I am a member of a rural Methodist Church in Southern Mississippi. We are working to complete a brand new facility and are probably 85% complete. It is a metal building (red iron w/ metal wall studs and sheetrock) with brick veneer on the South and East Sides only. The brick veneer was installed directly over the corrugated metal siding on those sides. On the south and east sides, we have gutters that empty directly into flower beds that are awaiting landscaping (no drainage system). We have a concrete parking lot.
During Hurricane Isaac, we received a great deal (15"-20") of wind driven rain on that south and east side of the building as you can imagine. Thursday, I found considerable amounts of water in the building and all over our brand new floor covering (wood + carpet + vct). However, none was noticed to have entered on the west or north walls. Upon further inspection, I noticed our veneer has no weeps holes or flashing, and the brick overhangs the brick ledge by an 1" or 2" in some spots. None of us are builders/experts, and we are struggling to determine the entry point for the water (we ruled out the obvious) as well as what to do to correct the problem. I can post pictures if needed and any help would certainly be appreciated.
I suggest you contact a certified commercial inspector, because it looks like you will need everything documented for your builder will understand the problems fully. If the builder just made a few mistakes that you know of, there is probably more that you do not know about. A trained inspector knows how to look for those things. Go here http://www.inspectorlocator.com and click on commercial when performing an inspector search in your area.
Here everyone… I put the PICs on a webpage and numbered them for easy reference. Copy this URL into your address bar to view: http://www.nachi.org/brick-pics-2012
A summary of the pictures Nick posted and linked to above for me:
PIC1: Shows the downspout on the east side of the building close to the entrance. It currently empties straight down onto the concrete.
PIC2: Water tends to accumulate in this corner, especially given the lack of a drainage system to carry the water from the downspouts away from the foundation.
PIC3: Another downspout along the east side of the building and the bottom layer of the brick veneer (no flashing or weep holes are present as far as I can tell)
PIC4: The south side of the building. Some water entered on this side as well.
PIC5: Close-up of the corner shown in PIC2
PIC6: A broad view of the east side of the church where the majority of the water came into the building (we think)
Rainfall rate estimates during Isaac were 2.5"-4"/hr which likely overwhelmed the gutters and downspouts, especially given the slow movement of the storm. Thanks.
Water management is poor. Gutters should preferably carry water 6’ away from the building. Discharging as they do into the grassy areas creates a pond because there is nowhere for it to drain.
The top of the slab is not sufficiently above the soil in my opinion, especially at the corner that you pictured. Concrete is porous and will wick moisture into the floor coverings even if there is not a direct source of water entry.
Weep holes are a code requirement. They should be placed every 33 inches. I would recommend that you get with your jurisdiction’s building official to see how this defect was allowed to pass inspection. Simply drilling weep holes now is not a solution because flashing is required to direct water out of the openings and if you don’t have weep holes, I’m sure you don’t have flashing.
Are the windows caulked?
Is there a lawyer in your flock? If your state has contractor licensing, you probably have the right to file a formal complaint with the state against the contractor and building official for dereliction of their duty to build according to and inspect according to the code. That is if you get no satisfaction with the local building official or contractor.
Thanks for your help. I sure do appreciate the responses. We were literally a few weeks from having services in our new facility, but I am glad we can work through these issues now rather than later.
A few updates:
The insurance adjuster will be out this Saturday. I did some more investigating today and realized that there are no closure strips underneath the edges of the corrugated metal roofing. Rainfall (especially wind-driven) essentially has a free pass over the gutter and under the raised ridge on the metal roofing to behind the brick veneer wall. I guess there is also the possibility of wind blowing the water in the overwhelmed gutters through these openings and behind the wall as well. Since there is no flashing or weep holes at the bottom of the brick,the water doesn’t have anywhere to go except over the 1+3/4" high brick ledge and into the building. Hence, I was able to squirt water into this space and behind the brick veneer where it then ran down the backside of the wall and into the building behind the stud walls. Somebody stated that we should drill weep holes now, but I suggested that the effectiveness of such would be limited without any flashing in place. Right?
So here is our approach for now:
Get closure strips installed underneath the edges of the corrugated metal roofing to try and limit the amount of water getting behind the veneer
Apply a silane/siloxane based water repellent to the brick veneer (any ideas on which is best?)
Install a drainage system (an initial estimate includes running downspouts into a 12" pipe with catch basins, etc for around $7600)
Any other ideas? Again, your replies are very much appreciated by us all.
Thanks for your help. I sure do appreciate the responses. We were literally a few weeks from having services in our new facility, but I am glad we can work through these issues now rather than later.
A few updates:
The insurance adjuster will be out this Saturday. I did some more investigating today and realized that there are no closure strips underneath the edges of the corrugated metal roofing. Rainfall (especially wind-driven) essentially has a free pass over the gutter and under the raised ridge on the metal roofing to behind the brick veneer wall. I guess there is also the possibility of wind blowing the water in the overwhelmed gutters through these openings and behind the wall as well. Since there is no flashing or weep holes at the bottom of the brick,the water doesn’t have anywhere to go except over the 1+3/4" high brick ledge and into the building. Hence, I was able to squirt water into this space and behind the brick veneer where it then ran down the backside of the wall and into the building behind the stud walls. Somebody stated that we should drill weep holes now, but I suggested that the effectiveness of such would be limited without any flashing in place. Right?
So here is our approach for now:
Get closure strips installed underneath the edges of the corrugated metal roofing to try and limit the amount of water getting behind the veneer
Apply a silane/siloxane based water repellent to the brick veneer (any ideas on which is best?)
Install a drainage system (an initial estimate includes running downspouts into a 12" pipe with catch basins, etc for around $7600)
Any other ideas? Again, your replies are very much appreciated by us all.