Tracing water ingress.

[John Brown]

Having some problems with water ingress at the bottom of our front door, took it off and rerouted the drip groove in the weather bar, but still leaking. Does anyone have any handy tips for how to trace the path of ingress? Is there any paint or similar that changes colour? I usually use a bit of paper towel to check for plumbing leaks, but don't think that'll work here.

 

[porker]

I've used talc sprinkled thinly to trace water getting into my car before. I guess it also depends whether the ingress route is hidden out of sight

 

[Old.bodger]

Careful use of drain tracing dye?

 

[eribaMotters]

Is it water ingress or could it be condensation?

Colin

 

[John Brown]

It's definitely rainwater.

 

[Ollie78]

Compressed air, maybe.
You could get an airline and aim it at all the possible places water could go, have someone inside to see if they can feel the air at any point. If water can go through air should too.

Ollie

 

[Jacob]

It's definitely rainwater.

Wait til its raining and see what happens?
Could be water not draining away being more of a prob than the water getting on?

 

[cowtown_eric]

Worth assessing. Does the leakage relate to heavy rains?

I have had over the years two clients whom related leakage around windows inside the house . The cause was traced back to lack of drip edges on the roof, so in heavy rains, the gutters overflowed, , got beind the facia aluminum and that was compounded by the soffit being sloped back towards the house, so the overfloww would flow down the soffit to the wall(which with simple application of a level showed it was sloped towards house!), and underneath sheeting/siding until it hit the widow sash, where some of it just got diverted into the wall and into the interior

1st client was a bit of a dung show, as they had just had seperate contracors redoing roof, another did insulating siding, and another sub installing gutters. Never did find out the outcome, but I id'd the cause. Everybody pointing fingers at each other

Client#2 got all new windows/.....30k$+, when all they had to do was get drip edge installed (and have their gutters cleaned!)

And in Calgary area I've seen many stuccoed houses installed without drip caps over the window/door openings. In that case, water sheeting down the sid eof the wall hits the door jamb/window trip,and a bunch of it goes inside.

Sometimes there's a simple cause! All of those causes are easily checked as well!

 

[HamsterJam]

We had water coming in under the front door in a previous property.
Eventually traced it to poor seal between door and weather bar.

 

[John Brown]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think it's getting in by capillary action or the Coanda effect or a combination of the two, so airlines or simple observation not much help. Also, the door closed/door open state changes things. That's why I was hoping for some suggestions involving commonly available household products to track the path. I'm not familiar with drain tracing dye, but it seems to need UV light to show up.

 

[TheUnicorn]

may or may not be useful but I gather one way of checking for gaps is with a disco smoke machine or smoke pellets, obvious it not a total answer as smoke isn't water, and doesn't get effected by gravity in the same way, but it may give you more information to help the diagnosis

 

[mindthatwhatouch]

What type of door and frame?

 

[John Brown]

Oak.

 

[Ollie78]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think it's getting in by capillary action or the Coanda effect or a combination of the two, so airlines or simple observation not much help. Also, the door closed/door open state changes things. That's why I was hoping for some suggestions involving commonly available household products to track the path. I'm not familiar with drain tracing dye, but it seems to need UV light to show up.

The only time I have seen trace dye used it was flourescent orange.
Not sure it would work that well if through capillary action upwards. You said you took the door off and re did the drip groove. Do you mean the one on the door face ? Rather than the one in the cill. Only because I have fixed the issue before by changing a metal bar in the threshold with a plastic one with a nice flexible seal, wind was blowing it past the old bar, the new one seals better so no more water.

Ollie

 

[John Brown]

You said you took the door off and re did the drip groove. Do you mean the one on the door face ?

The one on the weather bar. This is a custom-made (not by me!) solid oak door, with a triangular cross-section oak weather bar almost at the bottom.

 

[Ollie78]

The one on the weather bar. This is a custom-made (not by me!) solid oak door, with a triangular cross-section oak weather bar almost at the bottom.

Ok, does the door have some kind of aquamac or similar around the perimeter.
Water could be getting in higher up past the seal and migrating down.
I often add an "extra" bit of aquamac on the bottom of the door on the inside of the "water bar" just as a belt and braces approach as well.

Ollie

 

[John Brown]

Ok, does the door have some kind of aquamac or similar around the perimeter.
Water could be getting in higher up past the seal and migrating down.
I often add an "extra" bit of aquamac on the bottom of the door on the inside of the "water bar" just as a belt and braces approach as well.

Ollie

Could be indeed!

 

[Tris]

A garden pump sprayer to squirt water around the suspect areas. Done on a dry day and do a bit at a time starting at the bottom. Blue food dye added to the water will show up on a paper towel and washes off. If nothing shows up then repeat using an air line to mimic effect of wind.
Had a similar problem in the past and it turned out to be a break in the seal under the cill, water was bouncing off the step below and blowing in. Hope you can get it sorted as I know how annoying these leaks can be to trace

 

[John Brown]

A garden pump sprayer to squirt water around the suspect areas. Done on a dry day and do a bit at a time starting at the bottom. Blue food dye added to the water will show up on a paper towel and washes off. If nothing shows up then repeat using an air line to mimic effect of wind.
Had a similar problem in the past and it turned out to be a break in the seal under the cill, water was bouncing off the step below and blowing in. Hope you can get it sorted as I know how annoying these leaks can be to trace

Thanks. They are annoying, especially when you have wood flooring in the hallway!
I'll check this out further when it gets a bit warmer, not sure frozen water will tell me much.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

 

[John Brown]

Back on this after being away...
Looks like it could be the seal that sticks up out if the wooden threshold. It appears to be metal, with a flexible plastic sheathing. I believe the outside face if the door seals against it, and possibly the underside 9f the weather bar seals against the top edge of the strip also. The projecting part of the strip is around 12mm high and 10mm thick, and it's seated in a slot in the oak threshold. I took a couple of pics, but not sure that they'll help.