Insulating the Crawl Space

Sandra and Robert were heading out of town the an extended weekend, so I decided to insulate underneath the back room and bathroom while they were gone.  I got out of work today and headed home to take some measurements.  It had been raining for the last few days, but traffic wasn't bad getting home.  I climbed into the crawl space and saw water dripping off the floor joists - yes, dripping.  Four of the joists under the bathroom were completely soaked, and water was dripping off them.  So much for insulation! I can't insulate while there's water coming in, so there goes that project. 

My sister had a paint bubble in her wall above where the water was coming in.  I don't know if the two are related.  I'm going to have to put this project on hold and wait to figure out where the water is coming from.

Flex (Doesn't) Seal

Welp, that didn't last long.  The kitchen wall is leaking again.  I got up at 3 AM last night to check on the buckets, and all three were almost full.  At 6 AM, they were full again.  Good news is the rain let up during the day, and they didn't overflow while I was at work.  The bad news is it was starting to rain hard again.  I looked in the storage room, and I had a tube of window and door caulking.  I loaded it up in the caulk gun and went upstairs to patch the gaps. 

Go figure as soon as I walk outside, it starts to pour.  To do a quick and comprehensive job, I start putting the caulking on heavy, then POP.  The tube explodes.  Did I stop? Nope!  I started applying the caulking that was squirming from the opening by hand, smearing it into the gap and all over the wall.  I wonder if this will dry... ever. 

The good news is the dripping in the kitchen has significantly slowed down.  We'll see how well this holds up!

It's Raining!

And that's a good thing!  California's had a drought for several years now.  This will also let me test how well the Flex Seal is holding up on the exterior wall above my kitchen. 

Leaky Wall?

Who knows where the water's coming in from.  According to another contractor, when Michelle's old door was cut out with an electric saw, the vibrating in the wall could have broke the seal of the caulk inside the wall, and that's why water is coming in now.  He recommended that I just buy a can of water sealer and seal all the seams along the exterior of the wall.  I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought two cans of spray on water seal (Flex Seal).  I sprayed three coats along the bottom and top of the wall where there were cracks along the course of the day.  There's still some more left in the can, so I'll probably use up the rest of it later today by applying another coat.  What sucks is the only way to see if this works is to either hose it down myself (in which case if it fails, I'm going to have a ton of water in my kitchen), or wait for it to rain (and if it fails, same thing).  Either way, there's no sense in opening up the wall in my kitchen to fix anything until I know this is water tight.