This is one of the many houses up on a hill above the Forest Heights area that is pounded with the storms that blow in off the coast from the southwest. And while we are resolute in retaining a thankful attitude for the work that comes our way, even the difficult, financially painful ones such as this one, we are inclined to use this opportunity to express the fact that there are clients for whom we would never work again. But thankfully, very, very few.

We remain thankful because there is benefit to be gained in any experience, and some of the greatest lessons are found in the most difficult occurrences. But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t avoid a traffic accident if we could. The irony here with this project lies in the fact that our client had previously been the victim of one of the many handymen contractors out there pretending to be knowledgeable about this type of work. If you look at the photo above, you can see what the property owner had to do to keep the contractors work from letting water in the house. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

This whole exterior corner that has the deck attached to it was apparently made worse by the efforts of the contractor who preceded our arrival.
Unfortunately for us, we felt sorry for our client, and yielded to some of their obsessions that exceeded the scope of our contract.

You’ve perhaps heard the phrase describing the phenomenon of giving someone an inch, after which they come to expect a mile?
This was a perfect example of that very thing. This is where the atonement thing comes into play. We came to believe our client was attempting some payback upon the world of construction workers, and we were to be the sacrificial lamb, but it’s just speculation on our part.

If you’re a contractor, you might get a smile out of this, but this client taught us that in terms of a project going sideways, there may be nothing more dangerous than an obsessive client with access to the internet, who suddenly believes they are now an exterior envelope expert.

Nonetheless, we stuck it out and finished that which we had begun. Yes, we generated change-orders to cover much of the additional work as the extent…

…of the damage became known upon the opening up of the walls. But there were cultural challenges related to communication that came into play, and likely may have been exploited, which may…

…explain a goodly amount of our misfortune with this client. We learned a few lessons. See? We suspect that we’ll see this type of thing coming much sooner next time, and put the kibosh on it before we’re so vested in the project.

But there is no doubt that there are many more questionable contractors out there, than there are unscrupulous clients, or we would probably seek some other avenue of work. Generally speaking, most of our clients are the salt of the earth.

99.999% of the time, our contracts protect both us and our clients, and keep the lines of communication very clear. 99.999% of the time, I think those who would seek to take advantage of someone else might take one look at our contract and move on to an easier target…thankfully. This type of thing rarely happens.

Anyone who knows what the weather can be like on the S.W. facing hillside in the Forest Heights area knows that the word “extreme” almost doesn’t cover it.

So if the exterior envelope of a house isn’t buttoned up tighter than a Texas tick on a hound dog, you’re likely going to find out about it, as these folks did when their ceiling developed a leak.

It doesn’t take a forensic exterior envelope engineer to suspect the corresponding vertical wall almost directly above the water-stains in the ceiling. Isn’t that a great term… Forensic…

The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as; …Relating to the use of science or technology in the investigation & establishment of facts or evidence in a court of law. I’m inserting it in these writings every chance I get because it’s one of the hot buzzwords right now related…

…to construction defect work. I’m hoping Google Analytics will route folks to our web-site who use it as a key term. But no, I’m not a forensic engineer, or a CSI (Construction Scene Investigator), although I’m certain you were thinking I was.

As you can see in the prior photo, there’s some black felt-paper (moisture-barrier) sticking out beneath the bottom course of siding there. We pulled off a couple courses of siding, and you can see (above) the previous forensic engineer which our client had called inserted it “over” the bottom of the original moisture-barrier,…

…apparently thinking inadequate overlap to the metal roof-flashing (below it) might be the problem. Of course, a proper installation would have involved the felt moisture-barrier being overlapped by the original moisture-barrier. No matter, it wouldn’t have solved the problem anyway…as you can see by the water-stains on…

…the plywood sheathing, the water is making its way down behind all the moisture-barrier.
The real culprit… Not running the moisture barrier all the way to the top of the exterior wall and sealing it to the eve structure. Who would have thought rain would make it all the way up under those eves…

Well the truth is that I would not have thought it would, were it not for the many years…and now decades that I’ve spent tracing down these leaks…and specifically tracing down leaks on the hillside in Forest Heights where the storms rolling in from the coast hit the hill and the air-masses are forced UP, taking the rain with them.

As you can see, we opened up the ceiling to check for water damage to the structural components. And yes, our own crew possesses the expertise to button the rock back up and to even apply and match the original textures and brocades that exist so that all evidence of the trauma disappears.

Water was showing up on the interior, in the corner of the window opening where the red arrow is pointing. You might note the piece of metal someone installed above the window in an attempt to divert the water. If you click on the photo, it will enlarge.

