Huge exterior gap between top of window and brick...spray foam? (windows, painting)

[eddiehaskell]

A piece of the aluminum trim around the top of my side window was loose so I thought about taking it off all the way around and painting what I thought would be wood under it. However, there's no wood there - the thin aluminum trim is all that covers the gap between the window and brick. You can stick your fingers in and touch the exterior sheahting(?) which is about 4 inches back.

With the old caulking not being tight around the aluminum it seems like water/air could easily get into the gap between the brick and sheathing (there were dead bugs and a little mud wasp nest in the gap).

I'm thinking I should spray the gap with minimal expanding foam, caulk the aluminum to the brick and then paint. Does this sound right? Should I go ahead and take off the trim around all the windows and do the same? I'm afraid that I'll bend the aluminum trying to take it off.

[Zippyman]

There's a dap expanding *caulk* (not expanding foam) that works well in situations like this - expanding foam makes a horrific mess, and can expand forcefully enough to tweak your windows so they won't ever open again. The caulk product can still be messy, but it cleans up with water & isn't nearly as messy.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/21153802?...&wl13=&veh=sem

As for the trim, quite often it's attached with self-tapping screws or "pop rivets".. A silicone caulk would probably work, but it's really messy & hard to work with (and not paintable, so you have to get it off anything you hope to paint). The "paintable" acrylic/silicone caulks most likely won't be strong enough to hold the trim.

Best bet would be to find at least a couple places for a real fastener (screw or rivet) & then use acrylic/ silicone (paintable) caulk.

Maybe get the one that's apart now fixed & then evaluate if you want to take on the rest of the windows yourself, or "punt"...