Water Woes :(

Today's post has NOTHING to do with quilting. My apologies for that. We are feeling a bit at our wits ends! When we purchased this place, we knew that there was work that needed to be done, but we absolutely loved the location!!!

Our first big jobs were getting the garage roof done, and replacing the windows and doors on the house. We also needed to replace the rough pine on the house because it hadn't been maintained, and the woodpeckers in the area were going at it to get bugs that were in it. While we were replacing the siding, we also decided to add extra insulation in the form of a layer of rigid styrofoam.

We then looked after adding a furnace (to eliminate as much baseboard heating as possible) and a stand-by generator, as well as a number of smaller-expense jobs. 

We didn't move in permanently until 2017, and that's when our water woes began...but only in the winter time (and, because it wasn't obvious, we didn't clue into it until winter of 2019). We're guessing it wasn't a problem prior to this because there wasn't heat in the house 100% of the time during the winter. Our first evidence that water was getting in was the exterior wall going up to the second floor. There were water marks on the tongue-and-groove pine boards.

So...in the Spring of 2019, we had the roof replaced...at great expense. Since the water had saturated a good deal of the insulation (which, since we do not have an attic with the design of this roof, we could not get at without taking down all the tongue-and-groove ceiling boards .... which are vaulted, by the way), we asked them to insulate from the roof-side and replace the chip board with plywood. We also had them put ice shield up the whole slop of the roof, instead of just the first 3-4 feet up. And with that, we thought the problem should be solved. Not so!

Our next attempt at solving the problem was to have the eavestroughs replaced. That still didn't solve the issue. So...this year, SW thought that putting heating cables on the roof might stop the ice jams, which should stop the leaking. That required us to remove one run of tongue-and-groove pine next to the large window on the landing of the stairs so that a wire could be run up from the basement and out under the eave to allow an outlet to be place in which to plug in the heating cables. That didn't happen without some damage to the t&g :(

These heating cables are to be turned on between the temperatures of -9 to 2 degrees Celsius. We dutifully monitored temperatures, and turned on and off the cables as per the directions. Guess what!!! Not only did the cables not solve the problem of water coming in, it seemed to make the issue worse. 

And that stain is actually glistening with wetness :(

As a result of this, SW has been going back up onto the roof to shovel off snow and break up ice dams.....a practice which has me gravely concerned. He's been up there at least 4 times since the New Year. Every time he goes up, I worry about his safety. It's a LONG way up...and down!

I'm beginning to wish I had a direct line to Mike Holmes so that he could advise us as to how the water is getting in...so we can best place our funds against a solution that will actually work.

And on that note, I wish you all a very good...and dry....night!

TTFN