Hail damage leads to new damage
Saturday’s hail storm is still bringing on trouble. With the snow fall on Thursday, numerous homes now have water damage because of broken siding.
“Well, the problem is that if it doesn’t have that moisture barrier behind it,” said Josh Aikele, the project manager of Paul Davis Restoration. “Now that we’ve had weather like we just had yesterday, there’s opportunities for water to be getting in to homes.”
Aikele explained that because of the snow, it let those with damaged sidings to their homes compromised.
“Most homes that have a moisture barrier on the outside of the home, a house wrap as they like to call it, wasn’t a code requirement until about 10 years ago,” said Aikele. “So, there’s a lot of homes here without it.”
According to the International Residential Code, in chapter seven for wall covering protections, it states that, “One layer of No. 15 asphalt felt, free from holes and breaks complying with ASTM D 226 for type one felt or other approved water resistive barrier shall be applied over studs or sheathing of all exterior walls.”
“In previous editions of the code,” said Reginald Fuller, the Chief Building Official for the Idaho Falls Building Division. “House wrap or some type of weather resistant barrier wasn’t required because they assessed that the exterior grade plywood or OSB utilized on houses, and was a substantial piece of material that could be served as a weather resistant barrier.”
The IRC put the new codes into effect in 2006. Even with vinyl siding’s that many homes have in the area, that could dry out any moisture quickly; the codes recognized that over the years that wasn’t always the case.
If you’re someone who has a home under the old codes, without a weather resistant barrier, and you experienced some damage this past weekend. You could be out of luck with repairs, until you get your home up to proper codes.
“In order for us to do the project it needs to be on there,” said Aikele.
Ask your insurance adjuster if you qualify for code upgrades before the next storm hits. Houses that were built on previous coding’s are not required to upgrade to the current code. It is only if you have to upgrade things like your siding, would you have to follow the latest residential codes.
