Kurt

Sorry for the ridiculously late reply…..We’re learning about hosting and I guess we’ll chalk this up to beta testing the new site….

The north side pics show a few deteriorated bricks, but overall, nothing I’d get too bothered by. I’d probably save it for sometime when I was doing some real work on other areas of the house. Which brings us to the “chimney” pics….

There was clearly leaks or water issues around this chimney, resulting in the water damage that was subsequently repaired with the wrong (too hard) mortar. The massive spalling is caused by the hard mortar causing the brick faces to spall (shear off). There’s no repair now except stripping the outer wythe brick an replacing it. When this repair is being accomplished, you could have your mason address some of the minor issues at the north side.

The south and east sides also used the wrong mortar, but lacking any apparent water issues (like the chimney side), it’s still doing OK. It’s not right, but it’s working, so I’d likely leave well enough alone.

Your bungalow, like my own, has had successive “tuckpointing” repairs that were not repairs as much as they were applications of incompatible mortar. My approach has been to repair the bad stuff, and leave the stuff that’s done wrong but still working for a later (if ever) date. Sometimes you can do stuff wrong and it still works OK, which means the underlying wall probably wasn’t so bad to start with.

Get some proposals from competent masons, meaning masons that understand mortar compatibility. Nearly all of our bungalows used extremely soft mortars, usually a Type K or L, which aren’t readily available and have to be custom ordered or custom mixed on site.

That’s kind of a strange one. My initial knee jerk is that the shingles are a cheap variety, possibly with manufacturing defects. The picture of you lifting the shingles sure look thin and insubstantial.

There are substantial differences in shingle quality, so I’d start there. Orientation to the sun matters a lot. Is this a south facing roof plane? I suppose impact from the snow sliding off the upper roof could be a contributing factor, but those shingles don’t look like they’ve had impact damage; they look like cheap crappy shingles.

Regardless, you need to strip off the failed roofing and install new materials. Lay down a 30# felt underlayment, ice and water shield at the eaves, drip edge around the perimeter, then install an entirely new roof cover. GAF, Certaineed, Johns Manville….all make good shingles, and their materials are among the most trustworthy.

Asphalt shingles are remarkably resilient and long lasting if you use good quality materials and install then satisfactorily. I have to attribute the current failure to lousy materials installed badly, which is always a formula for failure.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by Kurt.

First, I want to thank you for posting this excellent question, but first…..How did you find us? The site’s new, we have it up to work out kinks, but we’ve got the search engines deflected while we tune it up. If you could tell me how you found it, I’d be thankful.

As far as your window, this one’s easy. If the world was divided into two wall types, there’d be water managed and barrier systems. All masonry is water managed. Some amount of water penetrates any masonry assembly and in a properly constructed wall, that water is collected and returned to the exterior through a system of flashing details. Barrier systems, as the name implies, are intended to prophylactically prevent water from entering the wall. In masonry, barrier systems don’t work.

Your window is set up as a barrier system. The window has no apparent flashing system over the top of the window to deflect it to the exterior, so it soaks into the drywall. Setting the block flush with the outside of the wall makes it worse. The pointing repairs and touching up the masonry reduced the amount of water entering the wall but it’s never going to stop all of it. Remember, barrier systems don’t work in masonry.

In a couple weeks, I’ll have drawings up to explain these points, but for now, I’ll stick with basics.

You need to remove the brick over the wall and install flashing to prevent water from soaking into the drywall. The flashing should be set up in a sill pan arrangement with end dams and back dams to prevent the water from migrating inwards or sideways.

Since your the first person to post, I’ll fill in some details.

Old masonry was all solid (3 or 4 bricks thick) load bearing assemblies. Water was managed through the sheer mass of the thick wall and the miracle of lime mortar (more on lime mortar in a future blog post).

Modern masonry is cavity wall; there’s a layer of brick on the exterior, one on the interior, and an air gap between the two layers. Water penetrates the wall, it wicks down the inside face of the outer layer in the air gap, and strategically located flashing diverts the water back to the exterior. You need to install flashing over the top of your window. You’re not going to keep the water out with pointing, caulking, or similar repairs.

Here’s a simple drawing of a flashing profile. You need to fabricate a flashing like this profile and install this over the top of the glass block, then fill in the space over the block with wood or other trim material. Yes, it’s a large job, but there’s no other way to get it right. Continuing with attempts at sealing water out of the wall (barrier systems) won’t work. You have to install flashing to make it work.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Kurt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Kurt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Kurt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Kurt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Kurt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Kurt.