leaking conservatory - again!
 

Please can you let me know what you would do here?
Moved into 8yr-old house last December. Found we got water dripping out of
the plasterboarded wall in conservatory above the house doors (see:
www.dulwich.net/conservatory/leak.jpg &
www.dulwich.net/conservatory/inside.jpg ) But ONLY after very strong rain
combined with wind. (We're in an exposed position & do get strong wind)

We've had the flashing replaced, and seemed ok, but we've just got the leak
back after this week's strong storm. Again, it doesnt leak when it's only
strong rain.

The flashing people reckon flashing is ok, but they pointed out that the
other windows have "weep vents" above them, which would also exist behind
the plasterboard above the conservatory doors. Also spotted that the house
wall is still soaking wet after storm with water coming out of wall above
damp course . So theory is that excess rain+strong wind makes bricks
porous & damp and water is soaking down through the bricks & coming out
vents !

Question - does this sound right?

Question: Possible fix "might be" to coat external wall with silicon - but
not sure if this woudl work or would last long or be invisble or be
affordable - any experience of this?

Seems like my first thing is to remove plasterboard, see if it is those
vents, and perhaps if I can make some sort of guttering above the door to
cary the water back out of the conservatory? Then consider if I have to use
silicon to protect the house..

Pictures on web site www.dulwich.net/conservatory show the insde of the
conservatory, the kitchen window, the view from the window, the leak & new
flashing.

Please can you let me have your views.
Thanks

"keith" wrote in message
...
Please can you let me know what you would do here?

snip tales of woe, re leaky conservatory.


This is a common problem with conservatories built on to brick houses.
You are right in your assumption that water is penetrating the
brickwork, not through the bricks but along the tiny gapsbetween
bricks and mortar, usually in the perps. This runs down inside the
bricks until it reaches a lintel, or the damp proof tray above a
lintel, then comes out through the weep holes. If the house and
conservatory were being built as one, the dpc tray would be above the
line of the conservatory roof, so that the water would emerge above
it. You are talking quite a job to do that retrospectively but it
would sort you out. Alternatives include, repointing, rendering that
section of wall above the roof and cladding the wall with uPVC shiplap
or similar.
Richard, (also ritchieaber via google)

am currently trying OE again for usenet, is there anyway to make it
bottom post? can anyone suggest a usenet friendly news reader?
thanks

In article ,
richard wrote:
am currently trying OE again for usenet, is there anyway to make it
bottom post? can anyone suggest a usenet friendly news reader?
thanks

Get your OE fixed here;
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/quotefix.php

--
*I must always remember that I'm unique, just like everyone else. *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

--
Richard
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
richard wrote:
am currently trying OE again for usenet, is there anyway to make
it
bottom post? can anyone suggest a usenet friendly news reader?
thanks

Get your OE fixed here;
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/quotefix.php

--
*I must always remember that I'm unique, just like everyone else. *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

link not working dave?

In article ,
richard wrote:
Get your OE fixed here;
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/quotefix.php


link not working dave?

Sorry - it's just one I had stored. I don't use OE, so never needed it.

I'm sure someone will have the latest URL.

--
Is the hardness of the butter proportional to the softness of the bread?*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
"richard" writes:
am currently trying OE again for usenet, is there anyway to make it
bottom post? can anyone suggest a usenet friendly news reader?
thanks

Bottom posting is just as wrong as top posting.
You should interleave your responses with enough quoted context
so the reader knows which point you are responding to. That
means you will need to edit the article to insert your points
in the right place and remove quoted text which isn't relevant.
I don't really see how any news reader can do that for you -- you
need to do it yourself.

--
Andrew Gabriel

In article , ""richard"
" "richard"
says...

"keith" wrote in message
...
Please can you let me know what you would do here?

snip tales of woe, re leaky conservatory.


This is a common problem with conservatories built on to brick houses.
You are right in your assumption that water is penetrating the
brickwork, not through the bricks but along the tiny gapsbetween
bricks and mortar, usually in the perps. This runs down inside the
bricks until it reaches a lintel, or the damp proof tray above a
lintel, then comes out through the weep holes. If the house and
conservatory were being built as one, the dpc tray would be above the
line of the conservatory roof, so that the water would emerge above
it. You are talking quite a job to do that retrospectively but it
would sort you out. Alternatives include, repointing, rendering that
section of wall above the roof and cladding the wall with uPVC shiplap
or similar.
Richard, (also ritchieaber via google)

am currently trying OE again for usenet, is there anyway to make it
bottom post?

Apparently OEQuotefix makes OE behave better

http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/

can anyone suggest a usenet friendly news reader?

Gravity. There are various versions you might like to try - I use 2.5
which is the freeware version of the last commercial release, but there
is also SuperGravity which handles stuff like yEnc and there's a
newer Open Source project that seems to be coming on quite well.

http://lightning.prohosting.com/~tbates/gravity/

Some people think XNews is great:

http://xnews.newsguy.com/

This looks quite nice but I don't know anything about it:

http://40tude.com/dialog/

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...

