Water leaks can't be stopped from the inside so you need to take a photo of the exterior. What is the flashing at the roof to wall intersection?

I recommend self-adhered flexible base flashing (Ice & Water Shield) on the sheathing joint and on top of that metal step flashing interwoven with the shingles. The siding should be held an inch or more above the shingles.

I couldn't understand the photos. Are there shingles in the attic?

The shingles IN the attic is just weird.

OK I see the unfinished wood is not framing but exterior lap siding. There should always be an inch or two of space between the siding and the asphalt shingles where the metal flashing would be visible.

The close up photos are confusing. Is the roof sloping down and away from the wall or down and toward it? You should post a photo that shows more of the house.

The sealant will not work. Any sealant is temporary especially if it is between dissimilar materials that move independently. The siding needs to be raised or cut away from the shingles because it will rot in a few years and will need to be replaced. And the builder owes you a fix for free. You are lucky there was a window to catch the leak.

How was the intersection flashed under the shingles? If it was only a continuous strip of metal flashing or no flashing at all, you must remove enough of the siding and shingles to be able to install Vycor Plus base flashing and then metal step flashing woven into the shingles.

This is not a place to use bare aluminum.

I don't know Richard. The photos certainly are confusing but what we're thinking is lap siding (I thought that too) could be some kind of log construction. I see convex curves especially in the top photo and in the next to bottom photo to the left of the jamb. Either way the sealant is not a long term fix.

Edit: Also if it IS siding it should have all been primed. Always best to do that before installation so it can be back primed as well as the concealed areas under the lap.

Ooohh! The pictures were taken at night! That makes more sense now. It totally looked like indoor attic photos.

What is that metal box in the first picture? Is it some sort of custom made basin instead of an eaves trough? If so, why is it there? Is the builder expecting a torrent of rain in that one spot? Or will an eaves trough eventually be dumping into that?

Edit: I posted at the same time as those last pictures. That looks like a horrible design! The water is funneling up against the siding.

caulk fails. it isn't a fix it it a bandaid

all the builder has to do (if you accept this "fix")

is to send someone to re-caulk until the

warranty is over.

make sure it is fixed properly.

best of luck

It appears a roof valley ends at the rainwater collector box tight against the side wall of the house. Of that is the case its an unwise roof design to begin with.

Because the wall is some kind of solid wood, metal flashing should have been installed under the shingles and up the face of the wood wall into a groove in the wood. That flashing should have continued along the roof-to-wall joint and out beyond the collector box. Vyor Plus flashing should have been installed under the metal flashing.

This is a difficult building to waterproof; I would be looking for someone who has done it right a few times before.

It looks like an illegitimate fix, and I'm not too sure about 'fix'.

He means short pieces of bent step flashing will be slipped under each shingle and the part against the house will have counter flashing that covers the top of the step flashing pieces. How that is sealed to the irregular face of the house I don't know.

Plus JDS's suggestions, a kick-out flashing could be installed. The difficulty is that the backup layers should have been installed under the wood wall.

Kick out flashing might help if it's really short, otherwise it kicks past the leader box. Unwise roof design is an understatement. Bad design and worse execution. Things need to be removed enough to install continuous as possible, properly lapped membranes up the valley, wall and into the leader box. The box will need constant maintenance with any tree debris nearby. Hard to tell how much area it drains but they probably should have used a bigger outlet and downspout.

The window flashing and siding details around it are also very suspect. Even with the terrible wall-roof-leader box flashing, it shouldn't be getting past a properly flashed window to the inside.

I hope the downspout that dumps into the corner is not the uphill side of the house. The poor roof design puts the foundation and indoor air at more risk. Better to drain to daylight away from the house with solid PVC.

It looks like spray foam was used for insulation. I hope that it's a flash coat of closed-cell and that you plan on insulating the rest of the cavity.

Is this t&g siding with a curved face on sheathing? If so the siding will have to be removed to flash it right.

ask to see a sketch before allowing anyone to touch it.

That's good to know. It could have been solid square logs with a convex face and look the same.

I would remove the siding and flash it right; the builder owes you that. Putting anything over the siding will involve inserting counter flashing in a saw kerf which will only work for solid logs as shown below.

But this solution does not apply to log siding. Your situation is no different than for typical siding.

This is what it should look like before the siding is installed. The only change I would make is to use Ice & Water Shield as the shingle underlayment and turn it up the sidewall higher than the step flashing. The siding should be held 1 1/2" above the shingles.

Kick out flashing will keep water from running down the wall. the design of it will require a skilled roofer.

I hate to say it, but that is bad architecture. The slope of the garage directs half the water that runs down the roof directly towards the siding. Unless everything is perfect you will have water going into the wall. Never mind snow loads would build up at the joint. Picture what happens when it warms up halfway through a spring snowstorm and you get rain.

