Happy Holidays! House is 3 years old. There is moisture in the basement directly below the window in the photo and causing mold on the bottom plate up to 24" from the floor. I did remove the affected and adjacent R13 batts and treated with Concronium Mold Spray and left the joist bays exposed. There has never been any type of odor or bad air. It is confined to one joist bay, from the bottom plate to 24" from the floor. The unfinished basement walls have unfaced R13 pink insulation and the entire wall is covered with FSK ( Foil Scrim Kraft) blanket. After inspecting other areas of the basement, I'm satisfied that is confined to that area. The curb made by the basement slab and concrete foundation wall, shows no signs of moisture disturbance.
The vinyl area in question does not get direct rain but can get snow drift. If the water is coming in via the vinyl siding, then I would assume that it's a flashing problem. The window planter has not been watered in 2 months but that may be the cause of the brown area below. How can I tell if it's a flashing problem, would the flashing be visible? The would trim under the window is not caulked at the cove but I can't see behind it. A local builder looked at the photos and was "99% sure", that the flashing wasn't done correctly. Talking big bucks to reflash and possibly remove and replace concrete porch. I haven't been able to ask him how he could tell from only the photos. He's said the vinyl should not be removed now (Chicago area) for fear of damaging vinyl.
You can see a small brown area below the window but not certain it's from ponding. I put a level down and there doesn't seem to be a low point. The slab pitch is good from the window straight out but to the right side is a slight negative pitch.
I would think, after 3:years, there would be more areas of mold and moisture in the wall below. No moisture signs in the rim joist down to 24" from the floor.
There are a couple possibilities that come to mind, flashing and a simple basement leak. Possibly a bit of both. The bottom J channel of the vinyl siding can be catching water and directing it toward the end near the window. The water drains out of the channel, gets past missing or improper flashing then seeps down between the porch and basement wall to weep inside between the slab and wall.
There is a siding removal tool that would be helpful. You slide it underneath (up under the bottom) of a strip of siding where it catches the bottom lip and allows you to unhook the upper strip of siding from the piece below. This will allow you to remove the bottom strip of siding without having to start at the top and strip that whole wall section. But, stripping that bit of wall would be a quick and easy job.
With the siding removed, especially the bottom strip, you should be able to see the flashing in that area. It won't let you see behind the white wood siding/trim but it will give you an idea to what may be there. If you don't see any flashing or if it ends or there is a seam in that area that would be worth investigating further.
Another possibility is that the water is simply moving underground and has found a weak spot in your basement's waterproofing and drainage system. Hopefully it's not because the problem area is buried underneath the porch so a repair will get rather expensive so I'd rule out all other possibilities first.
I dunno how you would do it but I would click "go advanced" then click the image icon, then click browse device, then tell it to look in files and then select Google photos and then the image.
I taped some plastic wrap to the basement wall in problem joist bay to test if moisture is coming in from outside the wall
I'm thinking that if it is the source, I can apply some Lock Tight water sealer.
So there are no drip or stains on that porch ceiling that you can see, right above where those stains are?
And what I see on your bottom plate in the basement doesn't look like mold. It looks like a stain. Like an oily kreosote roof tar stain. And I see splatters on the concrete wall of the same stuff.
If nothing is wet I think you are imagining something that is currently happening when it probably happened 3 yrs ago during construction.
Water sealer applied to the inside really doesn't work. It may hold up for a couple years but relatively soon the water wins. But, the first step is to determine if you actually have a leak or if that is just some oil or hot coco spilled during construction. Touching it is an easy test.
Could not figure out how to make a reply on my previous thread. When I press Reply, a new thread box pops up.
The stain on the stoop is within 5 inches of being directly over the bottom plate with the stain.
The funny thing is all the nonstained wood in that joist bay was at 5-7% moisture.
No other moisture or smell in the top plates, rim joist, or anywhere else in the basement.
The dark stained bottom plate is now 12% moisture and drying out.
The coving area where the wall meets the floor is dry, with no staining but maybe it just dried out.
I forgot to mention that the bottom plate stain area was 20+ 7 days ago.
I wasn't quite sure where to post this question.
Several years ago, I built a clubhouse for my son. I built it on 6 X 6 posts about 12 feet off the ground. A few years ago, I added a slab under the clubhouse to use to store mowers, etc. Footprint of the slab/clubhouse is about 18 x 8. The slab sits in an area that would flood (maybe 3 inches) in a heavy rain if not for the french drains we installed 2 years ago. I intend on dismantling the clubhouse and building a 2-story tiny home. If my drain system should ever fail, I don't want water getting inside the tiny home. I only need the floor to be a few inches above the slab. I thought I would rest my floor joists on a wall of standard bricks placed on the slab, that should give me enough room to stay dry in a worst case scenario. I have a few questions. Should I use something other than bricks? i.e., use PVC joists and rest them directly on the slab. Should I leave the space open between the bottom of the joists and the top of the slab, or enclose the space (bring the siding down all the way)? If I enclose, should I ventilate the space? To assume no water will get under the floor, even if I construct a barrier that's supposed to be water tight, I think is a mistake. My questions are kind of out of order and aren't all applicable depending on the option(s) used. Basically, just looking for advice on what to do on the bottom floor, avoid water getting in.
A friend is relocating a gas grille/fire place (city gas) in the backyard. The gas line needs to be buried in part in the concrete slab. What kind of pipe can I use? He is considering flexible gas pipe (yellow MDPE) cased in a larger PVC. Can MDPE be pulled/pushed through the gray PVC conduit just like an electrical wire? It will be tied to the existing, above-ground IPS. Thank you.
12-22-22, 09:08 AM
