Category Archives: Uncategorized

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Leaky Windows Plague a Recently Built Home – Our Thermal Camera Reveals Interesting Results

We recently acquired a FLIR Thermal Camera/Moisture meter for our toolbox, and it didn’t take long to put it to work. A client suffered from water leaks in 3 sets of casement windows and at a sliding door on his 1 1/2 year old home during the storms in January.

Our FLIR Thermal Camera in action. Cooler temps show up as blue, warmer temps show up as white/grey. There is either no insulation in the wall or it is wet.

We took this unfortunate problem as an opportunity to use our Thermal Camera to “see” what the problems might be. It appears, pending further testing, that the window areas and walls where the 6 leaky windows were reported, have moisture in the walls. To confirm the results, we took the image below of a window/wall without any reported leakage.

Thermal image shows white/grey walls which in thermal language is a warmer temp, indicating that the wall is dry.

Using a thermal camera can quickly find and pinpoint where leaks may be hiding; and verifying it with destructive testing on the exterior will be the next step.

When it comes to leak detection and investigation, the experts at William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC can help you find the leak, identify the source and write a report for use in getting repairs made by your builder.

Don’t go it alone, the builder wants to spend as little as possible on “go-backs” and repairs, and your home and your family’s health may be at risk-mold, mildew, fungus infestations happen quickly.

Call us today if you are experiencing leaks, moldy odors and bad faith builders who seem to be brushing you off. We have experience investigating leaks and testifying in depositions and acting as expert waterproofing experts.

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We Are Now Offering Building Wellness Exams For HOA’s

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Is your building envelope healthy and thriving? Or is your building envelope suffering from the constant assaults by Mother Nature, wear and tear, neglect and age? Property Condition Assessments are the official name for what we term a Building Wellness Exam. With our Building Wellness Exam, you’ll know how your building envelope’s health is doing. What is a building envelope you might ask? Simply put, a building envelope consists of the various waterproofing and water resistant products that keep your buildings dry and habitable.

Inspections form the basis for proper mainatennce and repairs.
We find the small problems before they become big problems.
Leaking garages can led to major structural issues.
Cost to repair, 3k, cost to replace, 10-12k.
This could be a life safety issue.
Owner Bill Leys has over 20 years of on the job experience!

Roofs, siding, decks etc are all part of a building envelope. Separate items, they must all work together to shed water away and out of a building. If they don’t work together, or if they aren’t maintained, repaired and replaced when necessary, failures can cause massive problems at massive costs to repair.

Our Building Wellness Checkups, based on ASTM E2018-15, Standard Guide for Property Condition Assessments, don’t cost a lot but they can save you a lot of money and trouble by getting your building maintenance issues under control. Learn more at our new web page here and get started today to keep your buildings healthy! Call us or send us a message using our contact form on the left side of the page.

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Why You Need Quality Assurance Observers on Site During Waterproofing & WRB Installations

What is the total cost of having to fix construction defects that you found after the building is completed? When tenants are ready to do their tenant improvements, move in and start paying rent, but can’t because of water leaks, how much does unnecessary delays cost? How much does it cost to put up scaffold around a building, remove the brick facade, redo all the windows flashings and then put it all back together? How much in lost rents did this cost? $250,000? $1,000,000? We don’t know the answer to this question but we can take a wild assed guess…a lot!

This building is in downtown San Luis Obispo, and was ready at the end of November for tenant improvements to begin in the interior-a restaurant on the first floor, Amazon offices on upper floors; and then it rained. That’s when the owner of the new building discovered he had a major problem. Many windows leaked in the storm. So they hired a consultant (not us) who performed spray water testing in conformance with ASTM standards for leak testing.

Of the approximate 60 windows in the building, 45 or so leaked. After destructive testing was done, it was discovered that molded corner flashings that are installed into the rough opening of the window frames had a critical piece cut off by someone, and no one noticed or knew…and then the windows were installed, the facade installed and no one did any water testing or quality assurance construction monitoring during the window/WRB installation. ..if they had, the work could have been halted, the issue rectified and the costs and damages could have been greatly mitigated.

Daily costs for Quality Assurance Construction Monitoring run $1,200 a day. On a job like this building, maybe 30 days of construction monitoring may be necessary, or about $36,000.00. Which sounds like a lot until you go back to the costs of lost rents, building repairs and the headache of months of delays in getting your building back.

Quality Assurance Observations don’t cost, they pay with long term dividends on a properly dried in building. That’s what we do-help make buildings perform better, one building at a time.

Call us today for a discussion on how William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC can help you with quality assurance construction monitoring, where we observe, inspect, document and report to you, the building owner or general contractor, what we have observed, materials used, whether the work was done according to plans, specifications and the drawings.

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Deck Inspections For Real Estate Transactions-Ethics and The Law

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  1. SLO & Santa Barbara Realtors-Do you know William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC inspects wood and waterproof decks for buyers (and sellers)? We are the only company that does deck inspections where our duty and interest is only to the client, we do not bid for repairs! Why is this important? Because it’s the law. Contractors performing inspections for real estate transactions may not bid on work found to be needed. “Free” inspections predicated on doing the repair work is included. B&P Code section 7195 imposes certain duties and constraints, including prohibitions on repairing properties on which an inspection was performed in the last 12 months, accepting kickbacks and payments of referral fees to agents. Beyond that, it’s simply not ethical. We work for your client; that’s it. If your client, after getting our inspection, wishes to verify that the repairs to the deck or buildings weather resistant barriers are being installed correctly, they have the option of retaining us to perform quality assurance visits to observe and record a contractors repair procedures, materials used and following the plans and manufacturer’s specifications. Learn more about our services here in our website.
Careful checking if the integrity of the woods found this problem at a post connection.
Deck Inspections, Uncategorized

Finally, Architects, Builders and Owners Have Local Waterproofing Consulting, Deck Inspections & Construction Monitoring Services in San Luis Obispo CA

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I’m happy to say we are opening our doors to San Luis Obispo area clients who are in need of building envelope consulting services. Leaking buildings cost millions annually in repairs and construction defects suits are costly and time consuming. Monitoring and documenting the waterproofing work can minimize exposure to risk.

Let me help you in your building envelope waterproofing needs. I have experience installing waterproofing systems and construction monitoring of waterproofing systems being installed, investigations of leaks in existing buildings and deck inspections for buyers of real properties. 

I’ve worked on some of the largest waterproofing projects in California that required construction monitoring services, including Alphabet Inc’s project in Mountain View, Stanford Hospital, Louise Packard Childrens Hospital, 1680 Broadway in Oakland and many more during my tenure with Allana Buick & Bers in Palo Alto.

I look forward to hearing from you and explore how I can help you on your project!

STANFORD HOSPITAL MONITORING THE WATERPROOFING OVER OPERATING ROOMS