[Mike Moore]

Hello TV community,

I have a pesty water leak in a Patio Villa Lanai where water seeps into the floor during heavy storms on a regular basis. See attached two pictures. We have had the gardener do some drainage fixes and a handyman take a look and, in both cases, didn't solve the problem.

Any recommendations for someone or a company that is good in diagnosing difficult problems like this and doing whatever it needs to be fixed - windows, grading, etc.?

Thank you,
Mike

[retiredguy123]

The first thing I would do is to remove the pine bark from the corner of the lanai and dig a 4-inch deep trench to expose the edge of the concrete slab. That may give you a clue about how the water is entering. It may be that you just need some exterior caulking at the bottom of the lanai framing.

[Topspinmo]

I would also observe when it rains? Does rain runs down the glass? Does rain puddle outside where leak is? Does it leak every time it rains regardless which direction rain coming from?

[villagetinker]

OK I may be missing something but it looks like the drain holes are on the wrong side, ours are on the OUTSIDE of the enclosure, these seem to be on the inside. If this is the case, drilling new drain holes on the outside and plugging the ones on the inside should fix your problem.

[Keefelane66]

I agree with VT also your landscaping ground level is to high. Possibly a French drain to get water away from concrete slab hopefully able to revert water to a lower part of the yard.

[ton80]

Originally Posted by Mike Moore

Hello TV community,

I have a pesty water leak in a Patio Villa Lanai where water seeps into the floor during heavy storms on a regular basis. See attached two pictures. We have had the gardener do some drainage fixes and a handyman take a look and, in both cases, didn't solve the problem.

Any recommendations for someone or a company that is good in diagnosing difficult problems like this and doing whatever it needs to be fixed - windows, grading, etc.?

Thank you,
Mike

Before you look for a company/handyman to do a fix you need to look carefully what happens during a heavy rain to narrow the possibilities. Water will find any anomalies to exploit.
Many posters have provided good ideas that may help. To get a higher probability of success you need to eliminate some potential causes.

Background Info:

Lanais are designed to handle rain blowing in by having a slope and drainage to the lower level outside. However when you enclose the lanai keeping the rain completely out is a challenge.

1. Do you have rain gutters that take the rainwater away from the house? If not the wind can push a lot of the rain against your windows and overload the sliding door drainage channels.

2. Do you have outside patios or concrete slabs adjacent to the lanai? These surfaces will cause splashing up onto the sliding doors especially if you do not have rain gutters around the lanai.. The sliding door channels should have cutouts to allow drain water to drain outside and have continuous channel inside to keep rain out.
These slabs can affect drainage outside especially if you have the expansion/contraction grooves cut into your lanai floor slab. It looks like you have a finished floor and may have filled in these grooves. During Hurricane Irma I had water coming from the birdcage though one of the groves that found its way through all of the grooves in the lanai and mostly draining out through the low side. After wet vac for several hours my wife spotted the groove where the water came in and I stuffed the crack with flexible foam and used a screw driver to pack it completely to stop the inflow. The problem has not returned.

3, It looks like you have rocks outside and probably weed cloth which greatly reduced water seepage. As mentioned previously pull rocks and mulch away from the slab to made sure you do not have ponding at the slab. Look at the grooves that were cut into the slab. Are grooves free draining?

4. Where does the water come in? If you can't be there all the time put some dry sponges along windows and it may help identify where the water enters.

I hope this helps a bit in looking for the solution to your problem.

[Normal]

You may be able to abate somewhat by placing a 6 inch gutter around the top of the lanai. Also check your roof for splash guards that could deflect rainwater towards a problem area. Look at your roof too. Do you have a large roof valley draining towards your problem? Is a splash guard needed? Do you have a drain pipe near the problem?

[Maker]

Too many things happening in too many places during rain. Makes you guess which one of too many possibilities are the reason. Need to cut the potential sources into manageable parts.
Use a garden hose on one small area at a time.
Or cover a wide area of the glass (from top to bottom) with plastic. Next heavy rain will let you know if the problem starts with ground water rising up, or if 100% dry it has nothing to do with the ground level water.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by villagetinker

OK I may be missing something but it looks like the drain holes are on the wrong side, ours are on the OUTSIDE of the enclosure, these seem to be on the inside. If this is the case, drilling new drain holes on the outside and plugging the ones on the inside should fix your problem.

