Nothing like torrential rain to test the building envelope!

The rains this past week really tested our building envelope. I wish we had them before drywall and mudding, though! We have discovered three leaks.  The chimney flue I have already talked about in the previous post. Two others emerged that need some repair. 

One is the window in the northwest corner of the basement. The northwest corner receives the brunt of the weather, particularly driving rain.  So, it was no surprise that without drip flashing at the base of the exterior wall, and no peel and stick around the windows that water found it's way in. Darn it.

Basement window- leaking through the bottom corners.

Amazing how much damage just a bit of water can do.

And then the bigger, more scary leak. At the electrical panel. Without an eavestrough, there was a lot of water falling on top of the power meter on the outside of the house, which is located on the north wall. And it seems that the exterior pipe that contains the main power line going down into the power meter needs to be caulked and further waterproofed. Since I put a tyvek cover on it, it hasn't leaked. So, hopefully it will dry out soon and I'll caulk the top of it. And I think I'll get some spray foam in where the wires bend into the house And get some eavestroughs in ASAP.

Not good. Water coming in the electrical panel.

This is the likely culprit.

Water hugs the wires and follows
the conduit inside.

It makes you wonder: how do spec-built or other "regular" on the market houses get tested/fixed for leaks? Do they bother to take out the wet drywall? Do they really find the causes/problem? I hope so.