A local builder who was aware of mold remediation work my company, Advanced Mold Diagnostics, had playing this client to me.
He was not sure if the stitch on some attitude was a moment or not. He did not think so, but wanted to be cautious and protect his client. One of the aspects that made the situation so interesting was that he was called out to renovate all of the interior walls and floors as the insurance company was picking up the tab based on an ice damming incident.
Upon arriving the homeowner proceeded to describe how the windows and cascaded down the walls onto the top floor. My inspection revealed that the attic was dry included all the way down into the eaves. We could not find a single elevated moisture reading or thermal image showing that it was washing more than a different wood species that had been used for the four hip rafters of the mansard roof 35 years ago I do not grow on one piece of framing and not on the ones adjoining it, and it certainly does not repeat that pattern in all four corners.
The second floor had sustained some damage and the thermal imaging detected some I do not have a suspected. I will beam suspected. Going into the basement with the homeowner She explained how water just poured off the steel I-beam in the basement .
The last piece of unique water intrusion was on the first floor bearing wall running right through the middle heavily 18 'from the left elevation wall towards the kitchen ruining the hardwood floors. see the water stains on the gypsum wallboard.
The answer ... the ice damming allowed water to pour out of the soffits and through capillary action it it across the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of the bottom From the stucco and to the sofit intersection. From there, it just ran down behind the stucco and into the cavities as the window heads because the windows were not properly flashed and there was no properly installed drainage plane in place. The interior wall issue was also related to the lack of a drain plane because of the water just ran in along the bearing wall.
Faulty stucco installation is way more common and more problematic then most people realize and is not an easy fix.
