I inspected a house yesterday that is leaking at the Hurd casement windows. Here in Santa Fe we just had 2 days of rain much of it wind driven. The drywall under each window was wet verified with a moisture meter. There are no grade / drainage issues as the stem wall (sill plate height is well above grade.  

There are large gaps between the weather seal at the corners and horizontal and vertical seals to the frame. So I am not so sure you can say the casement windows are not suspect as well. The house is 5 years old. The weather seals are hardening and cracked. We have very low humidity and 300 days of sunshine here. The windows are on the south and west facing sides. We also have a lot of wind here especially from the south & west.  

I am wondering if it is possible to change the weather seal on the casement windows obviously you wouldn't want to caulk them shut.  

By the way, the previous owner did not disclose any problems he had painted over the moisture blistering of drywall and 1 year later admitted the moisture issue.  

Charles R. Smith

 

PreVue Property Inspections, LLC

551 West Cordova Road #806

Santa Fe , New Mexico 87505

 

(505) 670.4442

 

E-mail: prevue@comcast.net

Web: http://www.prevuepropertyinspections.com/

 

NAHI Associate Member #19170

Santa Fe Association of Realtors - Affiliate Member

New Mexico Registered Radon Measurement Provider