All,

I have a five year old home with a stone veneer on the foundation (cultured stone). The basement is walk-out in the back, so the entirety of the foundation is above-grade in the back. The rest is below-grade. I have no water issues with any of the foundation below-grade.

What I'm noticing on the section above-grade are wetness spots on the interior block wall during heavy, wind-driven rains. Clearly, water is penetrating the veneer and soaking in to the block.

I know stone veneer requires waterproofing behind it to protect the subsurface walls. But how about for foundations? Is there a waterproofing applied behind the veneer on a block foundation?

The only thing that looks suspect to me is that the siding on the house is flush with the venner on the foundation (the veneer may even 'stick out' a bit further than the siding). In this case, any rain water shed by the siding runs right down in to the stone and then generally 'wicks in'. Being a taller house, this seems to happen often (water sheeting down the siding).

Should there be (or can I add) a kick-out flashing underneath the siding and along the stone veneer on the foundation?

See attached for pictures.

Thanks!

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It would be pretty easy to remove a few pieces of your vinyl siding to inspect the sheathing and see if the leak is occurring on that part of the wall. (Google: Malco Sideswiper) I'd suggest you do that in order to see if there is a WRB... whether there is evidence of a leak, and if there is, if it is on top of, or behind the WRB. And also if there is any flashing to drain the WRB out on top of the stone veneer. IMO, yes there should be a path for water to exit below the vinyl siding via a flashing that is tucked behind the WRB. If the WRB overlaps the stone veneer that's fine, as long as no water is getting behind the WRB.

 

I will take a look but I believe the leak to be occurring much lower than where the siding meets the veneer. I do recall seeing a bit of flashing tucked behind the siding. I'm just wondering if it should be sticking out somewhat more pronounced to send the water coming down the siding 'out' and 'away' instead of allowing it to drain down the veneer once it comes off the siding.

Thanks!

 

Still having an issue with this in a couple of spots. I have no concerns about the sheathed walls on the house - the veneer is on the foundation exclusively. But what is happening is that, in some spots, water that makes its way on to the stone veneer is making its way through the mortar and wetting the underlying block, eventually showing through in my basement. In one section of my basement, I have a fine crack in the block that is probably a result of water making its way off the deck and right in to a corner of the veneered wall. That fine crack will seep water in to the basement every time it rains.

I'll post some pictures, but I'm guessing I need to find a way to divert the water away from the stone veneer on the foundation, particularly at this spot.

 

What I am saying is that common sense would indicate that you would "rule out" that the water is getting in ABOVE the stone veneer, or at the TOP of the stone veneer. The simple way to do that would be to remove a piece of siding.

If there is a deck, is the deck flashed correctly? If the stone butts up to the deck from below, it should be flashed. And if there is a deck ledger attached to the house, it should also be flashed.

You ought to attach a picture that shows the opposite side of the wall from the wet spots on the CMU right of the window. From a ways back so that we can get an idea of the construction and possible weak points.

 

Here are some pictures of another spot where it's happening (by the deck I mentioned above). This is the most severe location I have. We have heavy rains here in PA last night and it started wetting the inside as you can see from the pics.

Distance shot of the interior wall:


Close-up shot of the interior wall:


Distance shot of the exterior:


Close-up shot of the exterior (for reference, the part that is "leaking" in to the basement is the short "bump out" in the dead center of the picture. The sill plate in the basement is approximately aligned with the ledger on the deck.):


The red arrow shows the approximate location of the start of the "wet spot" on the interior wall:


And a close up shot of the ledger where the water seems to originate from (when I watched it last night it appeared to be coming from in front of the ledger and dripping down on to the veneer, not from behind the ledger. With this being the interior corner of the deck, it gets a lot of water action from multiple directions):

 

Forgot to mention, there is visible flashing behind the siding as well as behind the ledger. It does not extend below either, and I can't be entirely sure of what it is, but I honestly believe the water is getting in behind the stone at a lower point.

 

i don't know how you're going to waterproof the cmu wall w/o removing the ' stone ' facing,,, the bldg code only requires a 3mil DAMPPROOFING - NOT waterproofing - & that's ONLY below-grade, NOT above,,, std practice is to use brickties to secure the stone to the cmu wall,,, we're facing the same thing w/a condo,,, the only way we can isolate the leak area is by attaching a membrane - waiting for rain - then moving the membrane down & wait for more rain,,, IF you can do that, you might isolate the leak's source,,, i favor removal

 

My understanding is that the stone veneer will never be waterproof, neither will the underlying concrete block. The crack I have in this wall may be exacerbating the issue (or may have been caused by it, chicken-and-egg scenario). So my thinking was to find a way to flash it to keep the water away. Problem I'm running in to is that the best thing would be to slip some vinyl or aluminum behind the ledger on the deck to "kick it out", since I think this would send the water away from the veneer and to the ground. But there's no way to get behind the fasteners on the ledger to do so. Looking for other suggestions.

 

Like this... The red being some sort of flashing that allows the water (blue) to kick out beyond the foundation and essentially keep it away from the veneer and preventing it from wicking in to the mortar on the wall.

 

By taking the floor boards of the deck up, you can flash the top of the wall-ledger connection and create a drip edge as far away from the building as you like by extending that flashing over the floor joists/blocking. Of course, to do this you need to remove the first row of siding as well, which I've repeatedly suggested you do anyway to inspect for the presence of water behind the WRB or existing flashing.

 

I did not mention, but I have pulled the lowest row of siding - no water behind the siding at all.

 

I have a concrete block wall foundation on my split level, with nothing protecting it on the exterior. It is just unpainted concrete block and I have water coming through like you do. I was looking at putting stone veneer on the exterior, and through my research I found that a breathable barrier has to go behind the stone veneer first, like WaterWay Rainscreen Drainage Mats.

So, it seems to me that your veneer was just applied to the concrete block with mortar, and nothing behind it. To correct this problem, I would think that the veneer would have to come off and a suitable barrier/drainage plane would have to be installed, and then redo the stone veneer.