We have started this blog as a way to share the issues we are having, since it is becoming apparent to us that problems with leaky homes due to problems with building envelopes - on single family houses and condos - are becoming a bigger issue in Calgary. Leaky condos seem to make the news more, since there are so many more people involved, but we think there are also many single family homes having similar issues. Many of these issues arise due to things that home builders have done incorrectly - and in fact breaking the Alberta Building Code - when a house was built, and many relatively new homes are facing issues with their building envelopes. We are hoping to encourage other single family homeowners to step forward to let the appropriate government groups know about this issue, to lobby for changes to the Alberta Building Code and it's enforcement, and to encourage home builders to be accountable for their errors.
We found out about a week ago that our house is leaking due to errors that our home builder made during the construction. Here is the history of our house, as we know it...
1998:
Our house was built for a different family in the neighbourhood of Tuscany, in NW Calgary. The builder (who shall be un-named in this blog so we don't get sued) is a major home builder in Calgary who is still in business.
Sometime in the 1999 - 2002 timeframe:
Our home was sold to the second owners.
2003:
We bought the home - so we are the third owners. It is a beautiful home on a beautiful pie-shaped lot. A place where we intend to live for a very long time and raise a family. Note that we DID have a home inspection done by a qualified home inspector, who did not find any issues.
2004:
We had a leak under the living room window. We had a window company over and he said the window was leaking and he apparently fixed the issue.
2005:
This spring was one of the rainiest that Calgary has had in a long time. We discovered some leaks underneath windows in our family room and breakfast nook. One of our small basement windows was also leaking. The garage ceiling was also leaking, and when we looked at it there was evidence of water staining, so we think it had leaked in the past.
We contacted the builder and were passed along to the window company. The window company came out and said that there was a problem with the window seals on several of the windows, and they replaced those under warranty. We thought that had fixed the problem with the family room and breakfast nook.
My dad noticed that the basement window had been installed upside down. Windows have drain holes so that if any water gets into the frame it drains out the bottom. Obviously these drain holes should be installed on the bottom of the window, but ours were on the top, which allowed rainwater to funnel into our house. We contacted the builder, and to their credit they sent someone out to fix the window. This was ok, except the parging around the window has ugly patches on it now. This issue seems to be fixed.
The garage ceiling continued to leak. One of the upstairs bedrooms goes out over the garage a bit, so it was hard to tell where the leak was coming from.
2005 - 2007:
We had several contractors out to look at the garage ceiling leak. The roof people blamed the windows. The window people blamed the roof, or the soffit and fascia. No one seemed to be able to solve the problem.
2008:
We finally found a contractor who could solve the garage ceiling leak! He removed some stucco off the wall of the house, just above the roof, and discovered that the flashing between the wall and the roof had been done incorrectly. He fixed it, and it hasn't leaked since. So we thought all our leaks were *finally* fixed!!!
2009:
Since we didn't like the peach colour of our stucco, we had the house painted and some stone put on the front near the garage.
2011:
We decided to replace the family room carpet with hardwood. So in early June we had a flooring company come to install the hardwood. They took off the baseboards and ripped out the carpet - and then I noticed mould on the drywall under the baseboard, below the big window in our family room. So we didn't have them install the hardwood that day, and we started to investigate.
I will tell you about the problems we found in the next post...
Mould on the drywall below our family room window.
I commend you for putting up this post. This will help others.
ReplyDeleteAll you hard working homeowners out there... do you want to check your house to see if you have some issues.....
ReplyDeleteHere are a few tips to help you investigate your own home.
1. If you have a stucco house - go outside & look at the bottom of the stucco. There should be a metal strip - this is the stucco stop. This stucco stop had better have perforations (holes) in it every 6 or so inches. If it DOES NOT... the stucco CANNOT BREATHE. If it does NOT then they have likely used the vertical metal on the horizontal. THIS IS WRONG. The metal strip without the holes is typically used on the vertical joints... NOT the horizontal joints. Guess what ... sometimes they get mixed up in construction & the vertical strip ends up on the horizontal at the bottom of your stucco. SO THE STUCCO CANNOT DRAIN THE WATER OFF THE DRAINAGE PLANE. The water gets stuck inside your stucco wall & is NOT allowed to escape. This IS NOT a GOOD thing ... as Martha STewart would say... GO OUTSIDE right NOW & check around ALL 4 sides of your house. See if this was done right. Good Luck.
I have many other tips... stay tuned...
That's quite an extensive account of your problems with the leaking roof so far. It's hard when the source of the problem isn't just about the roof in itself but with the way the house was built, isn't it? I hope more people become aware of the issue, so no other houses would be built this way, and builders will take their construction more seriously and be accountable for the damages.
ReplyDeleteLive Oak Construction, Inc.
We living room (just near the entry door) wall was also leaking. We just repainted the area and it went really fine.
ReplyDeleteThere were a lot of hidden water intrusions in many parts of your home. I have a strong suspicion that a small leak originated from your roof years ago because you said the flashings were not properly installed. Over the years, water finds its way to other parts of the house without being noticed. I think it’s much better to have a waterproofing specialist conduct a full inspection of the home as well as utilise an effective concrete waterproofing method to ensure satisfying results.
ReplyDelete