OT: First real rains in years, time to check your ceilings and walls.

[an]

[quote=ucodegen][quote=AN][quote=flu]Lol. I walked into my master bedroom and near the window my carpet is all wet. Like soaked…. Great, add one more thing to “fix”….[/quote]
My kid’s bedroom experienced the same thing. I thought I had it fixed the last time to rain this much. But don’t have any opportunity to test my fix. Turns out I fixed 1/2 of the problem. Time to try and fix the other 1/2 and wait for the next crazy rain.[/quote]
I will second Hobie’s suggestion on looking at the door seals and seals between the threshold and door jamb. Check if the door jamb itself is cracking near the threshold. Ours is and it looks like I have a big job coming up to remove the door and redo a good portion of the door jamb itself. Doors that face the sun are more likely to have this problem.[/quote]Yep, the problem I think is the seal going bad and the high wind. When it was raining hard but little wind, it didn’t leak. So, I need to get the seal replaced.

[Balboa]

So Piggs, what are some signs/conditions that warrant more than patching a leak?

We have had water leaking through a roof for every rain since September. Today a hole the diameter of a pencil was discovered under some passive solar heating panels — presumably an old bolt hole. It’s now caulked.

The caulked hole may stop future leaking, but I’m concerned about damage sustained bythe materials between the shingles and and what we can see of the ceiling planks — particularly since it keeps raining and doesn’t seem to get hot enough to dry things out.

There is no attic in this area. It takes a few hours of rain for the water to start dripping through the planks, and it also takes several hours to stop dripping after the rain stops. On Monday I had a spot dripping until 5 pm, and there wasn’t any rain here on Monday.

Can a typical roof handle survive several months of these conditions, or is it most like shot and in need of replacement? The planks may be deceptive –they don’t bulge and stain like other materials do, so they don’t look as ominous as some other leaks.

[no_such_reality]

Not sure I’m following which layer you’re talking about. Usually you have the shingles, underlayment, then plywood nailed to the rafters.

If you have planks instead, I think the main problem is they gapped has they aged

For replacing versus selling a leak, its condition and be of the roof. Are you dealing with asphalt shingles, T&G, tiles?

[Balboa_Again]

Hi NSR,

We have composite shingles and I’m assuming there are underlayment and decking underneath. I think the planks were just the chosen ceiling material. That said, all I can see with my own two eyes at this point are the shingles and the ceiling side of the planks. This roof was put on by flippers in 2010, and we’ve seen their handiwork elsewhere in the house. Not the *worst*, but not the best.

I’m concerned about the condition of the things we can’t see — the decking and the underlayment, which we know have been breached. The first leak was in September and small. Since then there has been a ton more rain, several more leaking spots in an area about 12×6 feet, and not much chance for drying out.

I’m worried about continued moisture contributing to mold and general weakness/decay, as well as termites. I don’t have a sense of how fast the moisture can start undermining the materials and to what degree — are they designed to be sturdy enough to get though a whole season of being consistently wet/damp?

[Coronita]

Well, I think I finally figured out why my window was leaking… Unfortunately, I wish it was a simple problem…… It isn’t…..

[img_assist|nid=26239|title=termite|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=400]

[no_such_reality]

That might not be that bad. Granted the picture doesn’t show a lot, but you may actually have caught it still early.

Time to rip the rest of the dry wall off to the right to see how extensive it it. However from the photo, the middle 2×4 doesn’t appear to have them in it, or doesn’t have them extensively.

The one on the right, looks like a piece of wafer cookie with the frosting sucked out, but wall stud next to it doesn’t look heavily infested. So you may just have the single window framing board hosting.

How’s the top piece that frames the window. It looks covered by the flashing, or is it completely gone?

[Coronita]

[quote=no_such_reality]That might not be that bad. Granted the picture doesn’t show a lot, but you may actually have caught it still early.

Time to rip the rest of the dry wall off to the right to see how extensive it it. However from the photo, the middle 2×4 doesn’t appear to have them in it, or doesn’t have them extensively.

The one on the right, looks like a piece of wafer cookie with the frosting sucked out, but wall stud next to it doesn’t look heavily infested. So you may just have the single window framing board hosting.

How’s the top piece that frames the window. It looks covered by the flashing, or is it completely gone?[/quote]

Well, regarding the top horizontal piece framing the window…….Lol… (because there’s no point crying about it)

[img_assist|nid=26241|title=window1|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=500]

Here’s what it looks like from the bottom….
Yeah, I think it’s done….

[img_assist|nid=26242|title=window2|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=500]

The water leak appears to be from a tiny hole in the stucco on the other side, and since there is no longer any wood there, it just leaks right in. A little calking would fix that, but the bigger issue is the wood definitely needs to be replaced.

If it was just the vertical window support, I’d say that would be pretty easy to replace.

But with the horizontal window frame 2×4 definitely needs to be replaced too. On the right side (you can’t see it) there’s a 1″ gap between the horizontal frame and the vertical support 2×4. I’m not sure how I would go about replacing the horizontal frame. It seems like the frame was nailed downward before the window was installed. I’m not sure how I could simply replace that horizontal beam without taking out the window first.. .maybe slide a beam from below, and nail from above between the window sills??? It seems like the window is already attached on the other 3 sides to the rest of the frame, so maybe I can get away with just taking out the bottom frame beam and replacing it from the bottom. But again, I think it will require me to demolish some of the outside stucco. I think I’ll just get someone to do it.

Anyway, this sucks. I guess I’ll need to delay my miata purchase even further, lol….
First thing is first. I need to find a termite inspector to inspect and eradicate. I might have an infestation elsewhere. Judging by the way the wood looks, it’s been like this for some time. I doubt this happens in just a matter of months.

[svelte]

I don’t think you’ve torn out enough sheet rock yet. I bet if you go to the right you’ll find even more severely damaged wood.

All fixable it just takes $$. And I agree that damage has been going on for some time.

[La Jolla Renter]

I have a few leaks.

And as a mater of fact, I was out with a few buddies last night. All four of us have leaks in our homes. (all are $1M plus homes)

[Author]

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