My partner and I are having some persistent leak problems in a house we bought 4 months ago. Two months ago there was a leak on the first and second floor, and we hired a contractor to fix it at the leak source which is on the 3rd floor. But today the leak at the same spot is back.. I'm trying to figure out what we should do about this situation, and hoping to get some answers from experts in the Houzz community.
Here are more details on our saga of rain leaks...
• We bought this 3 floor victorian house that was gut renovated 15 years ago by the owner, who is a contractor. So we trusted the condition of the home was not bad because they lived there until they put it on the market.
• During the inspection in Dec 2021, I found a stain on the wall on the 2nd floor and the inspector pointed out the wall is a bit damp and identified the source is a wooden doorframe on the 3rd floor that is right above the wall. The door was to a small balcony and the corner seemed water damaged. The tenant on the 2nd floor confirmed that there was an issue a few year back, but their landlord (the seller) took care of it and it's been fine since. So we moved on with the purchase process and the seller (again, contractor himself) said they took care of it by caulking the gap in the door frame. And they re-grouted the balcony tiles too, which I thought was nice for them to take care of.
• 2 month after we bought the house, we found a leak on the 1st floor ceiling. We figured the source is the door frame on 3rd floor. Because the ceiling leak on the 1st floor, wet wall on the 2nd floor and the door to the balcony on the 3rd are all aligned. (image above). So we hired a contractor who was recommended by someone to fix it. He cut out the bottom part of the wooden door frame on the 3rd floor and confirmed it's rotten inside. They cleaned it all out and filled the wall below the doorframe with some water proof material, replaced the bottom part of the doorframe, and then then caulked it up. He told me that it will hold up for at least for few years and then we can replace the whole doorframe into something more weather proof. He also recommended re-grouting the balcony tiles, as they were all cracked up, which could be an additional source of water entry. This made total sense.
• He told us it's not a good idea to do grout work in cold/wet weather. So he sent someone to fix it a month or so later with some special grout that cures really fast and well in cold temperature. On the day they worked on this, it was high 20 ~ low 30 degree and sunny, but as soon as the job was done it started to sprinkle. I was concerned but they told me it would be okay because they got the special grout.
• Two weeks ago, I checked the grout. When I walked on the balcony tiles, I heard cracking sound and it felt like the tile was moving/sinking very very slightly. (no one has been on the tile since they did the job until I walked on it). My contractor wanted to come check on it again, but hasn't happened yet because of some scheduling issues.
• And today, after several days of rainy weather, the leak is back again on the 2nd floor. The second floor wall is dripping wet.
Now,
1) We really want to find the source of the problem, fix it and be done with it... But not sure if we can trust our contractor's judgement on the issue. Any suggestions on what's the issue here?
2) We feel deceived by the seller. I know it's very naive of us buying a house with water damage.. Is there any legal action that we can take against the seller? Especially if we end up finding there's any mold issues?
Lastly, thank you so much for reading through our story!