[Gemelli]

hi - i have a corner of the house that has been leaking inside. It is right off of a sunroom and next to the outside door. Upon investigation i found out that the person who installed it never put any house wrap underneath. To make matters worse, the room is pretty much at or below the level of the ground outside which slopes down towards the house. I completely re-routed a brick pathway to grade away from the house and to the side down to the street and was able to get some of the vinyl off of the area's lower section (approx. 15inches or so) and put in a stick on flashing. These things helped for many months so i thought all was good until i had to replace the sill boards inside the room which had been rotted from years of leaks this weekend. Last night we had rain and (of course) the corner in the room leaked. I assume all the pounding of the joists, etc. unseated a caulked/ sealed joint. Aside from pulling off all of the vinyl siding and applying housewrap is there any other solution or idea anyone has? I think rain is flowing down the vinyl and not wicking away but sitting or finding it's way under all the flashing and caulking. Winter is coming and the sunroom is completely gutted and not in use but there is nothing worse than seeing water inside your house

 

[Windows on Wash]

Whoever did that patio, unfortunately, did it incorrectly.

You're gonna have to pull that patio up in order to get some sort of counter flashing up against that wall.

Even still, the likelihood of leaking is high.

 

[Gemelli]

what do you mean by counter-flashing?

 

[Gemelli]

i found this image - sort of like a drip edge? is this what you mean about counter-flashing?

 

[kwikfishron]

It's all fixable but enough of the patio needs to come out so you can dig out at least 6" below the inside floor level (if it's on a slab). The door needs to come out too, then a custom door pan sill flashing and wall flashing can be installed to keep the water out.

 

[carpdad]

Water draining away is not enough. It should drain down and away too. Your slab was laid level with the ground, and structures tend to sink as well as ground rise. It just points to bad plan from the beginning.
I think you need a trench (12" deep or better) filled with gravel and silt fabric. Start with about 4' wrapping the corner, but you could be pushing the problem away to where there is none now. Better to provide drainage all around.
Even better is removing some siding and put a flashing against the wall. It goes below the slab into the trench. Use OSI polymer or polyurethane (if you can find one that hasn't cured) to seal the flashing joints. Then return the house wrap over the flashing.
Door must come out if you want to re-flash the whole thing. But trench alone might solve it for you.

 

[Gemelli]

thanks carpdad and kwikfishron, unfortunately the owner who added the sunroom onto the house did it himself back in the 60's or 70's? And yes, it looks like it has been an issue for a very long time covered up by the wall. I noticed it because the shoe-molding had water stains and then one very rainy spring 2 years ago the sunroom flooded. Fast forward i had the deck re-done and and that patio which is a slate landing and it connects to a brick path that runs on the side of the house. Beneath the slate closest to the door, a couple of inches out is a thick slab of concrete. They did flash the ht sill but did not have a full sheet so there was a seam which I thoroughly caulked with osi but it still kept hapenning. Under the vinyl siding is the wood structure faced on the outside with a foil covered insulation sheet. NO plywood, no housewrap although they did insulate the bays in-between studs. I like the idea of the trench. How woud you finish the end of the trench run where it would drain to the road? And also what would you put on the gravel? I thought the slate would be a good way to guide the water away from the house. It slopes gently away and towards the side of the house to the street. But it is getting in the seam between the door and the slate.

 

[carpdad]

Trench idea was for a quick way for water to drain. I would leave it open with a gravel. Top layer can be better looking gravel. But still lower than the slab.
Drainage pipe such as foundation drain pipes that drains to light would be my choice. Water has to drain quickly and away from the slab and the repair may not be light or pretty.