Back in '97 I was called out to a condo complex of about 225 Units and this was around the mid summer before a reported el nino was to hit in late '97-'98.

The person who hired me said he had a Unit that had a very elusive leak and asked if I could help. Unwittingly, I agreed and we set a date to go after this elusive leak in the kitchen of this particular unit. The trap was set.

Well, I got there and much to my surprise the only thing above this kitchen was a flat roof with some partition walls on it and the parapet wall.

I went up on the roof and saw MAJOR cracks in the roofing and thought to myself  "who missed this, were they blind!" but I kept that thought to myself and proceeded to use my procedure to verify my thought. 20 Minutes later of heavy testing and NOTHING came in! I could not believe it.

So I looked at the parapet cap and it was an absolute mess. Major cracks and real ugly. I thought to myself
"who missed this, were they blind, this will surely leak!!!"

Well, 1/2 an hour of heavy testing and NO LEAK! Then I thought, this is unreal. But my testing works all the time and I relied on facts and not even my opinions and humbly continued my process.

Well, after about 4 more of the above tests and opinions (to myself of course), Nothing. 3 1/2 hours went by and I was just appalled that nothing was coming in so I re hit the previous spots since they looked SO guilty!
NOTHING.

Then I went to one of the partition walls in the roof about 15 feet from the kitchen where there was a through drain in the wall. Same roof level but the wall was separating 1 unit from another. I hit the base about 1 inch up above the surface of the roof at this drain (mind you the water was running on the roof through this drain area but had not risen 1" where I now had it and BANG. I hear yelling from below "It's coming IN!!!!

I retested all my previous areas to make sure this was not a fluke and nothing but as soon as I hit that spot,
I heard that familiar yell- "It's coming IN!!!!

I sealed that spot since it was just a small hole in a tar roof. It rained and no water came in their kitchen!

Well, Now that I entered the trap, what was in it was nothing short of UNREAL!

I will get into that in the next blog so that this one is not too long since the story itself is LONG!

Stay tuned

It was when I first developed my rain leak detection technology back in the San Fransisco bay area that I ran into the most excruciating leak finding project I have ever done. Even to this day!

A man in his mid 60's called me to find "a" leak that had been leaking for 42 years!

As a young whipper snapper that I was (about 29 years ago), I enthusiastically obliged in finding his "leak".

I knew my technology on how to find leak sources was solid- isolate and then terminate so I had no fear.

Well, it took about 20 minutes to find "it". I showed him then proceeded to terminate it.

After I terminated that specific source, I decided to retest the area and boom, water came in. I retested my repair and no water entered. Then I went to another spot and found another one. I terminated that one.

I retested the area and boom, water came in.

Mind you, this was a 3 story house and the water only appeared out of 1 knot hole in a beam right in front of the chair he would sit in to watch TV for 42 years! Quite a nuisance.

Well anyway, I proceeded to terminate this other source and then retested and boom, water came in!

I tested all my work and no water came in but this was another spot and again, they ALL showed up out of that notorious knot hole in the beam.

By this time I was getting a bit worried he might think I was poking holes in his house so I started dragging him up to the areas where water was coming in from so he would not think I was pulling a fast one on him.

I doggedly persisted in my technique of finding and terminating leak sources. This isolate and terminate procedure went on 12 more times!!! God almighty.

Well. when I was done, we had an el nino and much to his surprise, it was the first time in 42 years the water did not come out of that famous knot hole during the rain!

The moral of this story is persistence and using a standard leak finding technology till all sources are found and eliminated and only using FACTS, not opinions.

It was interesting that when I had him participate in my procedure, he was very understanding and very supportive of what I was doing as I could PROVE to him that what I was fixing actually needed to be fixed. I could prove it through visible evidence, not opinions.

I have had real odd leaks but this was the most arduous and excruciating leak finding project I have done and what do you know, it was the 3rd leak finding job I had ever done with my technique!

What a way to break in a young ambitious rain leak finder who developed a workable infallible technique!

I had been contacted by a very good developer of condominiums and a great person to help him out of a lawsuit over a condo he built that had leaked.

When he called me, he was already tangled up with "expert" forensic construction defect investigators. (Nice TITLES eh?