That's possible, but before I started drilling holes, I would cover the interior holes with waterproof tape to see if water builds up behind the holes, or goes somewhere else.

[terramuggus]

Originally Posted by Mike Moore

Hello TV community,

I have a pesty water leak...

Hello Mike,

We had a similar after immediately after having our lanai glassed in. Installers came back out 3 separate times and were never able to find how the leak came in even though it was only in one spot when rain, or water directly aimed in that specific spot with a hose on sprinkle for more than 5 minutes.

In frustration I decided I had nothing to lose by spreading 2 coats Flex Seal liquid in white on all of the concrete directly under the slider track along the whole side of the lanai. This did the trick. It's been 2 years and it's still holding up.

I can see by your pics you have no drain holes because your lanai's glassed in as well, which is exactly what you want. There will be drain holes in any slider track so you don't want to fill these since they allow any built up rain water in the track to escape. I would suggest you consider this fix if nothing else works. Of course, you've got to pull away any material from the concrete and clean it. You should also not apply it in direct sunlight and make sure the concrete's very dry. A cheap throw away brush works perfectly for this. And be aware it's thick and pretty sticky so going somewhat slowly during application, with purpose should work pretty well for you.

This is what I used: Flex Seal Liquid(R)
| flexsealproducts.com

You can get Flex Seal just about anywhere.


/Users/marsh/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/originals/7/79AF0ADE-585F-41B3-BD19-29F317D0ED86.heic


/Users/marsh/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary/originals/8/88B2FF93-3CCE-4769-858F-80FD2E394444.heic

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

The first thing I would do is to remove the pine bark from the corner of the lanai and dig a 4-inch deep trench to expose the edge of the concrete slab. That may give you a clue about how the water is entering. It may be that you just need some exterior caulking at the bottom of the lanai framing.

IMO i would remove pine bark/wood mulch anyway. All it does is hold water, float off in rain, and collect/attract bugs. IMO needs to be gravel (rocks) and well below window bottom runner.

[villagetinker]

OP, I like the idea of covering the holes on the INSIDE of the lanai and the use of sponges. So IMHO, try doing both, then have your better half go to one side of the lanai and you to the other side and one of you take a hose and spray the sliders while the other looks to see where and how the water is coming in.
This should give you a real good idea of how to fix. If you do not see water in the lanai, but do see it in the aluminum channels, then the drain holes are incorrect. add new drain holes, try applying water again, and if it drains out, then make arrangements to permanently seal the holes into the lanai.

[Sandy and Ed]

Originally Posted by villagetinker

OK I may be missing something but it looks like the drain holes are on the wrong side, ours are on the OUTSIDE of the enclosure, these seem to be on the inside. If this is the case, drilling new drain holes on the outside and plugging the ones on the inside should fix your problem.

Good pick up!! Was slider frames installed backwards?? Par for course

[Sandy and Ed]

Originally Posted by Keefelane66

I agree with VT also your landscaping ground level is to high. Possibly a French drain to get water away from concrete slab hopefully able to revert water to a lower part of the yard.

Agree with French drain if all else fails and the improperly installed slider track isn't the cause.

[Mike Moore]

First off, a HUGE thank you to the many folks who shared their wisdom here. I should have added that this is a rental unit that I manage from out of state with a very kind and patient tenant. I'm a hands-on person and trying to figure this out remotely is challenging.

To summarize the main points I heard:
* Get more insights on where water is coming in... sponges, monitoring, dig trench, check with hose (The handyman did try with a hose with no success)
* Try plugging holes temporarily
* Check rain gutter situation - away from house? Does it have a splash guard? (I did have gutters adjusted by landscapers, but not sure how effective it was done) Add french drain?
* Check grooves in slab
* Spread 2 coats Flex Seal liquid in white on all of the concrete directly under the slider track along the whole side of the lanai.
* Get rid of mulch around, lower, use gravel/rocks (note only mulch around the lanai, no concrete or patio

I'm going to start with the flex seal liquid approach (thanks terramuggus) and I'll post in a few weeks the result.