Desperate, Need help!

[accordionman]

SIR,
i suggest you contact askthisoldhouse, and tell them all
the details of your problem.
accordionman
wlbrown
wright city, mo.

 

[dummy]

Has anyone checked the gutters and downspouts for plugging? I see one on each side of the chimney. These areas are often overlooked but create all kinds of problems.

 

[Junkman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( SIR,
i suggest you contact askthisoldhouse, and tell them all
the details of your problem.
accordionman
wlbrown
wright city, mo. )</font>

It is rare that "askthisoldhouse" will go very far from their location in Boston MA to do a repair. I was told by a friend that is familiar with their operation that it is too costly for them to do programs out of their geographical area, unless a manufacturer of a product underwrites the costs. Below is the response that I received when I ask about a building problem a while back......

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Ask This Old House
Thanks for taking the time to Ask This Old House. We love hearing from our readers, viewers, and Web site visitors. We're sending you this automatically generated e-mail response in order to help you find the information you need as quickly as possible.

Here's how Ask This Old House works: Home improvement questions submitted by our audience are read and considered for use in our magazine or on the Ask This Old House show. If we select your question we may use it, and your first name and city, on the Ask This Old House television show, in This Old House magazine, on thisoldhouse.com, or on a This Old House branded area of a third-party Web site or media -- and yes, we'll contact you first to let you know we're planning to use your question. If we're going to be in your neighborhood, we may even select your question for a House Call. (Don't worry about a surprise visit -- if you're selected for a House Call we'll schedule it with you!)

We get a lot of questions about the show itself -- where to find the products you see us use on the show, how we select questions to answer, why Norm's not on the new show, things like that. Get answers to the most frequently asked questions here:
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/tvprograms/asktoh/faqs

We're sorry, but due to the volume of mail we receive we cannot provide individual replies. If we don't select your home improvement question for use in one of our shows or publications, we can't provide you with a personal answer. We do have a couple of suggestions for you:

First, browse our archive of previously asked and answered home improvement questions:
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You can also subscribe to This Old House magazine, where we not only feature many pages of advice and tips each month, but we also publish a dozen or so of the Ask This Old House questions and answers. Best of all, you can get two issues free just for trying it!
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Finally, remember that our experts are not the only ones who may be able to help you. Other homeowners may have faced the same problem already, and one of them may be able to answer your question. Check out our Home Renovators' Forum, a place where homeowners and do-it-yourselfers can compare notes, ask questions, and learn from one another's experiences. Go to:
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By the way, if you have a question about a product you saw on the original This Old House (not Ask This Old House), you can look it up in the Resource Directory:
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If you have questions or comments about anything else not mentioned in this e-mail, visit this page:
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Good Luck! Thanks for visiting, and thanks for Asking This Old House.
)</font>

 

[rambler]

What a truely bad location for a chimney.

You have a 100 or so possible locations for the leak. For example, the very top row of shingles could be leaking, the water runs under the shingles on the tar paper, all the way to the top meeting of the chimney, under a missed lap of the flashing, down the outside seam of the chimney, finds a crack or seam near the junture with the lower chimney, and drips in.

Or, 100 other places along that path.

A person wants to fix the obvious & start simple at the bottom - but so often roof leaks come from far, far away & follow a beam, rafter, edge, etc and _show up_ a far far ways away from where the actual leak is.

I'm sorry, but _good luck_. This looks like a difficult one.

I think water would love to pool behind the chinmey at the lower roof level - looks like no way for the water to escape from behind there. That would need a cricket, or pitched angled 'mound' to deflect the water away.

Also, the upper roof is going to direct water against the chinmey and it will pour all the way down the side, again wanting to pool in that little corner of the lower roof. REAL hard to make the work, to seal it up to prevent water backing into those seams. Deflectors, crickets, extra tall flashing, and so on. I'd want to cricket the top level to put water to the other side of the chimney, not into that dead spot.

Yish. Good luck.

--->Paul

 

[jsduke]

Thanks for the good responses! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

As luck would have it, my pro came today while it was raining/dripping.

The current culprit is rain water falling on the upper roof, drifting to the edge (over the lower roof), curling around (a) projecting shingle(s) and running along the fascia to the intersection with the chimney.

He's manipulated the offending shingle(s) for a temp fix (successful) until we've got a reasonably good weather day. He plans to address the shingle area, the facia and the intersection with the chimney.

He had the facing off the chimney on the house side where he observed the water entering and just traced it back upstream.

Will keep you posted as things develop.

Thanks everyone.

duke.