One of those contemporary designed homes in Lake Oswego.

Uh oh. Plastic on the roof. That can’t be good.

Uh oh, water stains on the window sill…that can’t be good either.

Sure enough, we find substantial water penetration via improperly flashed walls

Vertical cedar siding is known to be problematic in our climate, but if the exterior…

…envelopes moisture-barrier were properly flashing to all the related surfaces, windows and joints, then it wouldn’t…

…matter that water was finding its way in-between several of the boards or whatever.

It’s understandable that every homeowner who encounter’s these types of expensive revelations regarding their…

…house would be inclined to feel that their misfortune is isolated and unique. Although it’s no consolation, a little surfing through our list of construction defects…

…projects here, which represents a mere smidgen of the projects we do, and you will quickly realize that nothing could be further from the truth.

Not terribly unlike cancer, water damage due to construction defect can go largely unnoticed for years.

And then the symptoms may begin to show up slowly. This photo shows a window that had begun to leak, and the homeowner pulled-off some siding and attempted to affect the repairs himself.

But when water began showing up around other openings, he decided he might want to get someone involved who does this type of work for a living.
Sometimes we will open-up the walls as needed to…

…ascertain the extent of the cause and the damage in a particular area, but then move onto other known problem areas before repairing or replacing the wall components in order to gain the full-scope of what the project is going to entail.

This is why you can see portions of the exterior walls covered-up in our photos here. This provides protection to opened areas while we continue the inspection process.

As you can see, if the weather requires it, as it often can in the Willamette Valley, we can provide and erect a temporary cover for a impromptu shop for storing and cutting materials as needed.

The same goes for protecting the house while we perform the repairs. We get lots of practice, so we we’re fairly good at providing the necessary cover.

Almost done on this end of the house.

We move around now to the front of the house and make our way to the other end.
And yes, we can contend with all the various types of siding, including EFIS and the masonry types of stucco as well.

Tim Afonin is our chief siding expert, and chiefly responsible for the reputation that we enjoy in this particular department of our business.

What begins as a relatively simple project installing a new client-supplied window on this contemporary house up in the west hills…

…explodes into a substantial water remediation project when we discover damage below and above the window we were to remove. Soon, we were replacing wall studs that took us through to the interior walls…

…of the bathroom where the new window was to be installed. If the “DURING” photo looks weird, it’s because we tried to stitch three photos together that show the extent of the water damage, and the “stitching” didn’t go so well. Although we suspect you get the idea.

Many of the structural wall components had to be replaced. Sean Miller is shown installing the new insulation, after which the new drywall was applied.

Back to the exterior, we find the damage extensive. For a slightly closer view, you might try clicking on the photo to enlarge it. And the damage extends all the way down…

…to the deck…

…and on up to the top floor where the water was getting into the wall.

Here is a shot of a flashing piece that is supposed to separate the top floor moisture-barrier from that which is below. Can you discern here one of the problems we discovered with this wall? The moisture barrier is not overlapping the flashing, rendering it utterly ineffective.

This wall and this house have numerous more such issues, as we attempted to communicate to our client.
Most of us can relate to having something other than unlimited resources and the need to defer certain expenses.

But the risky aspect of “out and out denial” as it relates to this particular type of repair, is that ongoing neglect easily translates into the need for more extensive repairs and thousands of dollars more down the road. Rot is a living organism that never sleeps.

Multifaceted. All this architectural gingerbread is an exterior envelope engineers dream. Or nightmare, depending upon whether you’re a glass half-full or half-empty sort of person.

If you enlarge the above photo by clicking on it, you may be able to make out some of the water damage that was showing up pretty much directly beneath the window with the RED ARROW pointing at it in the previous photo.

We’ve got bump-outs, exterior-trim, lap-siding, belly-bands, board and batten siding, cornices, wood corbels (AKA “tassels” or “braggers”) and pseudo dormer roof-lines.

Lots and lots of seams and joints to be tested by the weather here in the great northwest.

Developing a strategy for opening up the wall in pursuit of finding the point of entry is always less than an exact science. You can easily do more than the bare minimum needed, just as easily as not doing enough. It’s not unusual for there to be more than one point of entry.

Understandably, the more of these type of projects you do, the quicker you begin to recognize the patterns and the tell-tale signs. The culprit is found (above). Note the metal L-Flashing that separates the two types of siding. Note its relationship to the moisture-barrier above it. It wouldn’t have helped prevent this leak because the water was already behind the moisture-barrier, but the lack of expertise is no doubt still related to the leak.