The cause, as in 98% of these projects we do, was improper flashing technique. In this case, it was up around the 2nd story window. Although the 2nd story window was not the only point of water penetration on this back facing wall.

Stripping off some of the water-damaged plywood sheathing quickly led to the discovery of water-damaged two-by-sixes. So we just started opening up the wall even more.

Over by the sliding patio door was more bad news.

All the way down to the foundation.

One of the structural brackets used to reinforce the exterior wall (shown bent up) was laid over the bottom-corner “nailing fin” of the sliding patio door, breaking it in the process (not shown), with the not too surprising result shown above.

And so the process of replacing the water-damaged structural wall components begins, after which new moisture-barrier is applied.

Up along the sides of the patio-door assembly, and beneath it as well.

We move up to the bedroom window above, removing it temporarily while we re-flash the rough-opening.

The windows and the patio sliding door assembly are reinstalled and all the Hardiplank siding is replaced.

Improper flashing technique and its consequential damage is no respecter of property values.

What began here as a window replacement job, quickly translated into construction defect job.

We were contracted to replace 20 original wood casement window assemblies with new Pella Wood Clad versions.

But the extent to which the structural wall components were damaged was so extensive that we had to employ the services of a structural engineer to replace them.

Employing the use of Sill-Pans is pretty much encouraged by all the upper-end wood window and door manufacturers these days, although we rarely see them used with Vinyl windows.

That may due in part to the fact that Vinyl windows are pretty much impervious to the effects of moisture, which is to say that their sills are not going to rot through and create a channel for water to access the wall cavities below.

Although we would probably point out that water getting in and around a window assembly is often brought about by means other than the window assembly failing at some level, and that sill pans may still help minimize the spread of water and its consequences, even if the window assembly itself is not subject to water damage.

We say this of course, because we see plenty of water damaged exterior walls with Vinyl windows in them.

Of course, if the construction industry adopted proper flashing techniques across the board, and found some way to apply the quality control needed to insure compliance, this division of our business would likely have need to diversify into some other niche.

But frankly, we would not miss being part of so much financial distress. Nobody plans on having to rebuild a side of their house, and it’s never fun to watch folks absorb this kind of bad news. For us, it’s a very conflicting proposition because we prefer happy clients rather than those who just had their savings unexpectantly drained.

A very rural Oregon City address, just northeast of Canby. Water damaged drywall on the interior side suggests water intrusion.

As soon as we begin removing some of the trim components from around the vinyl windows, one of the obvious reasons for the intrusion becomes apparent. Note that the moisture-barrier materials are overlapping the bottom nailing fin of the upper window.

Removal of the window assemblies exposes some water damage to the wall components. But most of the damage is found to be to the sheathing behind the brick facade. You can’t see much of the facade in the above photo because of the temporary platform we’ve erected to elevate us above the client’s flower bed. You can see the facade in photo #1.

Now in this photo you can see the back side of the brick facade because we’ve removed the water damaged plywood sheathing. Not an easy or fun job to do.

This photo shows one of a number of sections of drywall that we removed because of water damage…and to allow us opportunity to inspect for potential water damage on the wood components to which they were attached.

All the windows are temporarily removed to allow for the needed repairs.

The plywood sheathing behind the brick facade is replaced, and moisture-barrier material is inserted between the sheathing & the bricks.

Tim Afonin in the midst of buttoning everything back up.

The drywall is replaced as needed.

Everything put back together just before the painter shows up to put the finishing touches on everything.

Condos in Southwest Portland.
Water has had occasion to show up at the top interior of the lower window assembly.
Our client paid someone to employ the use of one of…

…those high-tech cameras to check the wall for moisture & said the result was negative. So he asked me what I thought, and I said if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

But for some reason, our client didn’t feel right about the results of the camera test, and asked us to check the wall out anyway…and as you can tell by the following photos, it’s a good thing he did.

These compounded intersecting rooflines and gutter configurations always look suspicious to me I guess because so many of them end up proving complicit to the cause of the problem.

And this one was no exception.

Unfortunately, our client’s neighbor was also drawn into the conflict with mother nature’s exposing of the builder’s construction sins, if you will.

The offending mess at the top.

You might expect me to “rake” a bit on the vinyl siding, but I really have nothing negative to say about it.

Sure, it carries a substantial stigma among your high-brow housing markets. And there are admittedly substantial architectural limitations to the look you can achieve with it.

