Hello,
Today I noticed what appears to be a leak in the bottom left of my velux window. It appears to be a damp patch, but it’s barely noticeable that it’s damp to the touch. It’s not wet wet or anything. We did have a lot of rain last night, but I have a vague recollection of seeing something smaller months ago and dismissing it as poor / discoloured paint (long story). My point being I’m not 100 % convinced this happened “overnight” during the rain as opposed to being a slow / progressive issue.
Some background:
The velux is only 2 years old and is the polycarbonate coated type. It’s in an en-suite bathroom associated with a converted loft bedroom. There is a toilet, sink and (never used) shower in the bathroom. In the bedroom there are another 3 velux windows (normal not polycarbonate coated).
In winter all 4 velux windows gather a fair bit of condensation on the inside of the glass, but usually dry by the end of the day if I don’t remember to wipe them down first. The polycarbonate window also seems to gather quite a lot of condensation on the grey seal(s) and inside of the frame. Not enough to be seen when the window is closed unless you look up into the gap between the frame and window - it’s only really noticeable when you open the window to check, but then there’s a fair amount of loose water that can be seen. That said, I’ve never noticed it actually dripping down the frame to the painted wall below (where the damp patch appears to be).
The normal velux windows in the bedroom never show this level of condensation on the frame, perhaps due to a slightly higher temp in the bedroom part or maybe the polycarbonate coating has a tendency to build up more condensation.
I’ve done some googling and it seems this sort of problem could be a proper leak, or condensation. I’ve had a look at the flashing outside the windows and can see no problems - no gaps/holes or debris/moss build up. The tiles around the window (concrete overlapping type) all seem sound and secure - and the foam the installer put under them is still in place.
Except there is one potential problem tile. When looking out the window and up the roof, it is 2 up from the velux (ie one overlapping the tiles that would have had to be removed during installation). It’s on the same side as the damp patch. These are the concrete overlapping tiles that overlap adjacent tiles with a top and bottom “lip” overlap and their side edges - as well as overlapping each tile above and below. I hope that’s clear as I don’t know the proper terms, sorry.
The only problem I can see is that the end 1-2 inches of the under “lip” (where adjacent tiles overlap) is missing from one of the tiles. I mean that the top part of the tile on the left is perfectly fine and aligned, but where the tile on the right would have the lip part that goes under the left tile is missing a short segment at the bottom.
As far as I can see the missing part is not long enough to mean that there is any missing “lip” far enough up to the tile so that the missing segment goes far enough up to reach the overlapping tile above it. And even in the rain I can see a clear dry few mm around the edge of the missing segment - so it seems there’s no way for water to ingress and it’s an unimportant chip. Could have been there 30 years for all I know (and I can’t see how the installers would have caused it just from sliding a tile in/out below it). So I’m inclined to think this is coincidence rather than water getting in and tracking all the way down to the window - but I mention it just in case it’s not a red herring. A pic is attached but sorry it’s not good as I only found this forum now it’s dark. I can take one tomorrow in the light if that helps.
Oh and one last bit of info. I was previously leaving the vent on the velux open as I thought that would be better for condensation but Velux’s website says not to do that. Although I can’t see how condensation would get from the vent to the damp patch.
Anyway - after all that background (sorry but I thought it all might help) - my question is, does the patch in the attached picture seem plausible to be a condensation issue that could be managed with a dehumidifier - or is this obviously a proper leak?
Thanks in advance.
