French Patios Doors Leaking

SWICS

I was called the other day to look at some french patio doors that were leaking. The original builder of the house will not go out and address the issue with the homeowners. Here are my questions. 1. Do i even get involved since it is a warranty issue with the original builder? 2. If i do get involved, here is the real question. The house has vinyl siding on it with 1 inch foam attached to 7/16" sheathing, how do you seal the door using 1 inch foam. We do not use foam on the outside of our homes. I always thought it was tough to seal around doors and windows. Any advice would be great.
Thanks Matt

PGD

Does the siding have some sort of "drip edging" or does the door jamb and trim overlap the siding?

PGD

I would let the home owner first deal with the original contractor, you may just be an expert witness (a second opinion) for the home owner to go back and say; "see this guys said you should have ....". spend as little time on this as possible, and charge (if you still can) for your time, my thoughts are that the original contractor will have to step up...

cleveman

The door has to be flashed properly. I'm going to assume that there is no housewrap and it is a single story home.

Normally, one would flash with some self sticking stuff along the sides, then overlap on the head. The flashing on the head should be overlapped by the housewrap and extend out over the brick moulding.

In this case, you have no housewrap, so I would flash as mentioned and put a piece of housewrap or roofing felt along the head, extending up beyond the soffit to the top plate.

Wind driven rain will come through the siding and hit the housewrap and flow down the housewrap. When it reaches the brick moulding, it must flow back out or around the head of the window (door) and down the sides, where it will continue to the sill.

You'll probably have a piece of 3/4" J channel on the head of the door above the brick moulding, and maybe a piece of undersill inside the J channel. This will just collect surface water and dirt and has nothing to do with the water below the surface.

But you don't even know where the leak is at this point. And the door manufacturer is surely not going to cover a door which is leaking through the head. So I wouldn't assume that is a warranty issue with the door manufacturer. I also wouldn't assume that it is a warranty issue with the original builder. If the builder won't address the issue, then there is no warranty.

Let us know how you come out.

JonM

If you think it is the door, have the homeowner call the manufacturer...they will send someone out to look at it.