But while I do not wish to offend any of my top-shelf clients and the high-end contractors with whom I rub elbows, I have found that when vinyl siding is properly installed, it’s a no brainer. Low cost initial investment coupled with low-cost…

…maintenance for decades can look pretty attractive to the pragmatic among us. Yes, it needs to be properly installed on a building where all the exterior components are properly flashed. But I must tell you that I’m a big fan of “low maintenance.”

Another home owner reporting water showing up around their windows.

Remember the farm houses with large wrap-around porches… Besides lacking character or any architectural appeal, the back of this house has so very little protection from the elements.

Note what appears to be an attempt to stem the flood of water penetration by means of installing some sort of aluminum overhead drip over the top of the window.

Yes, those are mushrooms growing out from under the exterior window trim.

In any regard, whether architecturally appealing or not…even with the extreme exposure and the pressboard sheathing, if the flashing products were simply installed correctly…

…none of this damage would be occurring.

And the ironic part is that of all the relatively technical or skillful aspects required to…

…build a home, installing flashing products correctly is really one of the most simplistic. Anybody can make a mistake, but the kind of errors that…

…lead to the entire back side of a house needing substantial repair like this are nothing short of gross neglect and a failure to employ even a modicum of quality control.

One of the many well-appointed homes in one of the many well-appointed neighborhoods up upon and around Bull Mountain.

As you can see, the day I showed up to perform the preliminary inspection, it was a bit foggy. The previous shot was the day we did the job.

Lots of potential points of entry, such as the wooden horizontal band, the exterior trim, not to mention the nearby adjoining roofline.

This is where the evidence of moisture intrusion is showing up on the interior side.

I’m not certain you can make out the swollen portions on this small photo, so I’ve included some arrows in hopes of helping illustrate where the damage is.

MDF. Medium Density Fiberboard. Friend of the contractors bottom-line, but bane of the homeowner’s maintenance account.

Well there’s a potential point of entry if ever I saw one. Imagine water running down off over the top of the board near the opening, and then add strong gusts of wind accelerated as the moving…

…air-mass is forced up over the mountain.
You can then imagine it running down on the top of the bottom horizontal board till it finds the low point of least resistance into the wall.

But we needn’t worry, Inspector Castro is on the scene with his CSI forensic tool-bag of experience to find and stop the culprit. And yes, we do always replace the water damaged interior surrounds and trim materials, including the drywall if and…

…when needed and if and when it is desired by our clients that we do so. And we do have some reputable painters we are willing to refer if desired. And sometimes, when so desired, we will sub-out the painters so our clients only have to deal with one contractor.

I like these types of duplexes. I like the dissimilarities and the creativeness that the dissimilarities require.

However, our client doesn’t particularly like the water that is showing up at the top of her ground-floor window.

The tell-tale signs of water getting in the wall above, as seen from the interior top of the vinyl window where the drywall surrounds it.

Up at the 2nd story window above it, we remove the bottom exterior trim board, and what do you know…the flashing membrane is overlapping that which is above.

Not only that…but for some reason, the bottom nailing-fin has been cut extremely short. I’m not certain you can make that out with these relatively small photos, but I’m not certain I’ve ever seen that.

With this photo, you should be able to make out how the water followed the metal strap down to the horizontal seam in the pressboard…

…sheathing, and then migrating to the right along that seam before continuing its journey down to the top of the lower window.

There were also large lapses in the laying of the felt moisture-barrier, including places where there simply was none. So the decision…

…was made with our client to remove all the siding up to the top of the upper window, the damaged sheathing was replaced, new moisture…

…barrier installed and then the new Hardiplank siding was installed as needed. Hardiplank siding almost always breaks when removed.

Linns Mill area on Mompano Reservoir in Clackamas County.

There’s nothing quite like paying a handyman thousands of dollars to make a leak worse than what it was before he did the work. Water is “still” showing up at the top of the lower windows.

Please note the metal flashing sitting on top of the felt moisture-barrier that is coming down from above.

When the wood trim is taken off, we discover the felt paper behind the trim sitting atop the felt-paper coming down from above. Are we seeing a pattern here?

We take the exterior trim boards off at the bottom of the 2nd story windows and we find the moisture-barrier sitting over the top of the window assembly nailing-fins coming down from above.

Not too much mystery surrounding exactly how the water is getting into this wall. At least he was consistent, was he not?

Unfortunately, the water damage has translated into the need for some structural component repairs near the bottom of the wall.

After which the process of the wall being buttoned back up is begun.

Our premier technicians Bruce Hinkenlooper & Tim Afonin (behind the camera) zeroing in on putting our client’s concerns to rest.

The finished product. Time to call a painter. Buyer beware the Handyman services selling their price.