leak emergency!

We’ve discovered that an old leak has returned and we’ve been busy trying to get it fixed before the rain comes again tomorrow.

Pulling plaster downstairs after some recent rain, we found some moisture under one of the windows. A few days later we got crazy sideways rain, several inches in one shot, and the moisture revealed itself as a fairly severe water problem.

The problem area is at one of our ‘hidden gutter’ downspouts. It seems that the hole was clogged, and that there may have been cracks that contributed to the leakage as well. When the rain got really heavy, the water poured over the edge and was caught by a lip on the asphalt-shingle siding that was there. This channeled the run-off under the 40-year-old siding and into the already rotten wooded siding underneath. From there, the water got into the wall and down around the upstairs and downstairs window. Enough water was getting through to fully soak the the plaster under the upstairs window and to be visibly running down the studs by the window downstairs. It was ugly.

Our quick solution has been to clear the gutter intake and patch the cracks on the roof. To do this we had to go buy a very tall ladder (which we had been putting off), which was a a challenge to get home in our wee pickup truck. Buying a giant ladder and then climbing it to the roof made me re-think that whole bungalow thing…

We pulled a portion of the shingle siding to see how extensive the damage has been. This is something that we’ve wanted to do for a while, but that was supposed to happen after we finish demoing the downstairs and getting the termite damage repaired. We had to caulk and prime some of the exposed siding since we’re not sure when we’ll really be able to fix this area properly; it is neat to see wooden siding here, even if it is crap.

This also adds another reason to the list of why to pull the old plaster down: to know how well the siding is keeping out the elements. Like, not very well.

We think that we’ve got the leak source fixed, but we’re not sure. There is supposed to be rain this week, so we’ll find out soon enough. When it’s dry and the leak is fixed, we’ll get learn about replacing rotten siding…

the affected area

a contibuting crack?