Exeter Silicone Services
Window and door sealing
Perimeter joints round window and door frames, inside and out, where the sealant has gone hard, cracked or pulled away from the frame.
Priced per job from the published card, minimum charge £95 including VAT.
The joint round a window frame is doing a different job to a bath joint. It is taking movement in two directions, it is in the weather, and it is the line between a wet outside wall and a dry inside one. When it goes hard and cracks, the water goes behind the frame rather than off it.
The tell from inside is a damp patch at the head or the reveal of one window and not the others, or a draught you can feel with the back of your hand along one edge. From outside it is a joint that has shrunk away from the frame, gone chalky, or split along its length.
Internal and external frame joints are both covered, on the frames where Hembury Contracting does this work: uPVC, timber and aluminium frames in render, brick and blockwork. Anything that needs the frame taking out or the glazing disturbed is a window fitter's job and it will be said so.
What is included
- Old frame sealant cut out along the full perimeter
- The joint faces cleaned back and dried
- Exterior grade sealant outside, chosen for the substrate
- Internal reveal and frame joints where they are the problem
- Backing rod in a deep or wide joint so the bead is the right shape
- Colour picked to the frame or the render rather than white by default
- Access from a ladder at ground and first floor level
The right material for the outside
A bathroom sealant on an external window joint fails within a couple of years. It is formulated for a stable, sheltered, wet joint, not for ultraviolet light, frost and a frame that expands several millimetres between a January night and a July afternoon.
Outside wants a low modulus neutral cure silicone or a hybrid polymer, both of which stay flexible and take the movement. On porous render the surface is primed or the sealant is chosen to suit it, because silicone on dusty render is a bead sitting on a layer of dust.
What sealing round a window does not fix
Failed double glazing. A unit that has misted between the panes has a failed seal inside the glass and it is replaced rather than sealed. The perimeter joint has nothing to do with it.
Rot in a timber frame, a cracked sill, a blown render patch or a missing cavity tray. Sealant over any of those hides the problem for a season and traps water behind it, which makes it worse rather than better. If that is what is there, you get told what it is and it is left alone.
Inside, outside, or both
The two joints round a window frame do different jobs and they fail differently. The outside one keeps weather out of the gap between frame and wall. The inside one stops warm, wet air from the room getting into that same gap, where it cools down and turns back into water.
The one that matters most for a damp patch is usually the outside. The one that matters most for a cold draught, and for condensation showing up inside the reveal, is the inside. Where a window has a problem it is worth doing both, because opening up one and leaving the other is how a job gets done twice.
Bathroom and kitchen windows are the exception worth naming. Those rooms make far more moisture than any other, the inside joint round the frame takes it every day, and it is the first internal sealant in a house to go black. It is the same work as a bathroom reseal and it is priced the same way.
On the day
How a windows and doors runs
Find where the water is going
The failed joint is not always the one that looks worst. The head of a window and the top corners take the most weather, and a crack there shows up as damp two feet lower down inside.
Cut out and clean
The old bead cut out along its length, the frame edge and the masonry or render face scraped back and brushed off. Dust is as bad for adhesion as damp is.
Pack the joint if it needs it
A joint deeper than it is wide is the wrong shape and it will split again. Foam backing rod goes in first so the sealant is a shallow band that can stretch, rather than a deep plug that tears.
Seal and tool
Run in one pass and tooled so the face sheds water outwards. On render the tooling matters more than the material, because a shoulder that holds water is a joint that fails at the top.
Weather it
Exterior sealant wants a dry few hours to skin. Work is not started on a wet face or in rain, which in Devon is a scheduling matter rather than a preference.
Behind the work
Kit, cover and qualifications
The work is done by Sam Hembury and the crew he trains, trading as Hembury Contracting out of Exeter. One entity, one VAT registration, one invoice.
Read what people say about Hembury Contracting
- Hembury Contracting
- Exeter Silicone Services is a service line of Hembury Contracting, Sam Hembury's Exeter business. Same trading entity, same invoices, same VAT registration.
- Public liability cover
- Insured for work in your home and in occupied rented property. A copy of the certificate goes over by email if you want to see it before booking.
- Published prices
- The price card is on the site rather than behind a form, VAT included and silicone included. You can work out what your job costs before you get in touch.
- The old joint comes out
- Every layer, plus the residue film underneath it, before anything new goes on. That is the part that takes the time and it is the part that decides how long the new bead lasts.
Windows and doors
Window and door sealing questions
Do you do upstairs windows?
First floor from a ladder where the ground allows it and the work is short. Anything higher, anything over a conservatory roof or a drop, and anything that needs a tower or a platform is beyond what this covers and you will be told rather than have somebody take a chance.
Is it the same white silicone as a bathroom?
No. An external frame joint takes ultraviolet, frost and real movement, and a sanitary silicone is not made for any of that. Outside gets a low modulus neutral cure silicone or a hybrid, in a colour picked to the frame or the render.
There is a damp patch inside under the window.
It may be the perimeter joint and it may not. A cracked sill, a blown render patch, a failed cavity tray and simple condensation all show up in the same place. The joint gets looked at first because it is the cheapest thing to rule in or out, and if it is not the cause you get told that rather than sold a bead.
Where
Window and door sealing across Exeter and Devon
- Exeter
- Heavitree
- St Thomas
- Pinhoe
- Alphington
- Ide
- Topsham
- Exmouth
- Budleigh Salterton
- Sidmouth
- Dawlish
- Teignmouth
Also on this site
The rest of what gets resealed
£95inc VATBath resealingThe old sealant round the bath stripped out completely, the joint cleaned back and dried, and a fresh sanitary bead run and tooled. £95 including VAT and silicone.
£95inc VATShower resealingTray, base, internal corners and the foot of the screen or enclosure resealed properly, with the old joint taken right out. £95 including VAT and silicone.
£95inc VATKitchen sealant and worktop sealingWorktop to wall joints, upstands, splashbacks and the run round an inset sink, sealed with the old line taken out first. £95 on its own.
£95inc VATSilicone removal and replacementThe full strip out: mouldy, lifting or badly applied sealant taken out completely, the joint cleaned back to bare surfaces, and a new bead run properly.
£185inc VATWhole bathroom resealingBath, shower, basin, screen and every tiled splashback run stripped and resealed on one visit. £185 including VAT and silicone.
Sealant repairs for landlords and agentsBooked with the tenant, photographed before and after, invoiced to the agent or the landlord. Fixed prices per bathroom so a job can be approved without a site visit.
Get a price
Book a reseal with Exeter Silicone Services
Send a photograph of the joint and say which fittings need doing. Back comes the price off the published card and the next free slot. Ringing is quicker if you want a date fixed today.
- Bath or shower
- £95
- Both on one visit
- £150
- Whole bathroom
- £185
VAT and silicone included. Minimum charge £95.