Windows Doors, Roofs or Decks | Santa Clarita Water Intrusion Testing

Santa Clarita, located in Southern California has a reputation for tons of sunshine but not for tons of rain. I’m sure you may not give much thought to water leaks in your Santa Clarita home right? Contrary to what may think, many homes leak. Given that almost all of the annual rain falls within a few month period stretching from early January until early March.

These are perfect conditions for a poorly installed door, window, deck or roof to cause a lot of water damage inside your SCV home. With median home values in the area hovering around $500,000, the last thing you need is a pricey remodeling job you could have avoided. Think your home has sprung a leak? Santa Clarita based Mazza Testing Co.can help you track it down.

Most Types of Water Intrusion Damage

Water intrusion from a leak won’t automatically collapse your home value the way fire or an earthquake can. It’s sneakier than that. in essence, water will quietly erode your home’s infrastructure where you can’t see it at first. It starts in the walls, rotting wall studs and degrading drywall and even insulation. All of this compromises both the structural integrity not to mention even the efficiency of your HVAC system. That means you could actually start paying for the damage in utility bills before you ever know there’s a real problem.

Moreover, once the damage has really started taking hold, your drywall starts decaying, wood rotting etc… the real damage occurs. And, if that goes on long enough, you’ll end up ripping out a big section of a wall, roof uneven a deck system.

On the other hand, even a small leak will supersaturate the drywall and mar the paint on your walls with water stains. However, there are no quick fixes for even that. First and foremost, you’ll need a whole new coat of blocking primer and fresh coats of paint on the whole wall. Perhaps even an entire room color matched. Not to mention if you get really unlucky, that leak will intersect with your electrical system and cause shorts that can do permanent damage.

Water Intrusion and the Health Risks

While water intrusion does pose a real risk to the integrity of your walls, roof, flooring and electrical system, it also poses health risks for you and your family. Repeated or persistent moisture leaks can cause mold or trigger fungal growths in your walls. Those, in turn, can exacerbate existing respiratory problems like asthma.

This condition can even create respiratory problems in people who have never had them before. On the other hand, should your luck really run out, you can get toxic black mold that has the potential to send people to the hospital after serious exposures.

Water Intrusion Testing Local In Santa Clarita

In order to provide you with high-quality water intrusion testing, Mazza Testing Co. follows the procedure set out in the ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) or AAMA (American Architectural Manufacturers Association).

Depending on the issue, we have a wide verity of standardized testing procedures at our disposal. For example;

• E2128-01a – ASTM Standard Guide for Evaluating Water Leakage of Building Walls
• D5957 – ASTM Standard Guide for Flood Testing Horizontal Waterproofing Installations
• D4262 – ASTM Standard Test Method for Indicating Moisture in Concrete by the Plastic Sheet Method
• F1869 – ASTM Standard Test Measuring for Moisture Vapor Emission Rate of Concrete Subfloor Using Anhydrous Calcium Chloride
• D7053 – ASTM Standard Test Measuring for Determining and Evaluating Causes of Water Leakage of Low-Sloped Roofs
• E1105 – ASTM Standard Test Method for Field Determination of Water Penetration of Installed Exterior Windows, Skylights, Doors, and Curtain Walls, by Uniform or Cyclic Static Air Pressure Difference
• 502-12 – AAMA Field Testing of Newly Installed Fenestration Products
• 511-08 AAMA Forensic Water Penetration Testing of Fenestration Products

The ASTM and AAMA are the premier international organizations for developing voluntary standards that are often adopted as industry or regulatory standards. While the process is quite technical in places, this is the overall process we use:

• Gather building information (plans, component information, service history)
• Study weather timing in relation to leaks
• Visual inspection of the suspected leak source
• Testing with tools including borescopes and moisture sensors
• Infrared thermography (if needed or requested)
• Partial disassembly of wall, window, door, or decking (done only with permission)
• Water path analysis

Once we complete all the steps in the process, we write a final report that reports our findings. Most reports include photographs identifying specific problems we identify.

Water Intrusion Testing for Santa Clarita Homes in Escrow

All things considered, when a home moves into escrow, the following month is the most fraught part of the process for buyers and sellers alike. It’s when the seller must complete any agreed upon repairs or improvements before the sale closes. What if one of the problems in need of a repair is a leak? How do you prove that you fixed a leak in your Santa Clarita home? How can the buyer trust that you fixed it?

Water intrusion testing by an independent tester like Mazza Testing Co. can give everyone some peace of mind. Both parties get copies of the report and see on paper. Any leaking is disclosed in our reporting. On the other hand, if the test reveals no leak, the deal can close with everyone happy.

Window leaks, Door leaks, Deck leaks, Roof leaks in Santa Clarita

Water intrusion from leaks around deck ledgers, doors, roofs or windows can wreak havoc with your walls, ruining everything from studs and insulation to drywall, the paint, and even your home’s electrical system. If it gets too far gone, it can even threaten the health you and your loved ones with mold and fungal growth.

Should the issue persist, black mold might even send you to the hospital. Water intrusion testing by Mazza Testing Co. lets you find the leak source, which lets you deal with it sooner rather than later. Testing can even help you secure a closing if you’re buying or selling a Santa Clarita home.

If you need water intrusion testing done on your home, email Mazza Testing at waterintrusionspecialist@gmail.com or call us at 661-904-1895 or 310-893-9300.