One of those stupid house things that causes me a lot of anxiety when I don’t know who to call! Our house was built in 2007, and apparently when they ran the PVC pipe venting the furnace out the side of the house they cut it slightly short and didn’t glue whatever the outer plate is called. So condensation and hot air have been slowly dripping behind the siding, to the point that it started to swell and then freeze and push the siding further out (and made the gap for water to drip out) much bigger.
It’s almost impossible to find people to do small jobs here, I got lucky and in January managed to find a plumber who out and did a quick fix on the pipe so it would vent properly. I finally found a contractor to come out and look at it Tuesday because you could tell the OSB was rotting (it was falling out below the siding) - and here’s what it looks like. So far it seems like it will just be a patch job (but they are still working on it). Very lucky that we live in such a dry environment.



Red arrow points at the gap


The plumber’s fix:


What is looks like today. This is crawlspace level - they are going to frame it out to look like the other vents on the side of the house - I can easily paint it and camouflage it with paint, a plant, or a piece of yard art. I’m just glad it isn’t as bad as I imagined it would be when I was laying awake at night. (I still have ptsd from the fridge leak destroying the floor!)

Ugh! Could have been so much worse. (Icicles in that first pic; is that your current temp or an old picture?)

I could still be easily triggered by:

1) sound of water overflowing a gutter and slapping on the windowsill below

2) Sudden heavy rainstorm, which meant that the cover on the driveway drywell/storm drain would be overcome, making a giant puddle that lapped up against the house and ran into the basement laundry room. I used to run out and prop up the cover so water could drain faster, but couldn’t leave it up because debris would go into the pipe.

We’ve fixed both of those issues, but water gives me the willies!

First picture is the old picture from January. I had just kicked a massive icicle out of the way that when from the bottom of the siding and had frozen to the ground.

That damage doesn’t look too bad. Glad you caught it when you did!

This is what it looks like now. I think I’m going to paint everything including that trim the color of the house so it blends in more. It does match the crawl space vents the way it is now, but I think I will like it better the color of the house. (We still have the paint from when we painted two years ago)

Wow, very lucky that you caught this and were able to get it fixed!

RE finding people to do small jobs, yep, I think that's a challenge all over the place, isn't it!

i feel you on not being able to get help. it's even worse when you don't live in town.

our house has a long pvc pipe coming out through the foundation for the furnace exhaust. in the winter it's one long icicle dropping down into an iceberg on the lawn. I kick the ice loose every so often. But at least it isn't behind the siding. That's pretty inexcusable.

Glad you caught it before it got any worse.

I've lived in our current town ten years now. Sometimes I feel like I'm only barely getting a grip on who to call for various issues. We have found a good roofer, a good well guy, a good plumber, a good electrician. We only found someone to put up gutters because the roofer referred us. I know people who have been trying to find someone to put gutters on their house for 20 years!

I still can't find a trustworthy handyman, remodeler, or garden help. Oh, but the chimney sweep is great and quite the character. Name is Rudolf. He's a musician and we have great conversations. But only need to see him every few years.

One of the reasons I wanted to move back to west of the Divide--no resources here, much better resources there. I'm resigned, at this point, to having narrower options.

I know you love your current home... wondering if you still think it's better to buy a newer house? Or do they all have problems?

That’s a nice repair!

The fact you can buy a patch panel like that tells me you’re not the first person to have this problem.

I'm surprised by that installation. In this area, the pipes are typically extended beyond the face of the outside wall, the exhaust is terminated in an elbow turning down, and the air inlet is turned up and terminated in a u-bend to exclude rain entry.

Is your inlet/exhaust very close to the ground? I thought it might be from seeing the crawl space vent near it. How do you prevent snow from burying the inlet/exhaust in the winter? What prevents recirculation of exhast into the combustion air?

Big Al

So that little face plate has louvers that angle up and covers exhaust pipe on the left, so the warn air heads up. The pipe on the right sits farther back with a gap behind the right side of that plate and sucks air from below. That is a south facing wall, and we get a lot of sun here, amd the the snow generally does not build up on that side (but I always check) I did have a choice - the plumber brought tubes that went up and down, but I didn’t like the way they looked compared to the plate. this is the same kind of face plate we had before but now it sticks farther away from the side of the house (which is probably better anyway - any condensation will just drip on the ground instead of hitting the wall).

Perri, the last few houses we’ve lived in have been fairly new, and I do like living in something that doesn’t feel like it needs “updating”, and something that has good windows and insulation. this one was built in 2007, we replaced the roof last year because the shingles were faulty. and had to paint it the year before. So I feel like they all can have issues. But I do like the newer move in ready houses.

It looks great!

Yes, water damage can be so destructive.