LEAKY BUILDINGS AND DECAYING WOOD – WHATS HAPPENING?
The news across North America seems to frequently contain stories about serious moisture failures in wood-frame buildings. Whether it’s Vancouver’s “leaky condo crisis” or the “EIFS disaster” in North Carolina, homeowners are struggling with wood decay wherever the other components of the building’s walls and roof aren’t properly protecting the wood structure from excessive moisture. Interestingly, leaks are also getting attention in steel and concrete high-rises, causing rust in steel studs and fasteners and degradation of gypsum wallboard. Why are we suddenly finding so many failures in buildings, including in our tried-and-true wood construction? This is a frustrating problem for everyone in the building industry, because there are no easy answers. It’s convenient to blame unskilled or unethical practitioners in the building industry. Other occasional targets for blame include municipalities for developing zoning ordinances that conflict with performance issues; energy efficiency co