Your builder had the right idea with the second idea. The metal flashing is necessary. I might also put in a storm drain along the joint, and an awning over the window.

install step flashing as detailed in JDS's post.

wen cladding is removed, move the window.

how to deal with overflow from gutter to keep it from eroding the foundation would be part of my questions to builder.

if you do not get a permanent repair, you'll deal with the fall out

from this for years to come. moisture in walls takes a long time

to become visible, all the time causing more issues inside of wall.

now is the time to fix it, the longer it goes on the more it will cost to

re-mediate.

poor design. how fortunate that you caught it at this oh so fixable

stage.

best of luck

If that is a valley against siding as it appears, I don't think typical step flashing will be enough for big rain events. Apologies for coming across so harshly. In an area of little rainfall, problems could be minimal but from the looks of your situation, now is the time to get real and act on it.

No solution that relies on sealant will work after a few months but even that was not done well if it is already leaking. This is a bandaid where surgery is needed.

When I bought my house the garage roof sloped towards the house just like this, I remodeled and took the roof off and had it slope the same way the house does. There were numerous water issues all along the side of the house that we had to fix also because of the bad slope of the garage roof. This is just bad design, change the slope now or deal with the water issues forever.

flashing goes under wall siding and under shingles.

caulk is no solution. if your builder can't fix it permanently,

you need to hire someone who can & will provide a permanent

fix.

(and by permanent, life of the flashing...so use a quality material)

best of luck.

Agree with above and it's possible those last pictures are not the main problem. You seem to have a leak in your window opening too. Rip everything off in that area, including siding around window and use properly lapped WRB membranes. The best fix probably includes resetting the window with better sill flashing but it's tough knowing what's going on with your pics. Changing the valley into the siding thing would be great.

Yeah, water leaking through the top of the window is also an issue. There should be window flashing tape applied to the window flange installed before the siding. There should also be an aluminum flashing that installs under the siding and over the top of the window. Even if water got behind the siding, it should hit these layers of flashing, preventing it from leaking inside. Do you have pictures of when they installed the windows, before they installed the siding?

In answer to your thread's title, no. At least they are trying and feel sorry for them, hampered by the poor design. You are obviously not ok with this fix as you shouldn't be. Are you ok with your window trim detail there?

"My fingers are crossed."

I guess as long as you're wearing rubber gloves you'll be ok.

All this fixes they trying to do starting to look hacked up, they just keep piling one thing on top of another and using sealer all over the place and they still don't know where the leak is coming from.

They need to find intrusion point and in order to do that they have to start pulling things off like some of that roof and see if there is any signs of water, furthermore the water could be coming where the upper roof gable meets the ridge and it finds its ways down.

They have to do some investigation before flashing everything, because flashing could not be the problem and water could be coming from someplace else.

I have seen chimney flashing leaks and you would find visual signs of water intrusion totally in a diffrent place inside the house and chimney was the last place anyone would look, they would make repairs to everything else and after flashing everything they could find and caulking every joint the water was still coming.

Good luck

The problems that poor design can have in a home run far and deep. This needs a redesign and rebuild. Whomever designed it should be coated with that kludge roof tar and rolled in that fiberglass.

The saddle doesn't run far enough to the edge. You can see the where the valley deads into the juncture, and then it's just flat. How far is the dead area? I know it's too far being there at all. They could extended the saddle, however it would be a lesser pitch and the valley would end sooner on the new saddle portion and not dead into the juncture. This is the way I would proceed to correct the problem, without redoing a total redo of the saddle.

The step flashing is not doing any good in the flat area. You can see all the debris collecting in the flat area. They could form a pan, but it still wouldn't be the correct way.

It appears by them taking all the siding off, they believe they will fix it. However, they are missing the problem.

As you said in your ORIGINAL post a flashing is missing. They never put the correct flashing in. As JDS posted above in his last picture, that is what you need for a flashing. Instead they put in that monstrosity that does not help.

ALSO, there is a valley that terminates near the problem point. And the roof slopes towards the house. The entire area needs the shingles pulled and ice and water shield applied BEFORE the flashing. That ice and water shield should terminate at least a foot up the wall, then seal the top edge with the flashing tape. NOT felt paper, ice and water shield.

Everything they have attempted needs to be pulled, a lot more shingles pulled at least 3 feet up the valley, ice and water shield applied to the whole area and affected wall, flashing applied and taped, then finally reshingle and siding done.

If he cannot do this right he needs to hire a roofer that knows what they are doing!!!! Obviously the roof design is bad for drainage in that corner but it is manageable with the correct materials and knowledge.

You do not use step flashing when the gable terminates into the juncture. You fix the problem. Ice and water shield is not a cure all for poor design. That's a typical method used when one is grasping for a solution instead correcting the problem.

Bingo. The correct fix. Nice to hear.

Thanks so much for sharing this. We currently have a similar situation with our home. Unfortunately for us, our home was built 15 years ago, so the builder is off the hook. We only discovered the extent of damage after recent heavy downpours. Your detail and progress updates are much appreciated!