Tag Archives: Waterproofing Consultants

leak investigation, Roof Inspections and Consulting

William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC Becomes a Member of the North American Building Compliance Testing Association (NABCTA) !

We’re the Central Coast’s Solution for Building Envelope Compliance Testing!

William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC is proud to announce that we have become members of the North American Building Compliance Testing Association (NABCTA) !

We’re constantly seeking to improve our skills, increase our knowledge and bring the Central Coast of California local expertise and professionalism.

If you need building envelope leak testing, litigation support on waterproofing defect claims or building envelope consulting, please reach out today! We provide ASTM E 1105 testing and full compliance reporting.

After a cyclic test, this recently repaired stucco wall was found to be leaking.
Another wall, another test proves that the stucco wall was improperly reassembled resulting in water intrusion into the building.
A spray rack is set up to test the walls and windows on a recently built medical building in Templeton CA

What is E 1105 you ask?

How the Testing Works

Water Spray: A calibrated outdoor spray rack applies water uniformly at a rate of 5.0 gallons per hour per square foot.Air Pressure: An interior or exterior chamber creates a controlled air-pressure difference to simulate wind pushing rain against the building.Observation: Inspectors watch the interior side of the test specimen to see if any water penetrates past the building envelope.

Testing Procedures

Procedure A (Uniform Static Pressure): Applies a steady, constant air pressure difference, usually for a 15-minute test period.

Procedure B (Cyclic Static Pressure): Cycles the air pressure on and off (e.g., 5 minutes on, 1 minute off) for multiple cycles to mimic gusting wind.

Why It Is Used

Quality Assurance: Verifies that field installation, flashing, and sealants were done correctly right after construction.

Forensic Investigation: Helps locate the source of active water leaks in existing buildings.

Quality assurance inspections can also help ensure that the building envelope is being installed correctly. We offer QA inspections for building owners during construction. Catch problems before the building is closed in.

If you are building new construction, get your windows and doors tested before closing in the building. Call today 805-801-2380

Roof Inspections and Consulting

Buildings Don’t Come With “Maintenance Required” Warning Signs That Automatically Pop Up

I started up our company vehicle the other day, and on the dash popped up this warning “Maintenance Required”. We have a Toyota Tacoma, a vehicle that’s legendary for going 300,000+ miles or more. However the taco still needs maintenance, repairs and replacement of parts to get to 300,000 miles. Oil changes, flush the transmission, rotate the tires, a new battery. Take care of your Toyota™ and it will take care of you for years and years.

Why don’t buildings have this?

So I checked and sure enough it’s time for the next oil change. So easy, I don’t have to think about when it is time to change the oil, the vehicle tells me it’s time. And I wondered, why can’t buildings have this built into them? Unfortunately no one has figured out a way to have maintenance required warning signs pop up on a building, at least not yet.

However it’s important to remember that buildings do need required maintenance. Maintenance like roof inspections, cleaning out gutters, repainting, cleaning and repainting the decks,… Stuff like that plus more.

That’s why we here at William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC are here; to tell you that your building needs maintenance. We offer various services such as roof inspections, deck inspections and building inspections. We do inspections so that you can schedule maintenance when it’s required.

Don’t let your valuable asset deteriorate, keep up on maintenance and inspections and your building will last and last. Call us today at 805-801-2380 for a free conversation about your buildings inspection needs and how we can help your building be the Toyota™ of the construction industry!

Bill Leys on the job inspecting the building for needed maintenance and repairs!
leak investigation

Century City Condominium Retains William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC to Investigate Leaks

We’re pleased to announce that a landmark high rise in Century City (Los Angeles) has retained us to investigate leaks at several units that remodeled their decks into living space with storefront type windows enclosing the deck. The leaks occur during rain events accompanied by high winds.

Previous investigations identified what were thought to be several flaws in the window installation, however the repairs failed to remedy the problems as the leaks returned in the next storm.

Our experience and success in leak investigations helped convince the Board of Directors to retain us to investigate and recommend steps the Association can take make repairs after identifying the cause(s).

If your HOA is experiencing leaks from rain events and you need assistance to identify the cause reach out today for a free conversation about how we can help you! Call Bill Leys, the Deck Expert at 805-801-2380.

