[fourbees]

This is my first post. Please forgive me if this isn't the right forum for this.

We had a heavy rainstorm earlier today and going down into the basement I found a sizable leak coming from the ceiling adjacent to/underneath the deck.

I have two suspects--

1. I recently had the house resided and already had my doubts about the quality of the workmanship. Here are some post-leak pictures of the leak and the siding job. Has anyone ever seen siding done like this?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/?saved=1

2. There had been a leak before I bought the house (four months ago) and the home inspector told me at the time that although the leak didn't look active that I should install flashing to the deck's ledger board. The leak became active again after buying the house but before residing. It was on the side of the sliding door opposite to the leak I found today. My wife said when she touched the old leak it seemed wet too, but I thought it was dry...go figure.

Is there anyway to tell if this particular leak is due to the absence of flashing or if it's the shoddy siding? Even if it isn't the siding, is the siding job as bad as I think it is? Can I fix it with something simple like caulk? How difficult would it be to fix the water damage and redo the drywall in the basement myself?

 

[Maintenance 6]

The light fixture looks pretty normal. Pretty sloppy "J-channel" install around the windows and doors. I've never overlapped the corners like that. It looks bad and doesn't lay well. I always run the sides up higher and trim them so the header lays across shingle fashion to shed water. The exposed face can then be mitered at the corners for appearance. I also flash with coil stock behind the "J-channel" and seal it so water can't creep back between the window casing and the J. The deck ledger would be a real cause for concern. There should be flashing all around it to prevent water from getting back to the exterior wall. It's pretty hard to tell from the pictures whether there is anything there at all. Also he should have installed water barrier behind the siding, such as Tyvek. Vinyl siding is far from water tight, even when properly installed.

 

[kwikfishron]

Just looking at the J-channel says this guy hasn’t done much vinyl or just doesn‘t care.

This is a perfect example why checking references and actually going and looking at previous work is so important.

Why would you spend thousands of dollars on something and not look at what your buying first.