from my forensic cript of moisture info.....
client calls me in to recaulk a shower in a vacant appt as thw baseboard around it was flaking off paint, and looked water damaged.
All caulking looked good, tub was levelled properly. - stuck my moisture meter into the baseboard and highest readings were about 3' away from tub. An inquiry to building manager as to what was behind the wall revealed it was the boiler room. Asked him to check it for a leak and gave him approx location. Would you be surprised to learn he found a leak!
Another client whom Iknew quite well asked me to reno his bathroom. The only stipulation was he wanted to keep his retro chrome plated exhaust fan, but it had to come out to be replated, so up to the attic I went...No exterior vent, and here in the CDN prairies, where -20-30C occurs in winter, the moisture condenses on the roofing nails, and produces "attic rain" which comes spring drips down into the insulation and as the summer heat ocurs, the moisture evaporates and gets absorbed by plaster/drywall and affects humidity throught the home. New roof vent installed.
Two instances -one in a row housing complex, ? 15 town houses---the other in a neighbours home...During heavy rains, water dripping down windows, WHY???
Row house, situation had had new exterior application of insulative siding covered by new vinyl siding, new roof housing manager contacted siding company...."not us"---contacted roofing company....again "not us". The called in the inspectors for a BIG meeting to which I was invited. finger pointing big time....
But they had a 32' ladder set up, so up I went. A hunch led me to put a level on the aluminium soffit, which was sloping back towards the walls of the complex. and was attached to existing wall. As well, the roofing co had not installed drip edge under the new roof, so I pointed out that a heavy rain would /could overflow the gutter and run down the wooden facia,flow down, , hit the bottom "j"edge of the aluminium fascia, hence to the soffit, then flow back to the wall behind the new insulative cladding and run down the wall till it hit the protrusion of the windows, and then some of it would flow inside. Why would this occur? Siding company would have had to install another strip of insulative siding and vinyl siding, to raise that soffit another 1/2" over maybe 1200', roofing co would have to have installed 1200' of drip edge Never did hear how that worked out!
Niehbours house, again water running down windows in heavy rainl--- but again no drip edge on their roof. . She had called in a window company, and of course they told her she needed new windows. 30K$. Drew her diagrams explaining why it was occurring, as again her soffits were sloped back towards the house, and held up by a strip that ran behind her stucco.
She also had two other complaints, her front door , which was covered by a substantial roof, also leaked water, and her back door always had a little drift of snow on the floor inside when iwe had blowing snow. I dunno if folks are familiar with ne home construction, but with adjustable latches, the latches are sometimes set so that when painters are painting, thy can still lock the door without the paint sticking to the weather stripping, and then reset to seal when paint is dry, This was never done. Simple fix, no charge
Front door was a bit on an enigma, so I asked her to tell me when it happens.....her reply..."everytime my husband pressure washes the front door"...no amount of weather stripping is designed to resist the 10 or 20klbs of a pressure washer
What happened? she opted for the 30k$ new windows, then they sold the house!
Last boring story.
replaced a whole main floor with new doors, all adjusted properly. Client said he would paint them. Job done .
Two month later I get a phone call ...two of them are binding. I go back and fix them, wondering why, and this time I notice house feels "clamy" but dismiss it ---untilI get another call back about other doors binding. WTF?
The first two doors were a bathroom door in the master bathroom, the second was just across from a 2nd bathroom. A puzzle to be sure,and my suspicion is "humidity", so this time I go there, put a humidly meter in the front hall, and start getting tools. Within 10 minutes, humidty meter is reading 80% and I point that out. check the exhaust in the 2nd bathroom, and clean it. -blades caked with dust, and oft times the dust and humidty act as glue to prevent the flapper valve from opening to exhaust position (oft seen- as a frequent source of "noise complaints", which leads folks not to use them), but it's not really bad and the flapper isn't "glued" shut yet, so I ask him to go down and check to make sure his dryer vent pipes haven't come loose. and he inexplicable to me refuses. after two call backs I push him and he reveals that "it has never been connected". So as he had lived in this house for years, that dryer was pumping out literally liters of water and dust into his house everytime they used it- for years
As he was to do the painting, I had told him, and showed him how to paint the top and bottom of the doors and also explained why, so I checked, and they hadn't,been- on asking why not "nobody ever sees them" was the reply
The door across from the 2nd bath, well on the second recall, it had two clothes drying racks in it this time
In chatting with him, turns out he was recently retired from a job that took his around the world, and he said everytime he came home he felt sick so he retired!
Did his frugality cause this, I cannot be sure, but I bet it contributed!
Thanks for letting me bore you
Morale of the story- simple test instruments like level, moisture meter/ hygrometer can be immense assistance in getting to the root of a problem.