Just a note here that the one who can get results that fit the definitions I give on the "definitions and education" page of this website are the authority! NOT TITLES! or even time in the industry for that matter. Remember that. It applies in all fields. Titles do not guarantee results; thus- think for yourself and ask questions, evaluate the data and LOOK don't listen as it relates to results promised and delivered or not. Not even "decades of experience" etc. etc. are necessarily valid. Results! did you get them or not. You can have someone with 1 month of experience get results so not even time in the area is a valid measure. Results. Yes or No. That is the bottom line in the final analysis. Not labels, unless of course they fit the definition in truth. But the results or lack of them will tell you that.

Anyway, These title happy individuals were tearing apart a very beautiful condo to "find defects" at the behest (a persons orders or command) of the condo owner and her attorney even though there were no signs of leakage in the areas they were so enthusiastically tearing apart!

They had all sorts of theories- moisture vapor was at 6% on the concrete (which up to 12% is acceptable in that circumstance per ASTM standards in building), no weep screed between the 1st and 2nd story (which is not needed) etc. etc.

I found this out, documented the arbitraries and called the "forensic" guy out on it.

I also found the actual factual leak source allowing water into their condo which was simply a door install.

This guy had 1' of drywall removed around the entire inside of the 3,500 square foot condo!! The destructive "testing" cost the poor developer 5-10K and all this guy came up with was what I stated above- opinions, arbitraries and erroneous diagnosis!!

Well, needless to say, I eloquently presented facts of specific leak sources, debunked his opinions and arbitraries with facts and the definition of standard as it regards water proofing in such a way as to be impossible to weasel out of his flawed assessment of and destruction of a brand new condo.

The result was a fired "expert" forensic construction defect investigator, lawsuit dropped and the leak sources I found terminated and no leaks since!

Incidently, after eloquently presenting the facts with no bias etc., the home owner who hired this guy saw the fraud of the "expert and was the one who fired him.

Oh! you know what his defense was when presented with the fact that his opinions were not valid per the FACTS ascertained? "It is true because I say so because I have 35 years experience"!

Boy, there is arrogance in the face of irrefutable facts and he still defended his lousy arbitrary destructive opinion with: "It is true because I say so because I have 35 years experience and I am an expert!

I invite you to review the "just a note... paragraph above.

No results- You're Fired!

I often resolve disputes before they get into lawsuits which I personally prefer. It has been my pleasure to run into many fine contractors and developers who I have helped in this regard because they are individuals of honor and want to do good and stand behind their work so there is no need to use force when reason is present or can be developed.

 I have to tell you an interesting story about making sure a rain leak source is standardly repaired, otherwise it can give the appearance that there are other leak sources.

I was hired by a very honorable and wonderful builder to find a leak source neither their subcontractor, architect, contractor not to mention the homeowner could find on a very fine home he just built.

I ran some tests (like they all did but obviously not exactly as they did as I found it) on a balcony area where water was coming in the ceiling below.

After a few hours, I isolated an outlet on the wall of the balcony.

I wrote the rain leak finding report and put a photo of the flaw and an example photo of a good 100% workable method of repair. 

He said he did it, it rained, water came in the same place and so he had me come out to "find another leak source" assuming the one I found had been standardly repaired.

I went out again and after looking at various areas with no result, I decided to check the repair he did on the electrical outlet.

What do you know; It still leaked! I documented it and again, re-iterated what I had stated in the first report as to a standard way to repair it.

He said, we are just going to remove the outlet all together and re install the cedar shingles.

Well, it rained again and it leaked again!

So he had me go out and "find another leak source". So this time I was of the opinion that he had fixed it as I saw no outlet so I tested the rest of the deck, walls, doors etc. within an inch of their life and NO leak!

So I started looking more closely at the area where he removed the outlet and I saw, in between the cedar shingles, some white paper that looked like the overlap was backwards so I tested it and BANG. It leaked!!!

My god I thought. How many times do I have to go out and get paid to find the same leak?

Well, this time he apparently got someone in there who knew what they were doing, got it standardly repaired and has not leaked since. (4 years ago).

I have MANY of these types of stories but I thought I would start with this short but bitter sweet one.