Bottom posting is just as wrong as top posting.
You should interleave your responses with enough quoted context
so the reader knows which point you are responding to. That
means you will need to edit the article to insert your points
in the right place and remove quoted text which isn't relevant.
I don't really see how any news reader can do that for you -- you
need to do it yourself.

--
Andrew Gabriel
Was that a Bo*****ing Andrew? :-) I do try to snip and edit, I
understand what you mean. My biggest gripe with OE is that is assumes
I want to top post with my sig etc up there ready.
Rich

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
richard wrote:
Get your OE fixed here;
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/quotefix.php


link not working dave?

Sorry - it's just one I had stored. I don't use OE, so never needed
it.

I'm sure someone will have the latest URL.

http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/ is the working link.

--
James...
www.jameshart.co.uk

In message
"richard" wrote:

My biggest gripe with OE is that is assumes
I want to top post with my sig etc up there ready.
Rich

http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/
should help you!

Best regards,

--
Jim White
Wimbledon London England

keith typed:

Please can you let me know what you would do here?


We've had the flashing replaced, and seemed ok, but we've just got
the leak back after this week's strong storm. Again, it doesnt leak
when it's only strong rain.

In my option that flashing is crap, the vertical's have not been cut back so
water could be forced underneath.
Also the pointing on the rest of the house is looking past it's best,
8 year old christ dont you just love these moden boxes...

On Sat, 30 Oct 2004 14:59:19 +0000 (UTC), "keith"
wrote:

Please can you let me know what you would do here?
Moved into 8yr-old house last December. Found we got water dripping out of
the plasterboarded wall in conservatory above the house doors (see:
www.dulwich.net/conservatory/leak.jpg &
www.dulwich.net/conservatory/inside.jpg ) But ONLY after very strong rain
combined with wind. (We're in an exposed position & do get strong wind)

We've had the flashing replaced, and seemed ok, but we've just got the leak
back after this week's strong storm. Again, it doesnt leak when it's only
strong rain.

The flashing people reckon flashing is ok, but they pointed out that the
other windows have "weep vents" above them, which would also exist behind
the plasterboard above the conservatory doors. Also spotted that the house
wall is still soaking wet after storm with water coming out of wall above
damp course . So theory is that excess rain+strong wind makes bricks
porous & damp and water is soaking down through the bricks & coming out
vents !

Question - does this sound right?

Question: Possible fix "might be" to coat external wall with silicon - but
not sure if this woudl work or would last long or be invisble or be
affordable - any experience of this?

Seems like my first thing is to remove plasterboard, see if it is those
vents, and perhaps if I can make some sort of guttering above the door to
cary the water back out of the conservatory? Then consider if I have to use
silicon to protect the house..

Pictures on web site www.dulwich.net/conservatory show the insde of the
conservatory, the kitchen window, the view from the window, the leak & new
flashing.

Please can you let me have your views.
Thanks

Hi,

It could also be the wind blowing water behind the horizontal cuts in
the flashing if there is nothing sealing it to the brickwork. Some
sealer behind these areas between the lead and the brick might be
required if there is none.

Also repointing the wall and possibly applying silicone would be
helpful.

If there is water running down the inside face of the outside layer of
the cavity wall, the surest way to deal with it is stepped 'cavity
trays' above the flashing:

http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/cavities,cavity%20trays,%20lintels%20and%20insulat ion.htm
http://www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/images/roofntrays.gif

If it's only a couple of drips maybe the plasterboard could be
replaced with something waterproof like a tilebacker such as
aquapanel, wedi board.

If you can get a leaf blower and hose the wall and flashing in
different places while blowing on it, that might reveal something (or
the neighbours will call the men in white coats!)

You'd probably also need a roofing ladder that can hook over the apex
of the conservatory, and boards to spread the weight, I'm no expert on
this though...

Maybe best to do the cheapest and easiest things first but don't get
disheartened if they don't work.

cheers,
Pete.

We've had the flashing replaced, and seemed ok, but we've just got the
leak
back after this week's strong storm. Again, it doesnt leak when it's only
strong rain.

First check that your guttering is fine and doesn't overflow in heavy rain.
Given that the water appears to be going down the cavity and being forced
out by the door lintel, you have 3 choices.

1. Get the water out higher up by installing a cavity tray above the
flashing.
2. Stop the water getting in (by fixing/upgrading guttering, or coating the
bricks).
3. Use internal guttering from the vents to outside, having cleared the
plasterboard out of the way.

But you seem to have considered most of these solutions already...

However, you've really got to remove the plasterboard and see where the
water is coming from. It could be from the vents/cavity tray, but it could
also be from where the conservatory roof abuts the wall. The flashing steps
do appear to be insufficently angled. Rain entering at an angle could easily
get behind.

Christian.