I am working on a 2001 3-story brick home with limestone sills. Water has been leaking into a front second floor bedroom along the inside of a bay window in the same spot for 3 years. Builder has tried 4 repairs w/o success. Tuckpointing is all good. Caulking is not an issue. Roof is not an issue.
We water tested area and made it leak after 45 minutes from a sill 2 feet above where the leak shows up in the 2nd floor ceiling. We sealed and caulked it.
Leak is now minimal but still present. There is a copper flashing on the bay roof that covers 2 weep holes below a limestone sill. Water testing in the area that previously leaked shows the sill area is now fine.
Question 1. Can we seal the front of the house face-brick (brick veneer)? What (if any) is the potential downside to this?
Question 2. Can we remove a bit of flashing and “retrofit” the weep holes with new rope? In theory would this work?
thank you
Replies
The copper flashing should extend all the way thru the veneer in this situation. The weep holes should be on top of the flashing. Got any pics?
Once the brick is up and the water starts leaking into the structure you are pretty much spitting into the wind trying to stop the leak with exterior applications.
Sounds like the initial flashing and whatever was used as a barrier (felt, tyvek, ???) was not carefully applied to direct whatever water got through - and it always does - away from the penetrations, sheathing, etc.
Q #1 - Exterior sealing rarely solves the problem.
Q #2 - You could remove the mortar between the head joints all the way through to the air cavity, above the flashing, but that's assuming that the flashing extends properly through the brick joint AND up the wall on the inside AND the rest of the barrier is lapped properly AND the mason didn't accidently fill the cavity with mortar droppings and the rest of the flashings are correct. I don't think they are.
You'll never know unless the builder can be pursuaded to remove the brick. (What a pain in the a$$ job that would be).
You'll never know unless the builder can be pursuaded to remove the brick. (What a pain in the a$$ job that would be).
Normally, it's not that big of a deal. I've been thru this 15-20 times and the biggest problem is to convince the mason it's not that big of a deal.
A valuable asset is the Brick Industry Association at http://www.brickinfo.org/. Consider using a siloxane product to seal the brick, as described in Tech Note 6A. Siloxane is a penetrant that bonds to masonry, rather than a surface film sealer, and it is less likely to promote spalling from the freezing of trapped moisture.