A client called our sister firm,
Central Coast Waterproofing several weeks ago for "a roof deck that needed a little work before winter gets here..."
We looked at the deck, agreed some repairs were necessary and warned the client that after opening the deck, some other repairs might be needed...so for about $4,000 in repairs and a new deck coating system we should be back in business...
Well, this being October, and it's Halloween, time to scare the kids and all...well here's something that should frighten the adults with roof decks...
so the deck got opened up, we looked inside and we said Holy &^%$! Look at the dry-rot...
Now, step into my clients nightmare...
It started with a small area that needed repairs.
We have rusted flashing and dry-rotted plywood visible after cutting back the deck coating.
The owner is notified and we proceed to demo the deck and stucco walls further...
Inside the wall cavity we discover a bad case of fungus.
Further demo continues to explore the extent of damage...
We've opened the wall from the tile covered cap to the floor.
It's getting worse by the minute...what could have caused this issue?
At the top of the parapet wall we find Bituthene® or "peel n stick" membrane.
Just above my thumb is a penetration from a staple through the membrane...
There is rust around the hole and the hole appears large enough to let water in...
Under the Bituthene® /peel n stick membrane we find no evidence
of water intrusion from penetrations through the top of the wall, only
evidence that water leaked through the vertical portion.
So yes, this is bad news and the bad news is at this point the repairs are far beyond replacing a little plywood and a joist or two...the owner is called in to inspect and a contractor is called in to make repairs after continuing to demo back damaged materials to find good materials.
We got off the job and yesterday I stopped back in to see how things were going...to find that it's gone to Hell and mated with Satan to create dry-rot spawn of uncalculated proportions...
So here's the current state of things...this is the exterior
back wall looking up from the ground.
Enlarge it only if you have a strong stomach and the sight of dry-rot doesn't make you sick.
Yep, that's a bad case of dry-rot you have there...
all from failed waterproofing.
All of this damage has festered for years, hidden behind stucco walls and tile capped walls that showed not a shred of external evidence that something evil lurked within.
Estimated damages now exceed 100K. Dwell on that for a bit and see if you don't want to vomit...
It's a fact that waterproofing is often given short thrift when it comes to building homes...these pictures should present a pretty strong argument that waterproofing should be high on the list of priority items. What do you think? Let is know and submit your comments.
Bill Leys-The Deck Expert
