THE SANCTUARY WALL that faces southeast (which we call “the south wall” for convenience) is pretty massive: 139 ft long, and 25 ft high on average.
 |
| With the early morning shadows from our neighbor’s suspended cables (As usual, click/tap on an image in order to enlarge it.) |
Below the jump, this post will document and illustrate this wall’s recent rehabilitation, which the contractor says is now about 90% complete.
Frame wall
Rather than redo the frame wall’s stucco (and tar paper) in its entirety and install a weep screed at the bottom (so moisture from rainfall could get out), the waterproofing contractor recommended the expedient of waterproofing the wall system via a high-quality elastomeric coating, namely DowSil AllGuard. “It's the best product there is, and it's going to be the best product for your job,” he said. It is made from silicone rubber. When AllGuard is applied in consultation with the manufacturer’s rep, it can qualify for a manufacturer’s 10-year warranty on both the material and labor needed for remediation.
The waterproofing work, performed by Absolute Maintenance & Consulting (of Long Beach) started with the sealing of holes, using a black tarry substance.…
 |
| June 20 |
It proceeded with stucco patching. (The pinkish areas are adhesion test strips for the eventual coating.)…
 |
| June 22 |
Next, they smoothed over the patches, and filled in cracks.…
 |
| June 26 |
Then more smoothing (with apologies for my blurry photo)…
 |
| June 27 |
Until the whole wall was ready for the first primer coat, which was white.…
 |
| June 28 |
 |
| July 6 |
And then the color coats.…
 |
| July 13 |
 |
| July 18 |
I’m told that after about 3 months, there will be less of a sheen than at present.
Foundation wall
As the photos above show, the waterproofing contractor removed as much old stucco from the concrete foundation wall as possible, because much of it was already loose due to moisture damage.
This step uncovered 9 spots with exposed rebar in need of patching, due to its having gotten too damp and rusted over the years. Here are a couple of them.…
 |
| June 22 |
 |
| June 22 |
 |
| June 22 |
Additional repair to the concrete portion of the south wall was obviously needed. Fortunately, our concrete contractor, Kaptive Construction, was available to do this work on short notice, while the waterproofing contractor took off for the week of July 4th. That enabled the overall work to continue without missing a beat.
 |
| July 8 |
 |
| July 8 |
When the waterproofing contractor returned, they smoothed over most of the exposed foundation wall, using Xypex, which is a waterproofing compound for concrete. (No photos of that stage itself, but the July 13 color-coat photo above does show the happy result.) Most of it looks like a stucco coating, as before.
Seams
One important seam is between the frame wall and the foundation wall. Happily, the lip at the top of the foundation wall was smoothed and sloped so that when rainwater runs down the wall, it will no longer collect there — from whence it might find its way inside. (Although such measures are less architecturally authentic, they actually reflect the way that the building should have been initially constructed, for the sake of durability.)
Prior to that, the contractor not only caulked along parts of this seam between the frame wall and the foundation wall, but also coated the vertical surface with (white) AllGuard primer, including the seam. According to the Technical Data Sheet for the elastomeric coating, it is capable of being stretched to 600% of its resting state. This property suggests that the wall coating can serve as an effective caulking agent behind the edging.
 |
| July 13 |
The final seam of concern is at the bottom, where the concrete wall meets the asphalt pavement. After the AllGuard coating was applied along there, the contractor applied some cementitious material to direct rainwater away from the wall.
 |
| July 18 (Apologies for my finger holding the camera on the left) |
Again, the elastomeric coating will hopefully suffice to prevent cracking between the foundation wall and the sloped stuff, as both materials expand/contract during daily heating/cooling.
* * *
A future post will discuss the most significant remaining piece on this wall, namely replacing a structural post that was discovered to be seriously termite-damaged. It will explain why the wall’s waterproofing is not yet complete.* * *
BACKGROUND: For your convenience, here are links to previous blog posts on this waterproofing project, in reverse chronological order.
https://mishkonbuildingandgrounds.blogspot.com/2023/01/south-wall-opinion-of-stucco-repair.html
https://mishkonbuildingandgrounds.blogspot.com/2023/01/what-can-we-learn-from-moisture-meter.html
https://mishkonbuildingandgrounds.blogspot.com/2023/01/south-wall-deferred-maintenance-makes.html
https://mishkonbuildingandgrounds.blogspot.com/2022/12/south-wall-discovery-project-initial.html
https://mishkonbuildingandgrounds.blogspot.com/2022/08/summary-pending-project-south-wall.html
https://mishkonbuildingandgrounds.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-role-of-our-sanctuary-in-mishkons.html
No comments:
Post a Comment