July 23 Remediation Update

Since I last posted, the boys have removed the stucco from all of the house except for the front elevation. They have also re-set two of the three windows and the patio door in the family room, the windows in the downstairs bedrooms, and the window on the south side of the garage. The reason they left one of the windows in the family room is they discovered a nest of carpenter ants above and to the left of the patio door. We are having an exterminator come in on Monday. Following this, they will re-set the 3rd window.

Removing a window/door involves removing the casing (trim) and cutting around the window to facilitate its removal.

After it is removed the "fenestration" is treated with bleach and Kilz if there is any indication of mold.

With the window out, the sill is beveled to facilitate the escape of any water which does happen to get into the rough opening, unlikely as that may be with the new/proper flashing of the opening.

Following this, the rough opening is "flashed", or lined, with water repellant paper. This paper is then incorporated into the house wrap. Additionally, a "head flashing" is added to the top of the window/door and further taped off. With this "system", it is virtually impossible for water to enter the rough opening and damage sheathing/insulation/etc. On the right is how a properly flashed window looks.

This is how the windows and doors look on the on the original installation. It is called "dry installed." In other words, there is no flashing at all in the rough opening and thereby nothing to keep the water from soaking into the sheathing.

Here is Nick and our engineer, Marty, inspecting the area below the great room window. In the last post, I said we expected to have to replace this window because of the moisture damage below it. BUT, after scraping the damaged sheathing away we found the window was installed on 1/2 inch shims. And this means the window frame was not sitting in the water which had entered the rough opening and is not damaged. (Its nice to get some good news!)

Earlier this week, Joan and I were up north where I played in a golf tournament. Since we were not around to let the men into the house, they started to install the Miratec trim boards on the north side of the house. You are looking at the "Belly Board." This will span both sides and the back of the house and break up the larger expanse of siding on the rear and south side of the house. There will be three colors when the house is painted. The Belly Board and window/corner trim will probably be one color and the siding above and below the "board'' each another.

Next week the plan is to re-set the rest of the windows and doors (on the back and sides of the house) and remove the deck to repair the ledger board area.

...to be continued.

July 14 House Remediation Update

The last couple of days, the contractor removed stucco from the master bedroom (upper level) and family room (lower level) walls. Fortunately, there have been no surprises as regards wet/damaged sheathing...and the (potential) resulting damaged framing. Here is a view of the family room exit door. It was to the right of the door below the electrical socket that we found ants when the engineers cut through the stucco during the all-party inspection last year.

Here are a couple of pictures of the moisture-damaged sheathing. A few of the reasons for the wetness are:

- windows and doors were "dry installed" meaning there was no flashing in the rough openings of the windows and doors (and no drip caps above);

- the grade D paper, put over the sheathing/under the stucco, was "reverse lapped" over the "ice and water" tape sealant (meaning water would run under the paper into the sheathing rather than on the outside of the paper where it could evaporate through the stucco or run down to the ground behind the stucco);

- the stucco itself, rather than being 3/4" thick is more like 3/8" to 1/2" around the house.

This wet sheathing is below the rim joist at the upper left of the family room patio door.


Yesterday they pulled the window in the bedroom below and left of the great room in order to check whether or not there was damage to the window. We were suspecting there might be damage because

there had been water dripping from behind the window casing down the shade and onto the window sill. We were pleased to find out there was none. The rough opening for this window is shown to the left.

Friday morning we are going to pull the great room window. I can only hope we are as lucky with this one, but do not hold out much hope. I would much rather have had to replace the smaller bedroom window rather than the very costly great room window.

Shown below are the contractors cutting the stucco with diamond-tipped saws. They cut just deeply enough to get through the stucco and wire holding it, but not so deep they score the sheathing. They then use pry bars to break off a section of the stucco/wire and toss it to the ground. After removing the stucco from a section of the house, they haul the pile to a dumpster staged in our driveway.

What you see nailed into the roof near the center of the house and at the left corner is called a pump jack. There are 10 of these positioned around the sides and back of the house. Each of these jacks have an arm jutting out upon which they place an aluminum ladder (as well as a 2 x 12 between the right jack and the step ladder at the right - candidate for a Darwin Award maybe??) They stand on the ladder while they cut away the stucco. As they need to move down (or up) the wall, they release a locking mechanism at each jack and step on a plunger-type lever. This will move the ladder up or down the uprights.

Since they do not have any more jacks, and do not want to have to move the ones already in place twice, it might be we will re-set windows and doors and put the trim and siding on the sides and back of the house before removing taking stucco and brick from the front.

To be continued....

House Remediation

Hi,

Many of you know we have been going through about a 3-year mediation process with/vs our builder and his insurance companies to try and get a reasonable settlement for the remediation of our 10-year-old home.

To summarize, in 2003, because others in the neighborhood were experiencing water intrusion problems, we decided to have our home tested. We found moisture problems around and below our great room window. The builder "fixed" the problem, or so we thought.

In 2008, because others in the neighborhood continued to experience water intrusion problems, we decided to again have our home tested. We found moisture problems around and below our great room window (sound familiar?) This time we decided our recourse was to sue for damages. This turned out to be extended mediation.

In about April of this year we "settled" with the builder's insurance companies. In another life we can discuss how that all went!

After several weeks for discussions and interviews we selected a remediation contractor who last week began taking the stucco off the house.

Aside: Stucco has gotten a very bad reputation - at least in this market - as the cause of moisture intrusion problems. In fact, when windows are not installed properly and other building codes are not met, ANY cladding will be subject to moisture intrusion issues.

We will be removing all the stucco and brick trim, resetting all windows and doors (and will most likely have to replace the great room window plus a few suspect others), and replacing the stucco with a fiber cement siding product produced by Nichiha. There will be some stone around the front door, as a base for the pillars holding up the whatchamacallit over the front door, and on thegarage pillars.

With most of the stucco removed from the 'back' of the house, the side facing the golf course, we have not had any real surprises other than around the vent pipe for our boiler. It would appear the condensation caused by the tremendous heat difference between that pipe and the winter air has affected the sheathing (BILDRITE.)

I will publish some pictures and comments from time to time as this process progresses.

And, just to add to the confusion, we have decided to re-paint the entire upstairs of the house. When the window casings are removed (for window resetting) I will paint a roller width out from the rough opening. That way I can finish the wall without having to tape off the woodwork.

This is the back of the house as it looked prior to the stucco removal.

In this picture they have removed the stucco from the back of the garage and are putting up a plastic rain shield. They will do this on the whole house and it will stay in place until they re-set the windows and doors, and begin to put on the cladding.

This shows the area under the kitchen and 4 season porch.

Here is another view of the kitchen and porch. Stucco off, plastic not yet on.

Below is the great room window.

This is where it all started in 2003. The area below and to the left of this window is extremely wet which most likely means we will have to replace this window as well as the bedroom window below and to the left of it.

They are working on the master bedroom walls today.

We have hired an Engineer/House Inspector to be our eyes and ears on the project. He was here today and will return tomorrow morning when we will pull back the plastic at the bottom of the great room window. Depending upon....we may pull that window tomorrow, or at least set up a schedule for the work over the next couple of weeks. Because of the need to move the scaffolding (called Pump Jacks) to work on the front of the house, it could be we will "do" (reset windows, trim and side) the back of the house before pulling stucco/brick off the front.

To be continued.....