Maintenance Corner

Spring into Maintenance: A Guide to Sleuthing

by Steve Saarman

Winter is finally over and spring inspections will reveal how the winter conditions have impacted the components of your building’s exterior envelope. Your fall inspection revealed how the intensity of longer sun exposure and greater daily temperature fluctuations affected these same components. Diligent twice-a-year inspections will give you the edge to stay ahead of the curve by gathering additional information and being proactive and knowledgeable in planning your maintenance “to do” list. In the course of general maintenance, occasionally one is confronted with solving the mysteries
of isolated building component failure. These areas can simply be the result of “higher exposure” to the elements.

An increased frequency of general maintenance procedures is usually adequate to solve these issues. Sometimes the problems go deeper and are caused by poor design and/or poor construction, requiring more extensive intervention.

To be a sleuth, you’ll need to equip yourself with a notepad, binoculars, a moisture meter and a camera to document what you find. Photos are an unparalleled way to capture the passage of time and monitor how quickly an issue is evolving. Binoculars allow you to see details missed by a scanning eye from a distance. Slow your scanning process down. Some signs or symptoms of deterioration are hard to spot with an “untrained” eye. Have patience. By slowing down and focusing on the details, you get to know and understand your building. Each inspection will cumulatively add to your knowledge base. A moisture meter is another investigative tool. Elevated moisture levels in any material are the first sign of problems ahead. A moisture meter can allow you to pinpoint a water intrusion source or define the boundaries of a problem. Remember, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” So, slow down, focus and get to know your building. Think Sherlock Holmes. The attention will offer huge payoffs in preserving the value of your asset and will give you the personal satisfaction of solving the mystery puzzle.

Remember, each building is a unique blend of materials situated in its own environmental niche. All building materials react differently when exposed to varying degrees of sun, shade, wind and rain, as well as interaction with other building envelope components. When this is overlaid with poor waterproofing design details, poor choice of existing materials and/or substandard construction coupled with building age, a complex puzzle is waiting to be solved.

The first rule in maintenance sleuthing is to be consistent and systematic in your approach. Create a checklist that is specific to your building. Solicit the advice of some trained experts (like an architect, engineer, general contractor, paint representative or roofer) to glean pertinent information to educate yourself on your building. Apply this knowledge with a watchful eye. The areas you want to address are: site drainage and hardscapes, landscaping and trees, stairs and decks, the wall system including windows and doors, and the roof system. Following are some general nonspecific “best practice” sleuthing guidelines to help you formulate the backbone of your exterior maintenance checklist.

Shifting Foundations
Your building rests on concrete foundations. Any vertical displacement or shifting movements will telegraph into the structure, possibly influencing how windows and doors open or close, how decks or roofs drain, and how siding handles the movement by cracking, warping or buckling. Damage may also be seen on the interior finishes.

What causes foundation movement? Soils, especially those with high clay composition, will expand and shrink according to moisture content. General soil moisture content is directly influenced by controlling the drainage flow of water off and around the building (unless you have an underground spring). All water must drain away from the building. Make sure water from roof downspouts is directed well away from the foundations, preferably into a contained storm-sewer system. Look at your landscaping. Mature trees can lift foundations, crack them and plug up perimeter subsurface drainage systems. Growing roots can also raise the soil level around the tree or shrub, which may eventually cause a reverse slope back toward the foundations and block drainage flow patterns. Water that “ponds” or slowly drains around the foundation perimeter may allow water to seep below the foundation and rise into crawl spaces, thereby increasing interior moisture levels, which can cause floors to buckle, or foster mold growth. This is not a healthy situation. There should never be standing water in a crawl space.

It’s also a good idea not to let vegetation grow tight against the building. This situation restricts airflow, so your siding stays moist without drying out, and the paint surface can become moldy. It also tends to abrade the paint finish during windy conditions and can also conceal possible termite tubes leading up into the building.

