-02-2019, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveW2993

About 3 months after we purchased our 2670BH last year, we started getting water in the basement in the front. One time we caught it could actually see it on the inside in the front bedroom, running down the wall just under the front corner of the window you will see in the attached picture. It went to the floor, along the wall and under the bed, and eventually into the basement The gutter had gotten blocked a couple times, causing water to pour over the window.

Our dealer's warranty solution to the issue was to silicone caulk the window. In fact, they caulked every window just to be sure. Never had a problem after that, and also a regularly clean the gutter of tree debris.

Last week we had an unexpected rainstorm, shortly after our pine trees blew their needles, and the maples dropped their seeds. Gutter got blocked, and water poured over the window once again in the area I marked blue in the picture below. All of a sudden, I had water in my basement again. after not having it for months. Dealer checked all the caulking and seals last month when it was in for it's spring checkup.

I went over the whole thing with a fine tooth comb and could not find anything. The caulking on the window is still also good.

While getting down, I did notice something I hadn't noticed before. This exit is an emergency exit window. It has no drain holes. The window is attached to the frame by a hinge. It is riveted to the frame and the window pane.

There is a substantial gap between the hinge and the frame, and you can easily see the middle of some of the rivets.

This is the only place I can find where water may be getting in, and may only be an issue when the gutter blocks.

I'm kinda surprised there is no seal on this. I'm thinking I should just caulk this area. Anyone else ever run into this situation with their Passport?

Tnx
-Steve

Have you thought of installing one of these over the window?
Available on Amazon.

travelin texans · 07-02-2019, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveW2993

About 3 months after we purchased our 2670BH last year, we started getting water in the basement in the front. One time we caught it could actually see it on the inside in the front bedroom, running down the wall just under the front corner of the window you will see in the attached picture. It went to the floor, along the wall and under the bed, and eventually into the basement The gutter had gotten blocked a couple times, causing water to pour over the window.

Our dealer's warranty solution to the issue was to silicone caulk the window. In fact, they caulked every window just to be sure. Never had a problem after that, and also a regularly clean the gutter of tree debris.

Last week we had an unexpected rainstorm, shortly after our pine trees blew their needles, and the maples dropped their seeds. Gutter got blocked, and water poured over the window once again in the area I marked blue in the picture below. All of a sudden, I had water in my basement again. after not having it for months. Dealer checked all the caulking and seals last month when it was in for it's spring checkup.

I went over the whole thing with a fine tooth comb and could not find anything. The caulking on the window is still also good.

While getting down, I did notice something I hadn't noticed before. This exit is an emergency exit window. It has no drain holes. The window is attached to the frame by a hinge. It is riveted to the frame and the window pane.

There is a substantial gap between the hinge and the frame, and you can easily see the middle of some of the rivets.

This is the only place I can find where water may be getting in, and may only be an issue when the gutter blocks.

I'm kinda surprised there is no seal on this. I'm thinking I should just caulk this area. Anyone else ever run into this situation with their Passport?

Tnx
-Steve

If my dealer would've done that half a## fix by smearing silicone around them they'd of been the ones getting that crap all off. Should've pulled that window, cleaned around all the edges, added new butyl tape & reinstalled the window, or windows if more than one was leaking. In my opinion they just put an ugly bandaid on it to shut you up & get you out.

SteveW2993 · 07-02-2019, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelin texans

If my dealer would've done that half a## fix by smearing silicone around them they'd of been the ones getting that crap all off. Should've pulled that window, cleaned around all the edges, added new butyl tape & reinstalled the window, or windows if more than one was leaking. In my opinion they just put an ugly bandaid on it to shut you up & get you out.

Hazard of being a first time owner - knowing what is and is not an acceptable repair...

Only the one window was leaking - guess they decided to minimize the risk and do all of them.

The more I look at the scenario the more I think the water is only getting in when the gutter is blocked and the water pours into the hinge and goes around the rivets and into the window frame. I’m going to caulk the top of the hinge, and do a test run with a garden hose. If it is that, resealing the window wouldn’t fix the problem anyways. If that doesn’t solve the problem, I’ll pull the whole window and reseal it with th butyl tape...

Tnx.

SteveW2993 · 07-02-2019, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 66joej

Have you thought of installing one of these over the window?
Available on Amazon.

That’s an interesting idea - though I’m afraid of screwing anything into the trailer for fear of causing a leak somewhere else.

