leak in ground floor ceiling

Hello,

I live in a townhouse with four floors and on the side of the townhouse which is exposed, I have a leak in the ceiling on the ground floor whenever there is a wind driven rain. Water drips out from one particular area in the ceiling, and there is also a drip in the heat vent on the lower part of the same wall. At first, I thought it was due to a lack of caulking in my deck, which is on the second floor, but I did a lot of caulking on the deck, and it's still happening. I called a roofing company and I am waiting for them to send someone. They said they think it is definitely a problem with the roof, especially since I am missing an aluminum siding. But if it was an issue with the roof, why would there be no leak on the 4th, 3rd, or 2nd floor, and only on the ground floor. Does anybody know what could be the cause of this leak, or how it could be diagnosed?

Thank You.

 

A picture of the exterior would help. But anytime there is a wall leak, it is almost ALWAYS traceable to the housewrap and flashing around penetrations such as decks, windows and doors.

You didn't really say what is directly in line with the leak, but based on what you have told us, my first guess would be that there is a patio door or some windows on that deck, and the leak must be below this area? More info would help. Like what kind of siding is out there, and some pics.

 

Welcome to the forums!

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/li...-pictures.html

 

A picture is worth a thousand words in this case.

Leak entry pathways can be around doors, windows, deck ledger board, roof to wall intersections, chimneys, etc.

 

And it shows up on the bottom because water (almost) always runs down.
Gravity always wins.

 

While we wait on pix......why would you "caulk" a deck???? If the deck is flashed properly it will withstand it's own water shedding. I fear there is not only a problem at a door, but with absent deck flashing directly above this floor. Include a good pix from above and under the deck.

 

i put some photos here:

Index of /leak

you can see under the deck, on top of the deck, the ceiling where the leak is, and the vent where the water is dripping into

 

The underneath deck pictures are too dark to see anything. If a digital camera has a flash set to ON instead of AUTO the fill light from the flash always makes the picture better.

Depending how the deck is attached, there could be flashing problems. A deck with a bolted ledger (you would see joist hangers and bolt heads or nuts on the ledger from the OS) needs a z-flashing over the top of it. Ideally it would also be spaced away a little to allow for any potential drainage. Cantelievered decks area usually nightmares to flash, and IMO should have a 3" L wall flashing because the cantilevered joists usually have blocking between them and this blocking is pretty much needs to be caulked to that flashing on top and on the sides in order not to leak.

I would also have questions about how the rim joist and handrail is sealed to the EIFS/stucco, and whether the edges of that door are caulked. The front of the door threshold would also be a place to check.

Thats about as much advice as I can give.