Who's at fault here? LEAK! Need some help/advice

[Billbill84]

Hello all, so we bought this house in January of this year, (house built in 2001) and today I discovered that my kitchen sliding door is leaking water from somewhere on it. Look at the pics below.
It looks like its leaked in the past and there's even some kind of putty or filler someone used as a "fix". I didn't notice this pre-exsisting issue and neither did my inspector!! He didn't even make any note of the discoloration of the wood at the base of the door. I did notice the hardwood was discolored a bit in a small area, first couple boards at the foot of the door's entrance. I figured it was just a combo of faded wood as in most areas in this house that were exposed to sunlight over the years, and people walking in with wet shoes or whatever. Anyway, so I'm not sure of how long this has been going on or the true extent of the water damage. You can see in one of the pics I pulled the floor register and the paper below the wood is saturated pretty good. Who knows how wet the subfloor is!!!! I caulked the hell out of the door, inside and out, and don't see anything leaking from above. Roof is only few years old and there's an overhang. This water did enter during high wind rain today if that matters.
Anyway I'm pretty angry about this and was wondering how I should go about handling it?! I read the inspector's report again today and of course it states that there's no guarantees or warranties and all that mess, but I was told that they did back their reports with a warranty while I was shipping for inspectors!!! The old owners never mentioned a thing either!!! See these pics. How would you handle this matter???

 

[oldognewtrick]

If you could provide some pics from farther back of the ceiling and also outside pics, that would help.

 

[joecaption]

If was not raining and leaking at the time the inspector was there how would he know if it leaked or not?
There's been at least 1000's of post on this one issue on this and any DIY with this same issue.
99.9% of the time it's one or both of these, door was not flashed or sat in a sill pan when installed, or someone built a deck, stoop, steps, or patio even with the threshold which is a 100% sure way to have issues if there's no roof overhead.
Really need some outside pictures, no close ups needed.

 

[nealtw]

There was likely a door mat there when you and your inspector looked at the house..
This is a nasty surprize but it will need to re move the door, make some repairs do a new modern install of the door.
Today we accept that all windows and doors will have condensation and sooner or later will leak so we give the water a place to collect and drain out with out getting to the inside of the house.
The money spent chasing a bad inspector would be better spent on the house.

 

[joecaption]

http://jamsill.com/

 

[Billbill84]

If was not raining and leaking at the time the inspector was there how would he know if it leaked or not?
There's been at least 1000's of post on this one issue on this and any DIY with this same issue.
99.9% of the time it's one or both of these, door was not flashed or sat in a sill pan when installed, or someone built a deck, stoop, steps, or patio even with the threshold which is a 100% sure way to have issues if there's no roof overhead.
Really need some outside pictures, no close ups needed.

Ok will do! I'll get some more asap!

 

[Billbill84]

There was likely a door mat there when you and your inspector looked at the house..
This is a nasty surprize but it will need to re move the door, make some repairs do a new modern install of the door.
Today we accept that all windows and doors will have condensation and sooner or later will leak so we give the water a place to collect and drain out with out getting to the inside of the house.
The money spent chasing a bad inspector would be better spent on the house.

I'll get more pics up

 

[Billbill84]

Here's more pics

 

[Billbill84]

And even some more

 

[nealtw]

Newer code would have this deck 6" lower and with a covered deck 2 inches lower than the subfloor inside.
Even if you fix every thing inside the deck will make this an ongoing problem . The very least would be to raise the door 1 1/2" and properly install it
The next question is flashing behind the siding and house wrap above the ledger for the deck.

 

[nealtw]

Some one changed this door and attempted a door sill pan but did not repair rot, there is no flashing, so the rot could be the width of the deck

 

[Billbill84]

Oh man! Ok so based on the info provided here, before I call a contractor to repair all this mess, what would be a good plan of attack for investigating this to get an idea of the extent of the damages while we can now possibly theorize that the water is seeping in from underneath the door like in the pic that was provided. I'm thinking maybe pulling the trim from inside around the door which will have to come out anyway, right? And also pulling first couple deck boards out to see if I have rot on the deck plate??

 

[slownsteady]

First thing I would do is cut back or remove that carpet from the deck. it will wick water right up to the door and the moisture will be there after the rain stops. And yes, a little exploratory surgery is in order. The trim is a good place too start. If you can get under the deck, you may be able to look for rot without removing the deck boards.
Welcome to home ownership...this kind of thing is not unusual.

 

[slownsteady]

Also looks like missing caulk under the door sill.....

 

[pjones]

Did the previous owners fill out a disclosure form? This seems pretty hard not to know about and should have been disclosed before you purchased the house. I would talk to your realtor that helped you buy this house and ask them to help you resolve this.

 

[Billbill84]

First thing I would do is cut back or remove that carpet from the deck. it will wick water right up to the door and the moisture will be there after the rain stops. And yes, a little exploratory surgery is in order. The trim is a good place too start. If you can get under the deck, you may be able to look for rot without removing the deck boards.
Welcome to home ownership...this kind of thing is not unusual.

Ok thank you for helping. I will have to army crawl up under the deck (apx 2ft high) and see if I can see any rot.

 

[Billbill84]

Did the previous owners fill out a disclosure form? This seems pretty hard not to know about and should have been disclosed before you purchased the house. I would talk to your realtor that helped you buy this house and ask them to help you resolve this.

Yep! The disclosure asks about any moisture or water problems in any areas and they checked "no" when clearly I can see patch work on the bottom of the door! Think I'm going to call them personally, not demanding anything, just expressing how a simple notification of pre-existing issues could have saved me hundreds if not thousands of dollars for needed repairs.

 

[pjones]

It’s best to have it in writing and I would suggest going through your realtor, or at least CC them in the email. You don’t know how deep the damage runs until you dig into it and if it gets ugly then you will want the conversations documented and time stamped.

Performing an incorrect patch job does not mean the issue was resolved, and if they are fixing something incorrectly then they are doing it wrong because to do it right costs more money. But doing it wrong is knowingly hiding the problem rather than repairing the problem.

 

[Billbill84]

It’s best to have it in writing and I would suggest going through your realtor, or at least CC them in the email. You don’t know how deep the damage runs until you dig into it and if it gets ugly then you will want the conversations documented and time stamped.

Performing an incorrect patch job does not mean the issue was resolved, and if they are fixing something incorrectly then they are doing it wrong because to do it right costs more money. But doing it wrong is knowingly hiding the problem rather than repairing the problem.

That makes sense. Thank you for the help. I think that's what I'll do.

 

[nealtw]

Ok thank you for helping. I will have to army crawl up under the deck (apx 2ft high) and see if I can see any rot.

2 ft might be a good thing , may have to unbolt it and pull it back from the house to work on the wall.
Is the wall below the deck a wood wall with siding or concrete, Is the basement finished wall and ceiling?