**JRTJH** · 07-02-2019, 03:55 PM

If you apply a bead of sealant on that window hinge, if that's not the issue or if the bead doesn't repair the problem, you may find that you're going to have to remove all the sealant, remove the window and go from there with a different repair.

As a suggestion, you might want to put a piece of tape over the area you think is leaking and "trial test" it for leakage. If the taped area doesn't leak, then "waterproofing that gap" is likely the fix. If it leaks with tape (preventing a leak in that area) then you'll need to decide whether to remove the window, reseal the complete flange (which is what I'd do as the first step).

In other words, when searching for a leak, "putting "hard to remove band-aids" like sealant on the suspected problem area is a "hard to remove and start over" kind of attempted fix.....

It's really not hard to remove the entire window, remove all the putty that the factory applied, replace it with "quality butyl putty tape" and reinstall the window. Then you KNOW FOR SURE that the window flange is properly sealed.

travelin texans · 07-02-2019, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveW2993

Hazard of being a first time owner - knowing what is and is not an acceptable repair...

Only the one window was leaking - guess they decided to minimize the risk and do all of them.

The more I look at the scenario the more I think the water is only getting in when the gutter is blocked and the water pours into the hinge and goes around the rivets and into the window frame. I’m going to caulk the top of the hinge, and do a test run with a garden hose. If it is that, resealing the window wouldn’t fix the problem anyways. If that doesn’t solve the problem, I’ll pull the whole window and reseal it with th butyl tape...

Tnx.

Not trying to be a know it all, but for future info, there are several rv specific silicone type sealants that all have specific uses around your rv, but the hardware store tube of all purpose silicone has very few uses on rvs.

SteveW2993 · 07-02-2019, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelin texans

Not trying to be a know it all, but for future info, there are several rv specific silicone type sealants that all have specific uses around your rv, but the hardware store tube of all purpose silicone has very few uses on rvs.

The tube I have is a tube of Geocell caulking for use on RV exteriors that I got at the dealer, so I should be good.

SteveW2993 · 07-02-2019, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JRTJH

If you apply a bead of sealant on that window hinge, if that's not the issue or if the bead doesn't repair the problem, you may find that you're going to have to remove all the sealant, remove the window and go from there with a different repair.

As a suggestion, you might want to put a piece of tape over the area you think is leaking and "trial test" it for leakage. If the taped area doesn't leak, then "waterproofing that gap" is likely the fix. If it leaks with tape (preventing a leak in that area) then you'll need to decide whether to remove the window, reseal the complete flange (which is what I'd do as the first step).

In other words, when searching for a leak, "putting "hard to remove band-aids" like sealant on the suspected problem area is a "hard to remove and start over" kind of attempted fix.....

It's really not hard to remove the entire window, remove all the putty that the factory applied, replace it with "quality butyl putty tape" and reinstall the window. Then you KNOW FOR SURE that the window flange is properly sealed.

Thanks John for the info. I can certainly try the tape first. Either way, I think the gap with the clearly visible space around the hinge rivets being open to the inside of the window frame is a clear path for water to get to the inside of the window frame and needs to be sealed either way. I also noticed the same escape window on the back of my trailer is the same way, though there is no gutter above it to get blocked and dump water on it.

I know the butyl tape is not very apparent on the problem window, so I may pull it and reseal it for good measure when I get a moment. Any suggestion on how to tell if what my dealer has is a quality butyl tape? What sets apart a quality tape?

Thanks again for the advice. Appreciate it.

**chuckster57** · 07-02-2019, 07:20 PM

Your dealer is most likely getting his stuff from NTP/Stag, the General public can’t buy direct from them. We get ours from there and I can tell you there isn’t a “quality” difference that I can tell.

I would probably use putty tape as it’s easier to trim once the window is in. Butyl tape is “stringy” and can get messy trying to trim it.

By trimming, I mean cleaning up what squishes out when you tighten the retaining ring.

SteveW2993 · 08-28-2019, 09:20 AM

Just to close the loop here, doing a test with the garden hose confirmed my leak is from the rivets that go into the window frame from the hinge. It’s only an issue if the gutter blocks in front if the nose is a bit down, or in driving rain. The space between the hinge and the window frame should have been sealed by the manufacturer in my opinion - its a big open gap. These emergency windows have no weep holes, so everything goes into the trailer. I have the same emergency window on the back of my trailer. It has the same situation where the hinge is not hard against the frame and you can see the rivet holes, so will seal it as well. It’s only prone to driving rain - no gutter to overtop.

My dealer sells Geocell Proflex for RV caulking, so will mask off an area around the hinges and seal them.

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