[Greenbuilding] Water Damage and Mold Abatement

[Rob Tom]

On Thu, 05 Apr 2007 mebeddoe at rochester.rr.com wrote:

>  We live in a suburban split-level

> fireplace chimney running up the north exterior wall

> chimney is flanked by two downspouts for our  aging gutters


Martha;

Just curious...

On the roof just behind the chimney, is there a cricket or saddle

(see crappy illustration at
    http://www.hometips.com/articles/homenclature/chimney_cricket.html    )

to prevent ice/snow accumulations and shed water away from behind the  
chimney ?

These items were de rigeur in the Olde Days but far too often are omitted  
on newer construction.

And far too often on newer construction, in place of the cricket, there is  
just a piece of flashing that is bent up and nailed/gooped to the face of  
the chimney and invariably the whole schmozzle ends up failing, causing  
water damage to everything below.

Also, in my neighbourhood, the conductor pipes (aka downspouts) usually  
freeze-up solid into icicles, quite often bursting the seams of the  
conductors as well as allowing  meltwater to accumulate & freeze in the  
eavestroughs. (For this reason, some homeowners disconnect the conductors  
in late fall.)

More often than not, the accumulations will also cause water to back up  
under the shingles, not unlike the effect of ice damming.

And on eavestroughs that are poorly attached, sometimes extra weight of  
the ice & snow accumulations will cause the trough to pull away and fall  
off.

As for mold abatement/remediation, there is good/reliable information for  
homeowners on these subjects at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.  
website.
  www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca


=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
<A r c h i L o g i c   at  c h a f f y a h o o   dot   c a >
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