We aren’t quite superman as we can’t fly to the top of tall buildings, but our thermal imaging camera can “see” through walls and our moisture meter can detect moisture that ordinary mortals cannot!
Quality Assurance Observations, Roof Inspections and Consulting, Uncategorized

Bill Leys of William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC Completes Steep Slope Roofing Systems For The WUI Training

President Bill Leys of William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC recently attended a webinar presented by SGH on “Steep Slope Roofs in the WUI”.

The one hour AIA approved course discussed the additional requirements for roofs on homes and buildings in California’s Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) that increase a roofs resistance to ember storms which are one of the biggest causes of wildfires running unchecked through homes in vulnerable areas.

With this new knowledge and increased awareness of the challenges that homes face in the WUI, William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC is better prepared to assist our clients as their building envelope consultant.

Staying up to date on new requirements, products and technologies in construction is important and we are dedicated to increasing our knowledge so our clients can benefit.

Reach out today for a free discussion on what building envelope issues you may be experiencing and how we may be able to help.

Call today 805-801-2380.

Bill Leys performing quality assurance inspections at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto.
When it comes to waterproofing buildings, clients reach out to William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC to bring that dream to life! We do consulting quality assurance inspections and leak investigations.
SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Watch Our Videos on TikTok, Insta & YouTube!

Did you know that we have a YouTube, Instagram and TikTok channel for you to keep up with us? Yep it’s true.

We post our latest videos first on TikTok. Follow us here  http://tiktok.com/@bill_leys_the_deckexpert

Then we generally post to YouTube a few days later. Follow us here https://youtube.com/@bill-leys-is-the-deck-expert?si=CkGOi5RC7ps4w_Z0

Soon after we post the videos to Instagram, follow us here https://www.instagram.com/wleyswaterproofingconsultants?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

We appreciate the outreach from so many people around the state who are appreciative of what we’re doing here at William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC!

If you don’t trust your balcony inspection report, if your balcony inspection company is pressuring you to take out special assessments, if your balcony inspection company also does repairs, you need to reach out to us today to help you defend against unethical immoral tactics designed to separate your HOA from its money. We perform second opinion inspections that can help an HOA determining if they got a good report or not.

Call today, I answer the phone personally! Bill Leys 805-801-2380

Personal service at affordable prices!
home inspections

A Recent Home Inspection Shows Why a Seller Provided Home Inspection Report is Essentially Worthless

The other home inspector missed this “little” issue

A recent inspection we performed for a prospective buyer of a condominium in San Luis Obispo demonstrates perfectly, why you as a buyer need to have your own inspections done at your own cost. This particular inspection found many issues that were glossed over as simply needing patching and painting rather than complete replacement of major components such as windows, doors, decks and subflooring under a shower.

The seller had a pre sale inspection done at their expense and provided that report to the prospective buyer. He had questions and doubts about the report and reached out to us after searching for a waterproofing and building consultant.

Our inspection found that many items the other inspector glossed over in his report as needing “patching and painting” or minor repairs were far from the real situation which was that all the doors and windows were past their useable lifespan and needed to be completely replaced. We found dry-rotted framing on decks, open and exposed framing on columns, dry-rot in the substrate below a shower floor which requires the substrate to be replaced due to fungus infestations.

Continue reading A Recent Home Inspection Shows Why a Seller Provided Home Inspection Report is Essentially Worthless →
Roof Inspections and Consulting

Redondo Beach HOA Retains William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC To Write Scope of Work to Renovate Courtyard Podium Deck

We’re pleased to announce that we were recently hired by a Redondo Beach HOA that desperately needs to replace a failing waterproofing system on their podium deck.

The HOA sought several proposals from building envelope consulting firms and after interviewing and researching, the Board of Directors selected us, citing their previous experience working with us on their SB326 inspections and our detailed proposal and experience as waterproofing consultants.

Failing Waterproofing on a Podium Deck in Redondo Beach Will be Renovated

We will be writing a scope of work to put it to bid with several highly experienced contractors, perform non invasive testing of the deck to determine if there are any issues of concern and when the work begins, we will do quality assurance inspections to ensure the work is being done correctly.

Continue reading Redondo Beach HOA Retains William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC To Write Scope of Work to Renovate Courtyard Podium Deck →
Quality Assurance Observations, Roof Inspections and Consulting

How A Building Envelope Consultant Can Add Value to Your Residential Building Project

Long term leaks into this building has destroyed the framing behind the siding and because it is so rotted, the siding doesn’t have anything left to be attached.

