water damage detection and repair

April 7, 2008 11:19 AM

Help me identify and fix a possible water intrusion / water damage near my sliding glass door.

I'm buying a new home (yay!) and the inspection went well without identifying any new major issues. One item we knew about is that the sliding glass door was broken and needed to be repaired. Our inspectors didn't find anything else wrong about the door other than it didn't open (they didn't note any possible water damage around the door, etc).

When we had a window/door guy come out and take a look at it, the door was not functional because the wheels on the bottom had completely rusted out. The previous owners had removed the wheels and just rested the door on wood shims. The wood shims were now rotting as well. So the window/door guy thinks that there might be a possible water intrusion issue.

I will be going over to the new place later (we haven't yet moved in) and will take a visual inspection of the area to look for any kind of water damage, but what i want to know is:

- How should i verify that there is no water damage/intrusion? Is a visual inspection of the area good enough or do i need to get some of those moisture dection tools?
- If a visual inspection looks good, can i assume that everything is okay?

If there is visual evidence of a leak, i can go from there (find the source of the leak, determine how much damage has been already caused, fix the leak, etc) but i just want to make sure i don't miss something that a visual inspection wouldn't catch.

Also any tips on what to look for in water damage (other than water lines, and wavy warping).

I'm not exactly a handyman - yet - but i would like to learn to do any of this myself without having to call in a professional (if possible).

posted by escher to home & garden (3 comments total)

If you can get under the house, you can poke at the wood under the door's sill where it meets the foundation. If it's been wet for a sustained amount of time, a screwdriver will poke right in. That would be an issue. You could also spot water staining down there, though I wouldn't panic over stains on otherwise sound wood. Just keep your eyes open for any signs of dry rot or termite damage in the stained areas.

If the damage is limited to just under the door, the accumulation of water in the sliding glass door's tracks is likely due to condensation on the inside of the door dripping down or rain/sprinkler over-spray doing the same on the outside. One of my sliders rusted out too, the cure was to add a properly sized awning outside.
posted by jamaro at 11:41 AM on April 7

To elaborate on jamaro's post, it might just be the case that your sliding door basically allows the rollers to get wet (it's then quite silly to make the rollers out of something that rusts, but it may just be a cheap door), which doesn't seem like a horribly uncommon detail. Correct me if I'm wrong, but viewed from the outside, the operable side of the unit slides behind the fixed side, and there's probably a lip overlapping the bottom of the slider on the interior side. That lip is the final barrier against water penetration into the house. For water to penetrate the door assembly itself, all it has to do is run down the face of the slider into the track. So, sure you've got water infiltration, but it's possible that that's unavoidable unless you put the door under cover as jamaro did. It might be something to ask your door guy about--is it possible to even get a door that doesn't have infiltration in that manner?
posted by LionIndex at 1:22 PM on April 7

Nthing Jamaro for checking actual structural damage.

Is the threshold close to the ground (puddling), near irrigation (sprinklers), or exposed to the elements (will a hard rain run down that wall)? Is it painted or sealed ? Is the surface of the wood cracked, checked or peeling? Wood doors are great. ( I hate fiberglass and vinyl windows and doors.) But they need regular maintenance, sometimes a yearly sanding and a coat of paint or sealer, the eventual replacement of rollers and other hardware, and they really suffer if there was deferred maintenance. I would check the flooring inside next to the threshold for stains (carpet), buckling (hardwood or vinyl) or recent repairs (seams or color differences).

My current home had a spot where water pooled, only when it rained, and saturated and eventually rotted, the threshhold and jambs on the door into the garage. The previous homeowner did a cut and patch job that fooled me and the inspector until it rained the following winter and the patch fell out!

Try installing new rollers. Bring one to the hardware store to find a suitable match. I would recommend the metal wheeled ones over the plastic, because the plastic tend to crumble after awhile. Also consider sanding and re-sealing/painting the frame while you have the door out. That is the beauty of wood, with proper maintenance, in a dry climate, it can be maintained for years.
posted by SMELLSLIKEFUN at 3:51 PM on April 7