The Art of Masonry Moisture Control: Considerations for Masonry Exteriors
The standard masonry leak response goes something like this: You notice water where you hadn’t before. A torrential downpour results in ponding water inside of a building. There’s nothing you can do about it except pray for the rain to end while you dam up the water, grab some fans, and search for a shop vac to collect the puddles. The warning signs may have been there for a while such as a musty odor or saturated wall without ponding. Perhaps a spot of wet drop ceiling or drywall or the sound of a steady drip in your firebox emanating from the chimney. Whatever the warning sign there are also other more subtle signs of evidence that building enclosure specialists are particularly adept at catching such as flashings out of sequence, efflorescence or calcification, dysfunctional weep holes and organic growth, even the presence of insects near the point of water entry. Our attitude in identifying these early warning signs is that where there’s smoke there’s fire. Our job is to prevent that ember from becoming a smoldering inferno of inconvenience resulting in thousands of dollars in damages and lost revenue for our clients in the form of moisture intrusion.
