I am very concerned about my house!!?

Question

Ryan homes is building my home. They put on the roof but there is a pipe that runs up and through the roof. It has been raining a lot. Three days of rain ...14 inches. When my husband looked at the house it had puddles everywhere. (mind you...only osb and a slab are down right now). Walls are up. Air ducts, wires and plumbing , up too.

The inspector said it would be fine. He saw a house take a year and it got rained into. It was fine.

My husband says it evaporates. However, I am concerned about it. Why can't they just cover the hole of the pipe?

Should I be concerned? It is wood...water and wood don't mix?

thanks for you help!

Answer 1

Studies done by the American Plywood and Engineered Lumber Association have shown that there are very few lingering affects from having a new home rained on, no matter how long the storm lasts. Having said that, I will say that in my experience, the sooner a home is made "weather-tight", the better.

OSB, in my opinion, is a little more likely to be damaged by prolonged exposure to moisture; but the worst damage I have seen is some swelling at the edges of the boards. This is generally fixed by running a belt sander over any high spots after the house is sealed up.

As long as the framing crew left the required gaps between the joints of the decking material, there should not even be much swelling to deal with.

By the way, there is a new sub-flooring material available that has small drain holes pre-drilled in it. (This has always made me wonder - if OSB is as good as I have been told, why, then, was this product introduced?)

To check on any building material, and to find out what uses it has been approved for (& what it has not), go to www.iccsafe.org, and look at ICCES Reports.

Answer 2

t sounds like the vent pipe going through your roof needs a boot installed. You are right you don't need water coming into the house at this stage of construction.

Answer 3

  Although it won t hurt to ask your builder to cover it don t worry.. It s common to see wet floors but the osb will take  wetness.. To much  standing water and they can drill holes (small) to drain water to basement.. Some seams may peak but it s  normal to sand any high seams before laying flooring..GL

Answer 4

I've been in thousands of homes under construction, it'll be fine.

Answer 5

rl has the answer. I too have been in thousands of houses and it will be fine. The only concern that I have here is that once wiring has been started the house technically should be 'dried' in but this is not a major concern if the inspector had no problem with it. Be patient and let the contractor and his subs work at their own pace. You do not want the house that gets out of 'sync' and has all the little problems due to bad scheduling and 'upset' subs working on it. If it will help with your concern pay your builder to put the boot on early with one of his laborers. He is obviously waiting for the correct time for the other subs to get their work done so the roofer has just one time on the roof. Do not make this a point of contention but look at it as just a passing problem. Throw 20 bucks at it and it will go away.

Answer 6

Ask the builder to cover the hole.

By the way, OSB is waterproof.