Hello,

I'm looking for some advice. We have an addition on our home that appears to have been built by enclosing an existing patio (as best I can tell by looking at the original home plans). The floor is concrete slab and the walls are finished like a regular room (not an enclosed porch) with drywall, insulation, etc. The outside walls are vinyl siding and the roof over the room was replaced with the rest of the home room 2 years ago.

On one side is another concrete patio that was added later and is fairly even with the floor of the addition. The other two sides are dirt/landscaping/gravel depending on the area.

Problem is, when it rains, water pours into this room on all sides. We've installed drains in the yard around the back of the house and replaced the gutters in the problem areas. There is also a drain in the newer concrete patio.

What else can we try to fix this? This has been an ongoing issue and I'm frustrated to the point of having the room torn down (the fourth wall is the original exterior wall of the house). I hate to lose the square footage to the house but honestly, the room is useless as is.

Thanks for any and all help.

Pturner

 

Welcome to the forums! The patio adjacent and level to the room is a teltale sign that things won't be happy. Where else would the water go?? The room should have never been built on a slab without some sort of stem wall of concrete to help keep water at bay. Sort of like a dam. Maybe if you were to post a few pictures of the room, exterior and interior we may be able to give better advice and get you rolling in the right direction. http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...your-post.html

 

Thank you,

I'll try to get some pictures up later if I get home before dark.

There is no stem wall. We replaced the wooden paneling that was originally in there not long after we moved in. It appears the walls are directly on the slab.

Pturner

 

Ok, let's see if I can get this picture thing to work.

This is from the patio side of the addition. Ignore the mess, it's been too wet to do our normal spring/summer cleanup this year.


Here is a closeup of the wall/foundation. The elevated portion is the floor of the addition.


and another one, the wall does leak at this point.


This is the outermost wall, suprisingly, it doesn't leak here.


I didn't take any interior pictures as everything is behind drywall and there's really nothing to see except damp floor.

Thanks,

Pturner

 

Thanks for the pix. Observations: (1) Gutters yes, but what about downspouts? I don't see any on that room. You can't expect all that water to run back toward the main part of the house and utilize the downspout at that end. A downspout, with water directed at least 6' from the foundation may help.

(2) What is that slip and slide attachment where the valley ends at the gutters. It looks as if the water in the valley would just jettison itself onto the patio without regard to the gutter set up.

(3) Picture 4, what is this addition sitting on? I see lumber at grade level. Not good.

 

Chandler,

I'll answer your questions in order:

1. The only downspout on that side is on the far end of the main part of the house. Where do you recommend putting one? If the water needs to go 6' from the foundation I think it will need to go at the corner where the addition meets the original house. About 3' from the other corner is a retaining wall so that limits where the water can go from that side without it running right back onto the foundation.

2. That slip in slide thing does exactly what you said. Water goes shooting off there like a firehose. I tried to remove it once but it's nailed into the roof under the shingles. I suppose if I put a downspout there I can cut it with some tin snips.

3. The majority of the addition is sitting on the original patio slab which can be seen in picture #2. For whatever reason, on that one wall (picture #4), it appears to be hanging off the slab.

Now that I'm thinking about it, there may be a stem wall on that one wall in picture 4. There is a ledge on the interior wall that stands about 3' high and about 6" wide and runs the entire length of the wall. When we did the drywall, I seem to remember there being concrete under it. There was none on the other two walls. That may explain why that one wall is the only one that has never leaked even though we regularly had standing water back there before the drains were installed.

Anyway, sorry this is so long. Any other advice that you have will be greatly appreciated.

Pturner

 

The pitch would have to be altered on the gutters, but I would install a downspout at the left side and if necessary run the water all the way back to the other side of the house, if there is a wall to the left of the house as you say. That water has to go away from the foundation.

Cut the slip-n-slide even with the bottom of the shingles on both roofs. That water has to fall into the gutter. You may even have to put up a deflector to keep the water inside the gutter system, but you CAN'T have it dumping on the patio like that.

My concern in pix 4 is what appears to be a 2x4 sticking up. Is that what it is, or are my old eyes deceiving me?

 

Thanks, I'll get on the gutters ASAP. It'll take a lot of piping to get the runoff far enough away from the other side of the addition that it doesn't make the leaking on that side worse. Will need a downspout over there as well since it has the same setup as the side in the picture (without the slip and slide for some reason). I'll try to run it all the way over to the driveway.

In picture #4, that's a 2x4 hanging down. I'm guess these are the wall studs for that wall. They are fairly evenly spaced and end about 2" above the ground. Not sure what they're tied into inside the wall.

 

Looks like someone broke every building code and building 101 rule on this one.
What I've had to do when I run into this is dig out down to the bottom of the footings (if there even is one) remove the bottom two rows of siding. Remove the door.
Water proof the wall and below grade with Storm and Ice Shield making sure it's ran into the door opening.
Install a sill pan for the door.
Jamsill Guard Door & Window Sill Pan Flashing
Reinstall the door.
Add vinyl lumber to the bottom of the wall, it needs to be wide enough to go below grade and to about 3/8 below where that bottom lap is in the siding.
Now add a piece of Z molding over the top of the siding to deflect the water away from the vinyl lumber.
Now add J molding. The bottom row of siding will need to be cut along the bottom of the lap.
I've done this many a time on garages that used a slab on grade.
Your right that 2X sticking out scares me to. No 2X's are direct ground contact rated.
That gutter needed something like this, not a chute like you have now.
Roof/Gutter Diverter - Bing Images

 

Thanks Joecaption1, I think I like your idea in addition to fixing the gutters. I'm not sure I'm understanding everything though. As best I can figure, this is the setup you're suggesting (it'll work for 2 of the 3 walls, will still have to figure out the patio side) for the vinyl lumber and j-moulding.



I'm not sure about the z-moulding. Could you explain that a little more, please.

 

Rather than being in the form of a "J", it has a "Z" look as such Gibraltar Building Products 2 in. x 5/8 in. x 3/8 in. Galvanized Z Flash-17845 at The Home Depot

The long tail goes up behind the siding and the lip lays on the horizontal surface and caps over it.