Hello all,
A friend called me in a panic the other night, because water was seeping in between the molding and jamb of her living room window. We live in Wisconsin, where ice damming is common, and I told her that she was probably getting some run-off from that; not to worry too much in moment, since the water was really just a trickle; and that I’d be by in the morning to take a look at it. I went the next day, and here’s what I saw:
1) Inside: On the interior walls, there are no obvious signs of water penetration from the ceiling; however, all along the exterior edge of the ceiling where the rafters meet the top plate, the drywall screws are popping.
2) Attic: The attic appears dry, with no sign or smell of mold. The ceiling joists are 2×6, and filled with R-19 2×6 batts, which appears properly installed. There is no sign of water penetration along the underside of the roof sheathing, and the rafters look dry all the way to the fascia boards. The roof is vented with a continuous ridge vent that looked clean. Ambient air temperature seemed comparable to the temperature outside.
3) Outside: The roof is a gable, and is probably pitched 4- or 5-in-12. The overhangs are 2′, with thin plywood soffits and 1×8 fascia boards. The soffits have three vents cut into them along their length (light from those vents was visible from inside the attic). The gutters are full of ice, and the ice has built up along the plane of the roof a bit. The siding is wood, painted, and there is obvious sign of water getting behind the siding and leaking out to the exterior plane of the siding. The owner tells me that in heavy rains, they’ll see water trickling down the exterior of the home, apparently seeping from the soffit/siding joint, as well as from behind the individual runs of siding. The gutters looked intact, properly sloped, and the owner tells me she keeps them clean.
So what do I make of this? The water is confined, for the most part, to the exterior plane of the home, and when it’s penetrating into the interior, it’s at window openings. Given that the rafters look dry, am I witnessing capillary action along the wood soffits? What’s my water path look like here? Is heat building up in the soffits somehow? I’m at a loss, and I know there’s something I’m missing here.
Thanks for any insights.
Take care,
Michael
Edited 3/7/2007 8:59 am ET by Michael C.
Edited 3/7/2007 9:01 am ET by Michael C.
Replies
First off, what was the situation on the roof above this? How much snow was up there? Was there any visible ice along the edge of the roof? Did you rake off the snow in the area to see if there was ice below?
> The owner tells me that in heavy rains, they'll see water trickling down the exterior of the home, apparently seeping from the soffit/siding joint, as well as from behind the individual runs of siding. The gutters looked intact, properly sloped, and the owner tells me she keeps them clean.
That suggests a plain old vanilla roof leak somewhere. How old is the roof? (And, this being Wisconsin, was it roofed in the past 15 years with Certainteed shingles?) Are there any gables, valleys, or other variations in roof structure in the general area?
Thanks for writing back, Dan. The owner had already purchased a roof rake, and had raked off the area a few days earlier. There was damming in the gutters: The gutters were full of ice, and the ice had built up a few inches back up the plane of the roof. The roof is plain gable, with no valleys on the side in questions. What I don't get, is why I'm seeing evidence that water is getting behind the siding, and thereby into the window openings, but I see no evidence of water penetration up in the attic?I look forward to your thoughts.Take care,
M
From the eave to behind the fascia and over the soffet to the wall.SamT
Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. [Einstein] Tks, BossHogg.
Are the soffits horizontal, or do they tilt up with the roof slope? If they're horizontal it's vaguely possible that water is running behind the fascia, along the soffit, and into the wall. But only vaguely.If they slope with the roof this would be pretty much impossible.More likely is an actual roof leak, I suspect. It's often very hard to see where the water is flowing in a roof leak -- it may flow down the sheathing several feet, through a gap in the sheathing, then along a rafter for several feet before dropping to the ceiling.Of course, in winter condensation in the insulation is also a possibility, but wouldn't generally cause as much water as you're seeing, and wouldn't account for the apparent leakage when raining.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin