Stuck-on balcony causing water dripping down house wall

[sniederb]

At some point in the past, our old stone house was gifted a DIY balcony. The balcony is attached to the house using a few beams strong-tied to another beam secured to the wall. Apparently back then, drainage was not something worth considering. We now have the effect of water running down our slanted roof, collecting between two Velux and then dripping down the wall. The pictures show how all wood involved is becoming more and more of a hazard.

Tearing down the entire balcony is not an option (tempting, though). I'm looking for an idea how to get the water away from the wall, but I'm a bit stumped. One idea would be cut out a half-circle on each beam to run a small gutter through (image with the red drawing on it), but I'm not sure how structurally risky that is. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

Simon

[Conor]

I have a friend who had this issue. They fitted a polycarbonte type roof to the underside of the joists, falling away from the house to a gutter. you'd want some sort of flashing / sill along the wall to direct water off the building.

[Redbeard]

Can we have a pic from a distance showing how the Veluxes come into the equation? What I can visualise up to now is a pitched roof 1 floor above the balcony 'collecting' water between the Veluxes and 'tipping' it down the wall. But why doesn't the gutter stop that? I am sure the answer is simple, but I cannot see it yet. More info and context = more comprehensive answers. Many thanks in advance.

[ProDave]

My understanding it is water running down the walls, dripping off the window drip beads etc that ends up on the wooden frame of the balcony fixed tight to the house wall.

 

When I built my balcony I anticipated this issue.  The timber "against" the wall was fixed on spacers so it sits about 25mm off the wall.  Any such drips can just run down the wall as before without wetting the timbers.  And I gave them all 2 coats of exterior wood paint before assembly.

 

I don't see an easy fix here other than paint every bit of timber with at least some form of exterior wood preservative, and some local flashings formed over the worst affected parts.

[sniederb]

33 minutes ago, Redbeard said:

Can we have a pic from a distance showing how the Veluxes come into the equation? What I can visualise up to now is a pitched roof 1 floor above the balcony 'collecting' water between the Veluxes and 'tipping' it down the wall. But why doesn't the gutter stop that? I am sure the answer is simple, but I cannot see it yet. More info and context = more comprehensive answers. Many thanks in advance.

I got lost in the details without giving the big picture, my apologies. The green net prevents birds from hitting the glass, as I'm sure you were wondering. The Velux are from left to right: window + door to access the balcony, then two further windows. Between window+door and the other two windows there's a small down-gutter-whatnot. It's in the vertical of that gutter-thingy where most water accumulates.

[sniederb]

1 hour ago, Conor said:

I have a friend who had this issue. They fitted a polycarbonte type roof to the underside of the joists, falling away from the house to a gutter. you'd want some sort of flashing / sill along the wall to direct water off the building.

The 

> you'd want some sort of flashing / sill along the wall to direct water off the building.

 

part is pretty much my issue, I don't see how to squeeze anything in there.

[Iceverge]

As per Daves missive above I'm not a big fan of balconies etc projecting from a wall. 

 

I'd much prefer to have it as a completely stand alone structure not in contact with the building. 

 

To this end I would. 

 

1. Initially add horizontal support under the balcony maybe 500mm from the wall. Acro props under a plank and some cross bracing. 

 

2. Cut the joist ends from the wall with a saber saw at an angle to avoid the joist brackets. 

 

 

3. Remove the ledger plate bolted to the wall. This may be tricky as the fixings look rotten. You could get a hole saw and an accurate depth gauge to "just about" cut the thickness of the joist around the screws and then break it off the wall with a pry bar and then remove the screws with a mole grips or something. 

 

4. Add a couple of vertical post supports and a horizontal beam under the deck to replace the wall ledger. Keep them at least 150mm from the wall. Add appropriate cross and knee bracing to stop it swaying. 

 

5. Give the whole thing a couple of really good doses of wood preservative. Especially the joist ends nearest to the wall where they were getting wet.

[Redbeard]

Definitely +1 to @ProDave and @Iceverge's suggestions. Gets rid of most of the issue. (Doesn't, of course, alter the fact that the timber balcony will rot out in the long term, but at least with the suggested revision the timescale for both support and decking may be similar, instead of the support rotting out first).

[sniederb]

Thanks @ProDave, @Iceverge and @Redbeard, I'll give the "get it off the wall"-idea some thought.