leak in conservatory

[anoldcharter]

afternoon :) not sure if this is the right place but can anyone help with a leak we currently have in the conservatory, I'll try and post some photos as it'll make more sense (hopefully)

so where the windowsill is on the right hand side there is a pool of water gathering, quite substantial as its done nothing but rain for what feels like weeks. I've cleaned it up and sat and watched it and it seems to be coming up through the tiny hole i've pointed arrow to in the second photo.

So, does this mean it is being soaked up from the ground, or is it that whatever sealant is on the outside of the window is buggered and need replacing or is is a bigger job than this :(

Anyone come across anything like this before and can advise? cheers :)

Sealant needs redoing on the outside. It does this on my interior windows due to small gaps from sealant shrinkage.

also should say the window ledge on top is sodden, so I'm assuming this has been happening for a while, but its a fairly newish house to us so only just discovered it as we are starting to decorate the conservatory...

@orangegato thank you - really hoping its as simple as this 😁but given the surprises we've had with this house since moving in I'm always expecting the worse!!!

Tell me about it we bought ours in July and there is water in many places it shouldn’t be. It could also be when water runs down the windows inside it collects in the corners but my expectation is sealant as you’d see the condensation. Makes me wish I had a landlord 😀

Oh no @orangegato that's pants.... We got the ceiling insulated and tiled roof put on ours and thought that was the end of it (cost 4k) but now we have this to deal with before we can decorate.... Hope you get yours sorted 😁

Is it a wooden conservatory? Looking at your pictures it looks like it may need more than resealing.

It looks like there is a leak that is coming in from outside - check gutters and the joints between the windows and the corner piece (the bit with the dark patch where paint has come off?) there will be a join underneath the bit of trim (the wavy bit of wood!) It looks like there could be water getting in outside somewhere and running down inside the gap between those joints, which will be rotting the wood inside .

If you poke the wood all over with a screwdriver you will be able to feel if it is soft and rotten. If the rot isn't too widespread you could remove any really soft bits and paint on Ronseal wood hardener, which will seal the wood and garden it and you can then fill any holes with Ronseal wood filler, sand and paint it.

I don't work for Ronseal but we had to fix our wooden conservatory in the past and those two products were our saviour! The filler is expensive (but worth it) and is usually cheapest at Screwfix - you can buy it in white or wood colour.

You will need to find where the water is getting in outside and fix that too.

Thanks for this thread, our wooden conservatory has sprung a leak this week too, in a similar location to yours @anoldcharter

Will be following advice given!

@HappyBackHome that's almost what dh has said, we need a dry day so that he can get up and check gutters etc. I'll do the screwdriver test, I think some of it is soft, good to know you've used these products.

Hope this advice helps you too @LizzieSiddal

@anoldcharter it is best to try and resolve it and fix it properly asap so it doesn't get worse and you end up needing to dismantle bits and replace whole pieces of wood / window frames! I loved our wooden conservatory but they do need more maintenance., sadly.

Good luck, let us know how you get on .

Will do and thanks @HappyBackHome I think the problem is the people we bought this house off haven't been big on any type of maintenance of anything over the 20yrs they lived here 🤔 so we're finding and fixing all these problems as we go along. On the surface all looked okay, building report said good but clearly didn't look too hard for any evidence to the contrary!!

Yes, we're mid renovation at the moment too... our new house looked okay on the surface but we've discovered there's a lot more to do than we realised....

On the plus side, it will be beautiful when we finish it all, we'll know it's done properly, I'm fitter than I've ever been from removing all the concrete rubble...and we're learning lots of new DIY skills along the way !