Defect / Water Leak Remediation

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.