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During our kitchen renovation, we found some wood rot in our house which affected a portion of the rim joist, subfloor, and 2x4s in this corner shown in the photo. We replaced the wood rot and added a house wrap to this section, since this house was built in 1987 and unfortunately did not have a WRB.

I originally suspected that the previous owner didn't keep the gutters clean and the overflow was just over saturating the brick and wicking onto the unprotected wood. However, when I was collapsing my patio umbrella during a moderate rainfall, I noticed that the water was being directed and terminated to the corners (illustrated in the photo). This explains the over saturation in the corners.

Upon this discovery, I walked around the house and noticed that this was the same for all corners of the house, the water was being directed and terminated at the corners, causing an over saturation at the corners of the brick.

I looked online and found that this shouldn't be the case, and the likely culprit is a j-channel at the bottom of the siding (haven't confirmed this yet). The recommendation was to drill weep holes every 12 inches or so. I wanted to get an opinion from the community before I do something stupid. I am concerned that the same issue in this corner with wood rot will happen to other corners, luckily the basement rim joists in those corners don't show wood rot, but I would like to add some insurance.

Please advise, thanks.

nbatalla
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  • J-channel should've extended past the house as a drip edge. Ugly but effective. Answer below used flashing behind the siding, but then the drip edge on the fascia had better work. – Mazura Aug 12 '23 at 17:19

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This is an opinion based on fact.

The siding appears to terminate inward of a trim board as marked in yellow.

Because of this any water, directed or not, toward the corner has the ability to seep back to the building and possibly find a way beyond any barrier.

Even if you drill holes in the "J" channel the water may not spill over the trim board, but weep back.

I had encountered the same issue on a condo I owned. The building siding ended inward of a trim board. A few units had water infiltration from rain seeping back into sheathing. That eventually got moisture to the interior walls.

The correction that was performed was to cut the trim at the upper/ outer edge at a 33deg angle and add flashing behind the siding. This made any water run out and over the trim, rather than behind the siding . Outside corner flashing was custom made onsite. This corrected the problem at least for the 10 years after that I owned the unit.

RMDman
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  • Thanks for your input.

    I'm curious what your opinion is on a stop gap solution I have after reading your comment.

    I plan on replacing the siding sometime in the future, so I was thinking of using a high quality elastomeric caulk/sealant in-between the gap from the bottom course of siding and the trim board. The idea is to create a continuous flow over the trim board.

    I understand this isn't a good long term solution, but I was wondering if this stop gap solution would cause more harm than good?

     – nbatalla Jul 13 '23 at 18:14
  • I would prefer the flashing, but still do any necessary caulking with a polyester caulk. If faced with a situation where I need to do something in an effort to mitigate damage until a permanent solution was enacted, then ...yes I would try to caulk the bottom of the siding . May be put some caulk in the J-channel near the corner as a dam to prevent water from running out of the end and into the corner. As a disclaimer this is a "stop gap" measure and not a solution. – RMDman Jul 13 '23 at 18:20