Inside face of brick frozen/frosted over in new historic brick remodel
Hi everyone!
I am an architect by training. I mostly practice in the LEED/PHIUS world now on the consulting side. I’m looking for some insight on these discovered house issues.
Background:
We bought a home in July 2020, a historic brick home, that was gutted and fully renovated on the interior. We are in climate zone 5. We are under limited warranty until July 2021.典型的墙件组件是：现有的历史砖墙，2×4木螺柱，玻璃纤维巴特，内部面朝上的牛皮纸纸，gyp。Roof was not newly constructed during remodel, rather patched/repaired in various areas as required. All new windows installed, some old openings, some new openings.
从2020年12月开始，我们注意到在几个位置的干墙片上可见润湿/变色，大部分是窗户周围，在平坦的屋顶下方的天花板上1点。我们在滑门的头部滴水，在其下面的地板上汇集。我用IR摄像头彻底地通过了房屋，在窗户开口附近的干墙隔板中发现了许多非常冷点，墙壁/天花板上的一些随机冷点以及在所有角/连接处的典型热桥梁。我们将表面湿度计带到了窗户附近的各个干墙部分，它的读数为50％+。所有可见的湿干墙区域，水分读数为90％+。
We requested from the builder that they address the water infiltration issues and they started by looking at the limestone window sills, some of which were pitched back towards the house. When they came to pull them out and re-pitch them, I saw that there was NO flashing at the window opening, with the limestone sill out, you could see right through to wood studs and fiberglass batt.
在看到窗户开口的处理程度很差之后，我们召集第三方顾问在一些关键部分中在Drywall上切一些孔，以查看内部发生了什么。我们期望一些非常饱和的玻璃纤维瓦特部分（由于窗户几乎没有闪烁），但从内部显然是干燥的。我们没有将孔切开靠近地板，这似乎可以提供更多的见识……。不过，我们发现的是历史悠久的砖墙的内部面孔被冻结/磨砂。将所有被推到砖头上的巴特也弄湿了。顾问在房屋的其他部分将水分探针推开了干墙，令人惊讶的是并没有触发高水平的水分，但是我们认为这可能是由于冷冻截面降低了电导率，而导电率与实际的湿材料相比。我们假设几乎每个室内砖的面孔都在整个房屋上磨砂。在过去的几个月中，我们注意到外部，砖/砂浆在房屋周围的地面上崩溃并积聚。
Too long/Didn’t Read – Major issues observed:
1. Water infiltration visibly showing up at on interior drywall in a handful of places in the house. Those areas now discolored/bubbled/paint chipping away.
2.安装较差的窗户几乎没有闪烁/密封，并且几乎可以在每个开口处渗入空气和水。
2. Lots of moisture trapped between the brick and interior stud wall, that is freezing in cold temperatures, and wetting materials over time practically throughout the entire house
Our main question:
1.您是否期望这堵墙组装发生？对我来说，这似乎是一个严重的问题，因为隔热材料不断润湿。我还担心当事情解冻时会发生什么……从冷冻砖中的水/水分在哪里？
2. Should we be concerned about potential mold growth? We set a few of those petri dishes mold tests on some flat surfaces throughout the house and they grew mold just from airborne contact. No swabbing.
3. What does this mean for the longevity of the brick?
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,
-Scott
GBA Detail Library
由气候和房屋部分组织的一千个建筑细节的集合
答复
Scott,
有很多的文章在GBA也some very good ones on the Building Science Corporation website on how to properly insulate historic masonry buildings. Your builder did just about everything wrong. Yes, this behavior is expected. The installation of insulation on the interior of the brick reduces energy flow through the wall, making the inside face of the brick colder. If it is cold enough outside, the face of the brick will drop below the dewpoint of the interior air. Without at least a continuous Class II vapor retarder on the interior of the wall, damp interior air will reach the cold brick and condense. This is exactly what you are seeing. When it warms up, the ice will melt. Either the meltwater will be soaked up by the brick and eventually dried out to the exterior and/or interior, or if there is excess water, it will pool at the bottom of the wall and soak/rot the wood studs.
You are correct in your concern about the stone sills. There should be a continuous water barrier behind the brick. This is difficult to achieve with an existing brick wall. Even a pan flashing under the sill and integrated with the window would have helped. Your leakage is probably inevitable.
Finally, there are some pretty well done studies showing that, once the wall is insulated and the heat flow reduced, the brick stays wetter in winter and is exposed to more freeze/thaw cycling and damage. The fact that you are already seeing brick/mortar crumbling is not a good thing. In a historic building the mortar should be softer than the brick, and most of the crumbling would be confined to the mortar. If the brick faces are spalling off, then someone might have repointed the wall using cement mortar. That would be another mistake.
Hi Peter, thanks for the reply.
I've been reading through the various articles on how insulating and building the wall assembly like they did was a big no no. Shouldn't the kraft face on the fiberglass batt act as a class II vapor retarder? We all know it won't truly be a continuous barrier though in this application... We also don't have a lot of conditions that help keep water off the walls. No overhangs, bad window details, etc.
I wouldn't put it past the builders to have used cement mortar to band-aid fix the brick. It looks like they applied an additional layer on top of all the mortar joints and its just been peeling/crumbling off these past 6 months+. It isn't just the mortar though, because there is red colored content involved as well. Likely some spalling.
在这一点上，我们正在尝试弄清楚如何处理建设者和这些问题。可以这么说，他们一直在接受，但是他们的行动缓慢，可能会试图在任何主要解决方案上停滞不前，直到保修期开始。他们显然不想娱乐拆除所有干墙和绝缘材料以正确重做组件的想法。我觉得这是唯一真正的修复程序（以及正确安装所有窗口）。
In a perfect world, I'd love to see the following happen:
1. proper maintenance to tuck/re-point the exterior (possible water sealant on exterior if advised)
2. reinstall all windows with flashing a proper sealing
3.重建马丁文章的外墙组件的内侧
嗨，斯科特，
很抱歉得知您的情况。
I think these are some of the articles Peter is referring to:
https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi079-deep-dish-retrofits
https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-047-thick-as-brick
475 High Performance Supply has documented how to do masonry retrofit projects successfully:
https://youtu.be/WM9fywMTrl0
https://foursevenfive.com/masonry-retrofit-construction-photo-gallery/
You can fix it from the outside or the inside, but either way it's going to be expensive.
您是否与一个值得保护的声誉或较小企业主的较大的建筑商合作？
Was there a home inspection completed prior to your purchase? If yes, did they note any water, mold, or brick issues anywhere in the home?
Hi Eric, thanks for the reply and the links.
我认为卡片中没有外部解决方案。正如我提到的那样，我们仍然处于保修期内，因此提出扎实的论点，使建筑商加入这些问题是我们目前最好的道路。
The 475 solution aligns to what I was thinking, but this will require the building to agree to rebuilding the entire interior side of the exterior wall assembly.
我认为这对我来说很明显，我需要很好地记录冻结条件，并提供资源，并显示出征服这种现象时房屋持久性会发生什么。我们需要清楚地表明，这将产生长期影响，可能会影响我们的健康和结构的完整性。
We did have an inspection done, by a reputable source, one who does focus on building performance, however inspections are a snapshot in time. It was performed during the summer during a hot/dry spell. The temperature differential wasn't there to pick up any issues with IR imagery. There were some typical builder shortcomings, but nothing red flag level.