Removing Exterior Trim on Window

[gotahammer]

Total newbie here and I'm pretty sure I'm not using the right words to describe this part of the window (see picture attached).

Untitled

• gotahammer
• 13 Aug 2014
• 1

In any case, I recently discovered that wasps have eaten through the caulking of my 'exterior window trim'. I attempted to kill the wasps with some bug spray and recaulked the window, only to discover that the wasps weren't completely dead and had eaten through the new caulk. My questions are:

1. What do you call this part of the window and what is it suppose to do? Other windows on this house don't have this same metal border around them.

2. I'm probably going to have to remove this metal trim to clear out the wasp nest, how much work can I expect from removing it?

Thanks in advance!

 

[AronSearle]

Can't be much help, but my interest is piqued, the metal trim looks like a dogs dinner, and I have not seen something like that before.

If it was my house I would be wanting to remove it anyway, I wonder what sins it is hiding.

Can you tell if the trim goes behind the window or just abuts it, that will affect how easy it is to just rip off.

You are in canada, is it brick skin timber frame?

EDIT - also, where the caulk has failed, can you see if the trim is hollow or filled with insulation.

 

[foxhole]

The arch brick suggests the window replaces two old ones and the 'trim' a poor effort at hiding the poor fit of the new window.

 

[gotahammer]

They are pretty unsightly and we had planned to remove them but got caught up with more pressing renovations. This wasp issue has accelerated our timeline.

I found out that they're made of aluminium and are referred to as 'aluminium window capping'. There are examples of better looking capping out there.

The trim just abuts the window. When I took the caulk off, all that I could see was the brick immediately behind it (no insulation). I wasn't able to see closer to the window or any of the framing so I'm not really sure what mess it's hiding.

The house is wood framed with a brick veneer.

I think I'll have to bite the bullet and take the trim off. I would like to replace it with some PVC trim, but my main concern is taking it off and finding a mess which is going to require more time/skills than I have. I guess there's only one way to find out.

 

[Gazman16]

As foxhole said the 2 brick arches imply that 2 windows were turned into 1.
The cladding is most likely just hiding the mess of where the brick faces are cut, Joining the 2 cills and also covering a lintel of some sort.

As its brick veneer most of it should be fairly easy to tidy up but its the lintel, arches and cill that may be tricky. I would take the cladding off carefully and get some pics of whats behind.
You can always just put the cladding back if it looks to be too big of a job.