Leaking wall problem - help!

[ArtM]

We had a new roof put on the house a few months ago which included new roof boards and shingles on the back porch. This porch is attached to the kitchen with a door leading from the kitchen to the porch.

Before the back porch roof was done, the rain leaked in between the bricks and the metal flashing against the house at the top of the roof, down onto the door sill from the kitchen to the porch and onto the porch itself.

The new roof and flashing solved the problem - on the outside anyway but now the rain is coming down the inside! The curtain on the window in the door was soaking wet last night during a heavy rainfall. There were also drops of water hanging from the underside of the trim across the top of the door on the inside of the house.

The big question is where is it coming in!! I took off the top piece of door frame trim, the piece that runs across the top of the door, dug away at the plaster beneath and could see a trickle of water coming down between the wood lathes and the brick but the plaster is wet all across the top width of the door.

The house walls are made of two rows of brick, a rough inside course and a good outside one right up against each other. So even if enough mortar was missing between the bricks on the outside course in places, it would still have to leak through the inside course to get in behind the drywall, which sounds next to impossible.

Could the roofers have fired in a nail to attach the new flashing, long enough to penetrate two courses of brick? I could tear down the inside wall to the point where the water is entering the inside of the house but surely caulking it wouldn't solve the problem.

Any ideas?

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I don't think this problem can be solved at long distance. I suggest either a really competent builder or a forensic architect or forensic engineer. T

[Norminn]

Do you have an attic so you can inspect inside of the roof? I learned from helping a friend locate a leak that a roof leak can make water enter the living space quite far from the actual leak. Our friend had one area of damage on the roof - in the attic we could see the water dripping and running down a rafter and it came out around the light fixture in a bedroom.

With water entering inside and outside of a brick wall, it kind of suggests that water could be coming down a rafter to that location - is there chimney or flashing straight up the roof from that spot? You need to get your roofer out pronto, and for safety's sake write a nice letter, certified mail, to the roofing company describing your problem. I'm a firm believer in informed homeowners, good relations with contractors and documenting problems.

If the ceiling around the area where the water is entering is dry, it would seem to bear out that the leak follows a rafter or straight down that wall - if not, then you might have an attic full of wet insulation and a ceiling ready to cave in.

[terry]

Agree: Get up in that attic quick and start checking!!!!!!!!!

[Slightly Graying Wolf]

Call the roofers back!

[Don Young]

Be aware that bricks and mortar are not necessarily water tight. Water will sometimes soak through them and some hidden walls are carelessly built with gaps in them. Masonry walls generally should have waterproof membranes, flashing, and weep holes to control any rain or condensation that gets behind the masonry.

Don Young

Don Young

[ArtM]

Not the roof this time unless somehow it's the porch roof because this house has

2.5 storeys. There's a bedroom, with completely dry walls above the kitchen where the leak is, and a finished attic with 2' knee walls, completely dry, above that.

We've had wet walls before when one of the skylights leaked so are familiar with that problem.

Did call the roofers though and they're expected today. Thanks for all the advice.