I have a window that I installed a polycarbonate awning on top of it recently. It is leaking between the contact of the wall and the polycarbonate. The contractor uses silicon gel to bond the gap between the polycarbonate sheet and the wall.

The contractor told me he will apply more silicon gel on it.

I am wondering how this part should be done in order to avoid leakage. It seems not quite right to me that there is gap between the polycarbonate sheet and the wall. Does he need to cut the wall to fit the polycarbonate in a bit or is there any other ways to fill up the gap.

what is polycarbonate awning? picture to see?

I have a window that I installed a polycarbonate awning on top of it recently. It is leaking between the contact of the wall and the polycarbonate. The contractor uses silicon gel to bond the gap between the polycarbonate sheet and the wall.

The contractor told me he will apply more silicon gel on it.

I am wondering how this part should be done in order to avoid leakage. It seems not quite right to me that there is gap between the polycarbonate sheet and the wall. Does he need to cut the wall to fit the polycarbonate in a bit or is there any other ways to fill up the gap.

Gap is unavoidable, wall not straight. Contractor should have installed a kind of rubble sleeving which provides elasticity in contact with wall, as well as applying silicon Gel to make it water-tight.

Edited May 31, 201016 yr by bepgof

silicon sealant is not meant for exposed use. After a while, it will literally wear off due to UV degradation. Also, silicon sealant glued to painted wall, the paint will peel off due to differential expansion/contraction. There are sealants meant for exposed use, but these are known as structural silicon, and comes in sausage packaging and require those special gun.

Normal practice is to use aluminium flashing, or at least an aluminium F channel at the joint. The F Channel is rigid, so can screw to the wall. This F Channel can be found at Dama.

In reality, polycarbonate is not a good material for long term use due to their flexible properties. Should consider aluminium composite panels which is aluminium sheet stuck to foam. All new bus stop shelters and walkways use it now. Dama got wide selection. Can go look see for awareness.

silicon sealant is not meant for exposed use. After a while, it will literally wear off due to UV degradation. Also, silicon sealant glued to painted wall, the paint will peel off due to differential expansion/contraction. There are sealants meant for exposed use, but these are known as structural silicon, and comes in sausage packaging and require those special gun.

Normal practice is to use aluminium flashing, or at least an aluminium F channel at the joint. The F Channel is rigid, so can screw to the wall. This F Channel can be found at Dama.

In reality, polycarbonate is not a good material for long term use due to their flexible properties. Should consider aluminium composite panels which is aluminium sheet stuck to foam. All new bus stop shelters and walkways use it now. Dama got wide selection. Can go look see for awareness.

Thank you all for sharing!

This is the picture to share:

From the image, you can see the gap between the wall and the awning. It is quite big.

The simplest way is to apply PU sealant, not silicon sealant.

But first must remove the existing silicon sealant b4 applying.

100% stop leaking.