The window assembly is temporarily removed so we can replace the damaged sheathing, and to also facilitate wrapping the rough-opening with the self-adhesive flashing membrane before reinstalling it.

Tim Afonin is our resident flashing expert. His experience level is immeasurably important to our company.

As the water-remediation section of our portfolio here will attest to, we have resolved water penetration issues in just about every type of construction and siding type known to modern man.

Experience is key.

One of many exclusive neighborhoods in West Linn.

The pattern continues with elevated properties, elevated walls with minimal overhangs and non-clad wood windows.

In this case, they are Weathershield wood windows. But the brand of window isn’t as pertinent…

…as the exposure to the elements and the issue of maintenance. Or the latter’s lack thereof.

This is one of those scenarios where the rotten windows translated into water-damaged walls.

As the sills and jambs have deteriorated to the point of “holes” developing, the water has been routed on into the wall cavities.

We do so much wood window repair that we often stock lineal footage of sash and sill components of various brands of wood windows.

Brandon goes about repairing a large picture sash.

Steve Hilt is cutting cedar siding…

…for Bruce & David to install as they go about putting the exterior walls back together after the repairs have been made.

Another contemporary design with the flat roofs and the infamous vertical tongue-in-groove cedar siding.

This one nestled away in Vancouver Washington.

The initial scope of this living room project involved replacement of three rather large “failed” direct-glaze insulated glass units.

But once the work began, it wasn’t long before rot was discovered in the window-sills and jambs, which lead…

…to discovering rotten structural components in the wall cavities below.

It’s always difficult to say how long this water intrusion has been going on, but the damage extended all the way down the living…

…room exterior wall, on down into the basement wall below it. So the job somewhat morphed into a more…

…extensive project that necessitated our erecting tarps and shifting gears into rebuilding exterior walls mode.

This probably isn’t the only place on this structure with hidden damage…but for now, this area is better than new.

Well the problem that resulted in this project wasn’t really “small” per se, I’m just encountering some writers block as it relates to coming up with creative titles for these photo documents.

Clearly, our client didn’t think his problem was all that small, given what he paid to get it fixed. Stereotypical scenario here…water showing up at the top of the bottom window.

Removal of siding quickly locates the source. See the red arrow and the water stain trailing down from there. You can enlarge the photo if you click on it.

Before we removed it, this is what the moisture-barrier looked like along the side of the upper window. Some of the barrier came off with the siding, but note the lack of overlap due to how the felt-paper was cut.

This is the result. It’s no wonder the powers that be now require we use that self-adhesive flashing tape to seal these two surfaces together.

And so the windows are temporarily removed so as to facilitate proper application of flashing products to protect the rough-opening.

The windows are reinstalled and the aforementioned flashing-tape is applied accordingly.

Cedar siding is replaced…

…and we move up to the 2nd story window.

Almost finished.

In 2013, we were hired to find the leak that was showing up at the top of living room windows, as well as the top of the door assembly above it (See project 27115 in this same category). Operating on the assumption that the water source might be one in the same, we removed all the stucco shown above in the area highlighted in yellow, and as documented in the photo shown above with Steve Hilt up at the top of the scaffolding. This removal of stucco siding confirmed that due to improperly flashed stucco and related components, substantial water had indeed been finding its way down inside the exterior wall to the top of the doors and we assumed, on down to the window assembly below.

Also operating under the direction of our clients who were understandably wanting to minimize costs, it was assumed and hoped that stopping the water at the top of the doors would also stop the water showing up at the top of the windows below. But the following year (2014), as the photos above indicate with the cooking pans on the living room window sill again (yellow arrow), this was not to be. So let it be known that there is often more than one source and entry point for leaky walls. And finding all the points of entry is not always an exact science unless a client is willing to pay us to open enough exterior surfaces to find them all. And yet obviously, folks are understandably motivated to minimize costs.

It’s also not unusual for the stress related to unexpected financial liabilities such as this to translate into folks being tempted to blame us for not finding and stopping all the leaks the first time. That was not the case here. Our clients chose to remember that we were instructed to try and minimize costs. These folks were among those who choose to treat others as they would want to be treated. And so the stucco below the Juliet balcony is removed and the water-trail is followed both up and down the wall. Eric is showing someone’s previous repairs as indicated by the shiplap sheathing having been replaced by plywood. You may need to click on several of these photos to enlarge them so you can make out what we’re trying to show here.