As a general rule, maintain at least a six-inch clearance between the soil and the bottom of the siding. Don’t let planter mulch build up too high. Siding usually is installed to overlap an inch or so below the actual wood structural framing of your building. If soil or mulch touches or covers the bottom edge of siding, water can wick up into the framing, causing wood rot and, once again, termite tubes can be concealed.

Decks and stairs create horizontal surfaces adjacent to the building’s wall system. Horizontal solid surfaces accumulate rainwater, which must then be controlled and directed away from the building. Always look under decks and stairs for signs of water leakage: stain marks, mold or rust streaks from bolt attachments. These are warning signals that deeper issues need to be solved. Use your moisture meter to test the moisture levels of materials, especially if the areas are supposed to be dry. Any cellulose material with moisture content greater than 20% becomes very susceptible to rot and mold.

A Well-Prepared Paint Job
With your binoculars, slowly scan the elevations of your building. What you are looking for are protruding nails (which will actually funnel rain water into your building), any stains or discoloration coming from cracks (signs of possible dry rot), buckled or warped siding (water is getting in behind the siding at some point above these areas), trim that is puckered, cracked or shrunken dimensionally (sure signs of wood rot) and the overall condition of the paint surface. Look for peeling, blisters, open caulk joints or a chalky surface (paint will rub off onto your fingers), which indicate a paint job is necessary. Remember, paint will weather differently on different elevations depending on exposure to the elements. This may ultimately require a separate painting schedule for different elevations.

There is no standard rule for when to repaint a building. A “well-prepared” paint job should last between 5 and 12 years. Why such a wide variance? A paint job is only as good as the substrate’s preparation and stability. Paint is a thin film with a finite ability to span cracks. It needs a clean, dust-free, nonpeeling surface with which to adhere. Substrate stability reflects a material’s expansion and contraction coefficient and its moisture content. For instance, stucco is cementatious and much more stable than wood siding, even when wet. A paint job will generally last longer on stucco than on wood. When wood siding expands and contracts during diurnal temperature fluctuations, caulk joints are stressed, eventually fail and water enters in behind the siding. This infiltrated water is absorbed by the wood siding, causing it to expand, crack, buckle, decay or force the paint to debond from the substrate (peeling or blisters). This is why wood-sided buildings need more TLC and a more intensive maintenance program to continue performing well over time. Therefore, the appropriate time when a building needs to be repainted is strictly driven by the material substrate, the preliminary surface preparation, a quality detailed caulking job and the building’s exposure to the elements rather than a standard length of time.

Responsible Roofing Maintenance
When checking out your roof system, remember that the roof’s waterproofing integrity is a function of the condition of the roof membrane and the essential integration of metal flashings at transitions. As a system, when these parts are correctly melded together, your roof system will function in a superior way, keeping you dry and protecting the other building envelope components. Environmental exposure, age and lack of periodic maintenance all lead to different rates of roof system deterioration. Roofs, as a horizontal surface, are meant to stop water from entering the building and direct it to specific drainage points. Always make sure the path of flow and exit points are unobstructed (by leaf litter, tennis balls, new skylights, etc.). Pooling water tends to accelerate roof material deterioration (check for telltale evaporation ring stains). Blisters, caused by expanding water vapor, are generally signs that water has gotten between roofing layers. When coupled with surface cracks, alligatoring of the surface asphalt, bare patches (increasing exposure to UV’s deteriorating rays), cracks between the metal flashings and the roof material or ceiling stains in top-floor rooms, call a good roofer. Roofs don’t last forever, but periodic maintenance and tune-ups definitely extends a roof’s service life.

Sleuthing puts a spin on performing routine generalized maintenance by making it fun to unravel the intricacies of how to achieve sustainable, long-term performance from all your building envelope components. The reward of a “job well done” is less crisis maintenance, with its associated high costs of unexpected and unplanned repairs, and more a controlled flow of maintenance dollars. Superior sleuthing keeps the money in your pocket until you are ready to spend it. Get your sleuthing tools together and “spring” into your first maintenance inspection of this year. Good luck!

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the SFAA or the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. Steve Saarman is with Saarman Construction, Ltd. Copyright � 2006 by the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.