I am helping some friends rehab an 1850 brick rowhouse in Boston. We have all the brick walls exposed right now and during the endless rain we have experienced in the last two weeks, the NE wall has gotten wet enough to run water down it’s face.(on the inside!)
I’ve been on the roof, it’s no more than 5-10 yrs old and looks flawless. The gutters are huge and clean and in good shape and the windows are brand new.
The only thing I can think of is the wind driven rain is managing to saturate the bricks. It’s only that wall, which bears the brunt of the heavy weather, and only ofter several days of rain.
Has anyone experienced this? The mortar on the outside needs repointing, but it’s not so bad that you’d expect problems. The mortar on the interior of that wall is badly deteriorated, chalky and soft. It may have been happening for 150 yrs behind the plaster.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Eric
Edited 10/26/2005 9:36 pm ET by esp71
Replies
See near the end of post #36 on the thread about housewrap versus building paper.
that would be..."We have always used a rainscreen of 3/4-1" space behind brick veneer as it is so leaky. We have flashing and weep/drain holes at the bottom course of brick to drain this water. Now all we have to do is apply this knowledge and a bit more to other systems to have good performance."from here...
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=64946.36
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Okay, I'm not crazy. but..This is not brick veneer, this is serious brick, 4 bricks thick in the 1st floor, 3 on the 2nd, etc, with granite and sandstone lintels, joists pocketed into the common walls and so on. How do you address this problem in this sort of building?and thank you for replying.Eric
I know it is not veneer. That means that you probably have no drainage plain so it is essential to get the pointing done to reduce the amt of penetration to a level that heat energy driving out through the brick wall can dissapate the moisture.You could mix a slurry of thoroseal to paint one the eterior, depending on what appearance you are looking for, or you could start an annual treatment of a masonry sealer
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if it were just damp to wet on the inside I'ld say the brick is just old and porous, but that much water running down the inside sounds like a leak, especially if its up high on the wall, check all the flashings, chimney caps, etc ..
Unfortunately we have been over all the flashing, etc. there are just no obvious gaps. The roof is roll roofing and it's in good shape, it's got big copper gutters that are unobstructed, nicely flashed. The windows are brand new. It's been making us crazy.The mortar on the inside of the wall is so deteriorated that I'm inclined to believe that this has been happening for a long time.Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I feel a little moer hopeful about dealing with this now. Any particular brands of masonry sealant we should look for?Eric
I feel your pain, I had one like this last year, changed flashing, re-roofed part of a section, still leaked, .. turned out to be porous cement chimney cap, replaced it with a metal one and no leaks ..
One thing I'd add is you should try to take care of this before you have freezing weather--I guess it's an ongoing problem, but if that water saturated brick freezes, it can't be good!
I've had the problem of wind driven rain through a brick fireplace. I spoke to an engineer and he told me about a device called a phylum (hope I've spelled it correctly) tube which they fill with water and place against the brick. It simulates rain being driven at 60 mph (if my memory is correct). I asked him then what? He said if it's absorbing water get a high quality masonry sealer. Get it at a masonry supply house...not Home Depot. I've had the brick treated periodically and except for the recent hurricane remnants we got in New england there has been no visible water penetration or leaks.
Masonry is gauranteed to leak water through. Standard issue. That is why on moder veneer walls a weep and drainage plane is required to channel water out. Since you are in need of pointing up, you can expect more than typical penetration of water and we have had aplenty lately.
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Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
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