Ive been in my house now for about 15 months. Everything is pretty good except for this "trim" around the outside of my windows. The other day we had a pounding rain driving against the front of the house and the next day I noticed water marks and the drywall was all spongy on the ceiling of my garage.

Of all the windows on my house only 4 of them have this "trim". All four of these windows face the street (which leads me to think asthetics?) 2 of them are above the garage and are a little less serious. the other 2 are above my front door and my living room and I need to get on them now.

I have included pictures of where I think its leaking from.

any ideas what the point of this trim is and why they didn't just carry the vinyl all the way to the frame?
any idea on how to go about repairing/replacing this rotted wood so it doesn't happen again.

im thinking composite wood, aluminum flashing over top of new wood with a good quality caulking.

help me out guys

thanks.

 

I wonder myself why they did this. Maybe to help with air draft threw the frame of the window? I would pull all that out, get some good quality spray foam to seal the window frame and I highly suggest this, then after you get another type of molding or however you do it I then would use a good silicon caulk for the outter edge. I would like to give more suggestions but until you know exactly what is under there and what things look like I cant really help. Can you tare it apart and see anything back there?

 

Use polyeurathane made for doors and windows. Silicone sticks to nothing and UV breaks it down. I have NO idea why people still use that crap.

 

Ive used it for my windows for yrs without issues. You buy cheap silicone then yes you will have problems. Buy quality.

 

thank you for your opinions guys. I do not want to go tearing it out just yet as it is still freezing outside. I did put some caulking in the big crack that I showed you and any other smaller ones I could find and hopefully that will get me another month or two until spring arrives and I can really go at it.