As building envelope consultants we are often hired to determine where why and how a roof, siding or windows are leaking. After doing destructive testing and finding what caused the problem, it’s often an installer error that created the problem. Yes sometimes it’s defective waterproofing products, but that’s the exception, not the rule.

For architects and their home building clients, one way to ensure that the building envelope is going to perform correctly for it’s expected life span is to hire a waterproofing consultant to review the architects building envelope details, and to perform quality assurance inspections while the building is being dried in. Drying in a building entails roofs, below grade waterproofing, building paper over the plywood covered walls, window and door flashing for example. All of these need to be installed in a sequence to work together for the building to remain leak free.

Whether you are building tract homes, commercial/residential, condos or a spec home, a small add to the project budget to include a waterproofing consultant to assist in keeping your project leak free is a good investment. Consider the costs when a building does leak; there’s investigative costs, loss of use, possible mold claims, expensive repairs and everyone is aggravated.

William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC is here to help you with making your building project a success. Reach out today for a discussion on how we can help bring value to your project.

Articles & Videos

Check Out Our YouTube Videos Here

We just wanted to send you to our articles and videos page to check out the videos from our YouTube channel!

http://sb326deckinspectors.com/articles-powerpoint-presentations-by-bill-leys/

Here are a couple of our most popular vids. Leave a comment and subscribe to our channel!

Learn about how deck drains and scuppers should be installed and why it’s important to counter flash scuppers on the exterior walls.
Learn about ember resistant vents for balconies. Soffits + crawl spaces
Here we discuss who can perform inspections and who must write and sign the report for sb326.
Poor workmanship doomed this new addition with intrusion, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to restore the waterproofing. 

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Simi Valley SB 326 Deck & Stair Inspection Finds Multiple Hidden Problems

William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC recently coordinated an SB326 inspection in Simi Valley at an older condo complex. The association has numerous styles of decks and stairs and landings serving the upper units.

As experts in waterproofing and investigating decks we had our suspicions about the integrity of the decks and stair landings waterproofing system. Using our trusty moisture meter, our instincts proved to be correct in our inspection.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) we discovered many stair landings have hidden dry-rot issues that we uncovered. We also found numerous decks with dry-rot around the deck drains where water had intruded into the plywood substrate and framing. While these problems won’t be inexpensive to fix, the association is fortunate we discovered them early, before a landing rotted out and collapsed or someone’s foot went through a dry rotted deck.

Hidden dry-rot at stair landing.
More hidden dry-rot
High moisture reading in a stucco covered support column
Deteriorated steel stairs.
Dangerous railing is loose and unable to prevent someone from falling off if they leaned on it.

Experience matters when it comes to coordinating & performing deck inspections. We’ve been doing inspections of decks and stairs since 2005, and have investigated and fixed thousands of decks as a waterproofing contractor since 2003. As balcony inspectors, we partner with an award winning structural engineer to provide the highest quality inspections that we can.

Contact us today to get started on your deck inspection project. The deadline isn’t that far away. Call Bill Leys direct at 805-801-2380 or use the contact us box on the left side of the page today!

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Another Satisfied Client Praises Our Knowledge

We love getting positive feedback, I mean who doesn’t?

We don’t ask our clients to review us or praise us, we think that’s kinda cheesy. However we love unsolicited emails like this one that came in today.

“Hello Bill, Thanks again for the work done with ABC HOA.  I’ve received high praise from the Board that they really respect your findings and knowledge of the inspection process.” Kevin HOA Manager

See the difference between William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC vs our competition and get in touch with us for a free EEE evaluation and proposal.

Guaranteed no conflicts of interest, competitive costs, award winning structural engineer and an expert ex Waterproofing contractor. Can they say that?

Contest us via the contact box to the left to get started.

 

Deck Inspections, SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Railing Failure Illustrates the Importance of Doing Balcony Inspections

A 9 year old child is lucky to be alive and only suffered some relatively minor injuries when the railing on a deck he was playing on gave way and he fell from the second story deck to the ground.

Our screen grabs from a TV news channel shows just how bad a shape the railing that still remains on the deck is in.

Stiles on the right side of the deck are obviously in poor condition. The whole front part of the railing is gone, indicating widespread dry-rot and likely improper fastening of the railing to the posts.
The remains of the railing lay below the upper deck.

