I’m involved in the restoration of an old brick-constructed home. The walls are three bricks thick and it has a flat roof. I’m having some moisture problems between the insulation and the brick wall at the back on the gutter wall. Where I’ve checked this is the only wall that is having the problem. Gutters are installed and appear to be working okay. Drywall has not been installed yet. Most of the windows are installed. The few that we’ve had to wait on have a frame with plastic over it inserted in the opening. The air, of course, is not being conditioned yet. The day it was discovered it had been raining steady, but not hard. The wall in question did have an extended period when there were no gutters and got a fair amount of rain on it. And, if my memory serves me correctly, some of the insulation on that wall was installed before the gutters were. Is it possible that the moisture is condensation that’s accumulating between the insulation and the brick? As I said, the gutters appear to be working properly and we’ve had no other water leaks.
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Jim,
Welcome to Breaktime!!
Normally I would ask you to click on your name above (where it says "To: Jim in StL") to open your profile and fill it in. But the important piece of info is location.
Since your name seems to tell us that....Thanks!
This is an interesting question. I look forward to reading the answers.
I suspect that other posters will want to know what kind of insulation you are talking about.
Can we assume that there is a stud wall built inside of the brick?
And the insulation is where??
Is there space between the brick and the stud wall??
What direction does the affected wall face??
I know that the common brick facade walls routinely allow water to move through them and that a drainage plane must be installed to accomodate this water.
My guess is that the same is true even if the wall is three bricks thick.
I don't understand why condensation would be occuring on just one wall.
Rich Beckman
Another day, another tool.
Well posed questions, Rick.I too suspect that since this is occouring only on one wall, the one that is the low drainage point of the roof, that there is some weepage there someplace. The gutters may be working, but there could also be water that does bnot quiet make it into the gutter.
Nothing is said about the type of surface the flat roof is covered with, buit it is not at all uncommmon to find the seal between membrane and metal edge to be failing just enough to cause minor leakage, and eventually rot. I would be up there in the rain, studying every inch of that edge to watch how water flows, wicks and weeps.
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Thanks for your responses and questions. The brick wall in question faces north. The interior of the brick wall has been furred out with a 2x4 wall. The insulation is krafted-faced batts and there is an air space between insulation and brick. The roof system is ruberoid mop granule. There was no evidence of any leakage or seepage along this wall even before gutters were installed and the wall got some pretty good soakings. That's why I'm wondering if it is not actually condensation of some kind and not seepage/leakage. As I said in my initial posting, there was a period of time when insulation was installed but the gutters weren't up yet.
The weather in St. Louis is pretty unpredictable. We had some fairly cold weather the week before Christmas (low teens with morning temps even lower) and then quite fair tempuratures the week between Christmas and New Years (highs in the 50's if not 60's some days). It began raining the evening of Dec. 31 and the moisture was discovered on Jan. 1.
The fact that it faces north makes a fgood argument to believe that it might indeed be condensation because it would be the coldest wall in the building, more so if it is the only one with the insulation and wall surfce unfinished, allowing moist air to get to it where perhaps it is less likely in the other walls.in that case, do your best work insulating and then add a plastic VB over the stud faces before hanging wall board.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!