A client came to us with a leak above their communal stairwell. (Green ‘x’ in the image).
A previous contractor had attempted a liquid repair on the flat roof immediately above the leak which in fairness was the most obvious thing to do but, did not work.
At first glance, nothing appeared to be wrong.
On closer inspection – the inside face of the render was saturated.
‘Mortar gets wet all the time?’
‘There is a flashing present?’
‘It’s located too far away from the point of ingress’
A quick tap test revealed that the flashing was not ‘tucked’ in the wall but simply rendered over. As soon as the wall became wet in heavy rain, the flashing was redundant – water was cascading down the nearest rafter ‘behind’ the slates.
1. We knocked away all defective render.
2. Installed a flashing tucked into the brickwork with a welded gusset to the internal corner.
3. Re-rendered the wall
4. Capped the the sky facing surface with welted copper drip edge