I’ve seen similar railings like this in the past where a carpenter uses a nail in the top of the railing and one on the bottom to attach the stile. This method is not a very good method to achieve a 200 pound resistance to someone leaning against it, and especially for small children who are probably leaning on the stile’s themselves. These cheap wood stiles will often rot out in a few years from being exposed to water.

On one inspection I did at a property for sale, I kicked the wood stiles with a bit of minor force and the stiles failed. The seller was furious that I “damaged” his property, but I pointed out that if his grandchild leaned on that railing he likely would have fallen 15 feet to a concrete sidewalk below. My answer was I probably saved someone’s life, so fix it properly.

A better method of protecting occupants is to use pre built railings that are made of metal welded together in the factory.

Falls through railings are unfortunately a common occurrence, and many result in death or severe injuries. Years ago a Board member of a condo I managed fell through a dry-rotted railing while on vacation, after a few days he passed away from grievous injuries.

This is another example of why we inspect folks.

When it comes to life safety, don’t fool around folks, the reason we inspect is to prevent accidents.

If you are buying a property with decks and railings, have it inspected by an expert like ourselves before closing.

If you are an HOA get your decks inspected by the experts at William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC. We guarantee that we have no conflicts of interest and that we only work for the associations best interests.

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

An EEE Evaluation May Have Helped Stop a Stair Collapse

On Monday we were in Pasadena looking at an association for the purpose of counting how many decks stairs walkways they have so we could bid to perform a SB 326 inspection job. The property is in an older established area that has Magnesite decking in the stairs and decks.

One stairway caught my eye with the long large crack in the Magnesite rubbing down the stair stringer. This critical piece of framing behind the Magnesite has, in my opinion, been infiltrated with water, has swollen and caused the Magnesite to crack and is likely dry-rotted as well, creating a life safety concern should it fail with people in the stairs.

We alerted the Board of Directors and their HOA manager to have the stairs shored up until repairs can be made. We would be remiss if we did not.

An EEE evaluation is not an inspection of the decks and stairs, but it is important to do in person to see the actual site conditions… And who knows, maybe we’ll catch a potential life safety issue at your association while we’re at it.

This is why we inspect, to protect life/safety and preserve your Associations property. Feel free to reach out to us for your free proposal for an SB 326 Inspection.

SB 326 Balcony Inspections

Palm Springs HOA Selects William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC To Perform SB 326 Inspections on Their EEEs

We are pleased to announce that we have been selected to perform inspections under SB 326 for a property in Palm Springs CA. With over 70 EEEs to inspect, the association sought inspection quotes from some of the best inspection companies in California. We are honored to be thought of as highly as Sigler & Associates, A7 and Focused Inspection Group and asked to bid this job.

The Board of Directors interviewed each company after reviewing their proposals. I specifically told the Board during my interview that if our company lost the job, that I knew they had competent bidders that had no conflicts of interest and that I could sleep soundly knowing that they would be in good hands if they selected another company. I continually warn my managers that there are unsavory deck inspectors that are only seeking to take advantage of unsuspecting HOAs that are easy marks. We guarantee that we have no conflicts of interest. Some deck inspectors own waterproofing companies that want to do the repairs without you getting three competitive bids…

People say I’m crazy to talk up my competitors, but I don’t look at these companies as competitors, I look at them as peers worthy of respect and that they represent our industry well. I’m happy that we were awarded the job… And look forward to bringing your Association competitive bids against my worthy peers. May your association win the best inspection it deserves.

Your association deserves the best inspector who has zero conflicts of interest.

Call me, Bill Leys the Deck Inspector at 805-801-2380 for a fast free quote on your SB 326 inspection. We’ll be happy to bid against our peers and so will they.

Deck Inspections, SB 326 Balcony Inspections

William Leys Waterproofing Consultants LLC To Perform SB 326 Inspections for A Camarillo Condominium Project

We are pleased to announce that we have been selected to perform an SB 326 balcony inspection for a 100 unit condominium complex in Camarillo. The association has multiple decks and stair/landing combinations that are required to be inspected under the balcony bill.

We have no conflicts of interest, and we guarantee that in writing. We are here to protect our clients and we work in their best interests, not ours.

There’s a reason we are in demand and it’s because HOA managers are realizing that we are one of the best inspection companies in the market. We are on a very short list of inspection companies on Davis-Stirling.com. If a company that you are considering isn’t on that list, there’s probably a good reason. Don’t take chances, get the best you can. Bill Leys has been inspecting decks since 2007. Call us today.