Windows in New Orleans take wind-driven rain at the meeting rail, swollen cypress sash, and sills that rot while the glass stays whole. A Garden District wood window is not a slab-ranch insert in Gentilly. Say which wall faces the blow and whether the shutter still closes.
In a real wind the rain is thrown at the opening. Failed putty, a meeting rail that does not meet, and a shutter that hangs decorative let water into the wall cavity. The floor inside can be dry while the plaster below the stool blisters. Ropes and weights fail, so the sash drops and the latch never catches. Humid months swell the wood until nobody can lock it, then a drier week leaves it rattling. Fog between panes on later units means the seal is gone.
Pier houses rack. A sash that suddenly drags may be the frame moving, not only a swollen rail. Replacement windows set in thick old walls leak when the fin is buried and the joint is caulked with no pan. Aluminum frames on midcentury slabs sweat and pit, and the weep holes clog. Low windows and hopper vents near a slab in Lakeview or the East take splash when the yard is holding water. That splash is not the same path as rain blown under a gallery into an Uptown parlor window.
After the weather, press the apron and look at the plaster under it. Soft wood, a bubble, or mildew that returns in the same corner is an open path. Say if the bedroom must open for air and exit. Say if only the windward side fails. Count those openings in words. A window that leaks only when rain is horizontal is telling you about the storm, not about a mystery in the glass.
Call with the neighborhood, the floor, and the wall. Shotgun side window, gallery door light, or a ranch picture unit. Wood, metal, or a later insert. Blown-in rain, fogged seal, or a sash that will not move in humid weather. Mention soft trim and whether a shutter is part of the hole. The trade starts at the opening that let the wind push water in. Call the number on this page.