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Concerned about moisture....

Hi, I'm not sure if I'm posting this on the right board, so apologies if this should be elsewhere.

I recently removed an old door and window from a bedroom (which used to be a laundry) and replaced it with a massive window and a brick veneer wall. BUT now that I've almost finished I've realised that I may encounter a problem down the line with moisture. So I'm not sure if I was supposed to put anything between the wood and concrete or between the bricks and concrete.

Have I made a big mistake? If so can this be fixed? Any advice is much appreciated 🙂

Abby 🙂

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Jason

Welcome to Workshop @Abby. We're pleased you could join us and hope you get a lot of useful information and inspiration for your projects from fellow Workshop members. Feel free to post anytime you need help or have something to share.

In regards to this question, can I ask where your concern about moisture stems from? I'm sure that there will be community members such as @BIM_Engineer who will be happy to lend assistance.

Thanks,

Jason

Abby

Hi Jason

Thank you for welcoming me, I look forward to learning new things and being inspired by other members, the reason I'm concerned about moisture:
another room I have in the house was built as an extension to the main house over 50 years ago, I'm guessing due to their lack of knowledge back then it was built poorly and therefore this lead to moisture building up in the room and wooden floors absorbing all of it. So mould etc built up and I had to rip out all the wood including the joists and redo the whole thing. So I'm worried that the small wooden frame I've built in this room will eventually absorb moisture and begin to rot away too. So I thought before I start sanding and painting I should double check, better late then never I guess.

Abby

Brad

The old laundry door and window is a carbon copy of my place, at mine there is 2 steps up to the door so the foundation is fairly high up that side of the house so by 1955 standards that is the damp proofing.

I need to fix the frame of mine and put a new door on that manages to not be a standard size.

MartyH

Have you ever had a plumber check out your drainage under the house @Abby? Might be a good investment.

Abby

Yeh, the only reason the water managed to get under the house was through the broken concrete. There were patches where chunks of concrete were missing along the side of the house very close to the wall over time the ground there began to sink and more water accumulated into it. But that's all fixed now. Thanks for the advice 🙂

BIM_Engineer

@Abby Thanks for the photos

Also there is no Structure as such to this website (no engineering pun intended)

the experts generally get tagged in.. it's something that takes getting use to I guess?

There should be a Damp Proof Membrane (DPM), weep holes in the brickwork and waterproof flashing fixed around the window & on the timber frame inside the cavity?
It appears the new window opening hasn't been properly flashed this can become a major problem on the weather side, you might want to consider an awning over the window to keep the water from ingressing the window/brick edge..if that helps

Abby

Hi and thank you so much for helping out.

There's definitely flashing around the window, and yes I fixed it in properly but it's hiding behind the aluminium frames I added around the window frame as the gap was ugly and you could see the lental at the top. I'll see if I can find a photo to show you what I mean. regarding that smalltimber frame, this is where I'm worried as I forgot to use some damp proofing material. Re weep holes, are they necessary if the brick work is less than 1m wide? Hmmmmm So is there a way I can fix this?

thank you

Abby 🙂

Jason

@BIM_Engineer

We will be improving the structure of the site in the coming weeks as part of our redesign. Watch this space.

Jason

BIM_Engineer

@Abby I've put up a generic detail for a brick veneer wall flashings that I use
You may not have all of them listed but let me know so hopefully we can work a solution for you. I highly recommend weep holes beneath windows..tho they can be drilled in later

Engineering_Details_BV Wall Flashing.jpg
@JasonI noticed changes to the bunnings site...nice 😀
Cheers

Abby

Thanks for the diagram it makes it so much easier to understand, so the brick wall I built to close up the door gap does not have 'slab edge flashing' nor weep holes, but the walls on either side do have flashing and weep holes. My window has flashing all the way around.

BIM_Engineer

Hi @Abby

you are welcome, The Diagram is old technology but never the less still useful on forums

You will need to take specific photos of the water ingress point in front/Outside of the window and at the back/Inside and post up the photos.
If you have finished the wall then I will need to recommend alternate solutions.
OT The Static Image is a jpeg which has limited use in conveying what you see behind the wall, for that you will require a gif (rotating animation) or a viewer/app ie mobile phone/ipad etc
If you require more sophisticated 3D tools for viewing (ie Rotating, Zooming,etc) the correct construction/engineered/code compliant details before actually doing the job
Your important "DIY repair" or "how to" post is likely to get lost in amongst vegitation hopefully @Jason will be fixing that in the site upgrade.

Cheers

Jason

Hi @Abby,

Just checking in to see how this project is going. Please let us know if you need further help.

Jason

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