What we found to be the primary culprit were the cantilevered steel flat-bar supports for the Juliet balcony. They can be better seen in photo set #7 below, but you should be able to see the water-stains on the sheathing just below the balcony (red arrows). And below that (2nd photo), the water trail led us down below the living room windows where an entire corner support post had completely disintegrated.

Our client seemed keenly appreciative of the fact that this structural damage was discovered before the weight of the steel balcony structure resulted in bringing the master bedroom down into the living room. .

Damaged structural components are replaced and properly covered with moisture-barrier products. A custom galvanized sill-pan is manufactured for us to our specifications by Schmeer Sheet Metal and installed by our crew before the windows are reinstalled.

Here you can better see the steel flat-bar supports tied into the master bedroom flooring joists. Flashing these to the stucco siding in a way that was viable and durable seemed like a long-shot to us. So we devised a plan to have some very custom flashing made to cover the area above the supports, which was also tied into and under the door assembly sill-pan. We then enveloped the supports with composite material that was laid over more sheet-metal flashing tucked beneath the flashing above it and then turned out at 90 degrees at the bottom of the composite boards to cover the top of the new stucco siding that was yet to be installed below it all. Did you get all that?

Here we see the wall rebuilt with the new moisture-barrier in place on the exterior, and the windows and related trim reinstalled on the interior.
In photo-set #5 above, you can see a door assembly that was original to the house there off the living room. Our client said that this door was never used. So we were asked to replace it with a window that would match the one on the opposite end of this structural bump-out. These photos show the new window opening temporarily covered while we waited for the new window sash to be manufactured by Marvin. Yes, only the jambs and trim were original. The sash had all been upgraded previously to modern Marvin windows with insulated (double-pane) glass.

Here we see the exterior walls prepared for the reapplication of stucco siding.

And here we see the new applied stucco awaiting paint, at which time it will blend in with the rest of the original stucco. Please note that we have now installed the new Marvin Picture Casement Sash where there had originally been a door assembly.

The Quimby Townhouses in Northwest Portland. You get one guess as to what street this complex sits upon.

Water leak reported on main-floor living space window assembly.

If you enlarge the photo by clicking upon it, you may be able to make out some of the water-damage at the top of the window.

We are immediately struck by what appears to be extensive flashing measures. They even have galvanized flashing right on top of the vinyl window, which is a bit of overkill. But if you’re going to do this…

…most seasoned professional flashing technicians are going to tell you that the z-flashing should have extended all the way over the top of the vertical trim piece, as we’ve illustrated with the yellow lines.

Backer-rod used between the window and trim to create an adequate caulking joint is applaudable. But failing to overlap the nailing-fin is a huge mistake, whether there is z-flashing over it or not. Look at the hole created (yellow arrow) by the moisture membrane that runs up the vertical fin.

This hole would be covered if the top nailing-fin was adequately overlapped. If moisture was somehow getting behind the outer moisture-barrier layer, as it was due to flashing foibles beneath the upper window, this is a likely entry-point.

Unusually extensive flashing efforts where clearly evident here. But there’s no substitute for thoroughness born of experience. This photo shows the siding boards replaced due to our corrections made below the upper window.

Tim retrieves his harness anchor.

Mission accomplished.

The N.E. Grant Park Area. It’s not really a century old structure, but it’s getting close.

Its current owner is one of those rare clients who understands the value of preventative maintenance. She isn’t waiting until the water starts showing up at her interior walls, to get the exterior siding upgraded.

You probably can tell that the ground floor is sided in stucco. This property owner, (a previous client of ours) decided to upgrade the 2nd story lap-siding.

As these photos reveal, there was no moisture barrier employed when this house was built 84 years ago.

Any cracks, knots or holes in the siding or along the edges could very easily translate into water penetration and damage to the structure.

It’s truly a testament to the general construction practices of those days that structures like this one actually have very little damage…

…as compared to the many that were built over the past 20 years. And it would seem to be getting worse from our experience.

Several of our technicians are working on the back of the house, while the large gabled side wall over the driveway is being finished.

The siding of choice for this project was 18″ R&R KD Primed & Grooved Shingles.

There was actually very little water-damage discovered beneath the siding on this project.