We moved into our latest house (made in late-70’s) just over a year ago. For most of that time, there was a little water periodically weeping out from underneath the brick wall in front of the house. We didn’t see any signs of water damage inside the house, so we thought it was probably rain water that had penetrated the brick. With all the issues of a newly-acquired house, it was low priority.
However, the outside leakage recently became much worse, even though we haven’t had much rain recently. It looked like the water might be coming from our kitchen. It was time to determine what was really happening.
Our house is on a slab, and is one story at that part of the house. The kitchen adjacent to the front wall is about 17 ft wide, with a sink in the middle (under a window), and the fridge on the right corner. First I pulled the bottom of the cabinet out from under the sink, so I could see underneath. There was definitely some evidence of moisture along the bottom wall plate, but couldn’t tell the source. I then pulled off the baseboard trim behind the fridge. Gads, the bottom plate was soaked!!
That did it. We were going to have to get into the wall in a major way to figure this out. Unfortunately, this required demolishing a significant part of the kitchen.
Although remodeling this dated kitchen was something we wanted to do EVENTUALLY, it was NOT in the short-term budget. However, it didn’t look like we had any choice.
Here are pictures of the kitchen before demolition, and shots of the advanced water leakage from outside.
However, the outside leakage recently became much worse, even though we haven’t had much rain recently. It looked like the water might be coming from our kitchen. It was time to determine what was really happening.
Our house is on a slab, and is one story at that part of the house. The kitchen adjacent to the front wall is about 17 ft wide, with a sink in the middle (under a window), and the fridge on the right corner. First I pulled the bottom of the cabinet out from under the sink, so I could see underneath. There was definitely some evidence of moisture along the bottom wall plate, but couldn’t tell the source. I then pulled off the baseboard trim behind the fridge. Gads, the bottom plate was soaked!!
That did it. We were going to have to get into the wall in a major way to figure this out. Unfortunately, this required demolishing a significant part of the kitchen.
Although remodeling this dated kitchen was something we wanted to do EVENTUALLY, it was NOT in the short-term budget. However, it didn’t look like we had any choice.
Here are pictures of the kitchen before demolition, and shots of the advanced water leakage from outside.