Masonry Problem
we have a problem with water in the wall of the unattached side of our brownstone. We had a home inspector come by and he said it was most likely a crack in the side wall, or it could be the roof, or perhaps the back wall needed re-pointing. He then described standing and hosing…
we have a problem with water in the wall of the unattached side of our brownstone. We had a home inspector come by and he said it was most likely a crack in the side wall, or it could be the roof, or perhaps the back wall needed re-pointing. He then described standing and hosing the wall for about an hour to see if there were “results”. Am not quite sure what that means in terms of the rapidity of seeing results. Would that be immediate, or would it be several days? Also, I assume we should remove the crumbling and staining before doing this so that we can see something new. Is there a company that would do this for us? The thought of dangling over the edge of a four storey brownstone with a hose for an hour is not terribly appealing. Also, does anyone have a mason that they would reccommend for this type of work? What about the mold that is already present? Does that need special work, or will the mending of the leak fix everything?
you should call John from Tritower @ 3477873338 , probably the best in his business regarding construction and has a full staff bewtween engineers and architects…..also I have found him to be very very reasonable when it come to costs.
What your inspector is suggesting is akin to a standard ASTM water test. It is meant to duplicate driven rain. Since he mentioned three places, you would need to test all three.
If you don’t want to do it yourself, you can hire an engineering firm. They will likely sub out a contracting firm to perform the tests while they observe. Naturally they will direct you to open the wall to give visual access.
Yes this will cost money, enuf so that you may want to rethink the not doing it yourself part. I have a coupla engineering firms I could suggest, email me thru my profile.
Normally you fix the leak first, that will prevent the spread of mold further. But you don’t re-mediate it until the leak is fixed.