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Classic Flashing Failure

A Leaking Home Gets Fixed for Good

The Problem:

We’ve seen this over and over on Twin Cities’ homes, in particular homes built in the last 30 years in Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Edina, Plymouth, Wayzata, and Bloomington. A bottleneck created by the intersection of the garage roof and the wall of the home. The result is a pinch point where water frequently leaks into the walls below. Normally this type of leak takes years to manifest inside the home, resulting in a fair amount of interior repair work once it is discovered. Bummer.

Case Study 25

Case Study 25.2Case Study 25.3

  1. Common trouble spot. In concept, this detail is okay but it is seldom executed well. Whether you blame it on the architect or the builder, someone didn’t spend enough time thinking about water when this area was conceived.
  2. Project rendering of area before work began. The challenge was not to turn this into a major project because it involved roofing, siding, sheet metal and masonry.
  3. We removed the area indicated by the red outline.

This is a common problem found on many homes regardless of the siding type. In this case, the brick veneer only amplified the issue by trapping water and debris efficiently with each rain. The leak damaged drywall and insulation inside the home.

The Solution:

We removed the cedar lap siding and shake roofing so we could expose and repair the rotten roof decking. After wrapping high-temperature ice and water membrane from the roof up the walls we then installed a hand-soldered galvanized steel pan, a bomb-proof solution to a problem two other companies had tried to address over the past ten years. The new metal was ground into the brickwork and counter flashed for total awesomeness (Industry term).

This is one of those troublesome small projects that no one wants to touch. An expert solution involves at least five trades and pays each one very little for their contribution. It falls into the ‘not worth the trip’ category for a lot of contractors as a result.

We happen to employ masons, carpenters, roofers and sheet metal guys so a project like this is right up our alley. Plus, when we kick ass on a small job like this people tend to recommend us to others. That makes us happy.

Case Study 25.4


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