Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

The New York Times, alone in its outrage over access to Biden

The ‘Access Hollywood’ video cemented Trump’s air of invincibility

Stephen A. Smith would like even more of your attention

Ask Amy: I live with my boyfriend – and his sister and her family

Carolyn Hax: Working for a celebrity has this employee feeling ‘small’

Carolyn Hax: Longtime friend won’t forgive being last-minute canceled for a guy

Twitch streamers become go-to news source for campus protest coverage

After years of delay, Boeing to try again with Starliner space capsule

Divided Trump campaign weighs joining TikTok, the app he tried to ban

A frank look at hot dog prices at MLB ballparks

Sloppy first inning dooms the Nationals in a 6-3 loss to the Blue Jays

In a pinch, the Nationals finally find some offense

There’s still time for Congress to Trump-proof the Insurrection Act 

The Post endorses April McClain Delaney and Tom Royals for Maryland’s 6th District

On Press Freedom Day, little to celebrate for Hong Kong’s journalists

How Pope Francis opened the Vatican to transgender sex workers

Israel shuts down Al Jazeera’s operations, raids Jerusalem office

Hamas attacks border crossing, killing 3, as Gaza cease-fire talks drag on

The new cure-all for vacation excess: the IV drip 

What’s the best bus to New York? We tested 5 for comfort and value.

You asked: Do I need a passport for my cruise?

Top RNC lawyer resigns after rift grows with Trump

Trump escalates attacks on prosecutors, says Democrats run ‘a Gestapo administration’

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

Teen grabs wheel when driver passes out and school bus veers into traffic

Cat climbed into Amazon return box, found alive 630 miles away

In photos: The 150th running of the Kentucky Derby

Bodies found in Mexico where 3 tourists went missing

Protesters clash with law enforcement at U-Va.

WAUKESHA, WI - MAY 1st: Former president Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on Wednesday May 1st, 2024.  (Photo by Sara Stathas for the Washington Post)

Tim Carter

Dear Tim: I’ve got a sliding patio door on the back of my home. There’s a moisture problem directly under the door in the basement. The gutters are clear and the patio is level. I plan to seal between the bottom aluminum threshold and the concrete curb and caulk the gap between the side trim and my brick. I know I need to install a concrete overlay to get my patio to drain. Is that all I have to do? How would you repair my sliding door leak? — Doug T., Windsor, Ontario

Doug: You’re suffering like many other homeowners. Not a week goes by that I don’t get a request for help from one of my newsletter subscribers or a visitor to my <a href="http://askthebuilder.com/">AsktheBuilder.com</a> website. When I look at the photos homeowners send me, as you did, it’s clear that many builders, remodelers and carpenters are clueless about flashing exterior doors.

I regret to inform you that your plan of attack may not solve the problem. What’s more, caulk is not a permanent solution no matter what the warranty on the label states. I’m beginning to think that caulk manufacturers are using warranties more as a marketing gimmick than as a factual representation about how long the product will actually perform without failure.

Your photos show that you’ve got a brick exterior with raked mortar joints. This method of dressing the mortar creates a small shelf on top of each horizontal row of brick, and it’s the least waterproof mortar joint. The most weather-resistant mortar joint is one that’s been created with a convex rounded tool. When the bricklayer uses the tool on the soft mortar, the resulting shape is a slightly concave mortar joint where the edges of the mortar touch the outer edges of the brick.

[More Builder: Cold toes? Here’s how to add a vapor barrier and insulation to your crawl space.]

Water flowing down the wall during an intense wind-driven rainstorm is automatically forced down the wall by the concave joints. With your raked joint, water can collect to a slight degree on the small shelf. If a brick or two or three has a backward tilt, the water can begin to seep behind the brick.

Your photos also scream at me that your builder or the carpenter didn’t put a proper flashing under the door threshold. This flashing is designed to shed water to the outside of the concrete step beneath the door threshold.

Think for a moment how overlapping shingles work on a roof or lap wood siding works on the exterior wall of a house. Each successive shingle or piece of siding overlaps the one below. This is no different from the way feathers work on a bird. Gravity pulls the water over each shingle, piece of siding or feather, and the water never can get into the core of the building or bird.

In the case of your door, water can get behind the concrete curb under the threshold. While there might be a hidden flashing behind the concrete curb, how is it possible for the water to get back out on top of the patio and drain away from the house? The concrete curb is acting like a dam.

My advice is to carefully remove the aluminum trim that’s covering the wood trim that surrounds the sliding patio door. Then remove any wood trim around the door. You need to determine if the top and sides of the door have proper flashing.

As drastic as it sounds, you also need to remove the simple concrete curb that’s under the door threshold. While this may seem like a difficult task, I’m quite sure it’s only going to take an hour or less using a four-pound hammer or even less time if you rent an electric demolition hammer from a tool rental business. Be sure to tape thin sheets of plywood over the glass to protect the door from flying pieces of concrete.

Once you’ve exposed the top, sides and bottom of the door, you can assess what needs to be done to make the door waterproof. I’m hoping that you discover the builder or carpenter installed a proper flashing pan under the entire door threshold. That’s the first step that should have been taken even before the door was lifted into the rough opening.

[More Builder: Need extra seating on your deck? Here’s how to build it yourself.]

If there’s no flashing pan under the door, I’m afraid that you need to remove the entire door from the opening and start the entire installation process over from scratch. There are preformed plastic flashing pans that you can use under the door, or you can create one with thin sheets of lead or modern rubberized-asphalt-based flashing tape. There are countless videos online that show you how to install these flashings under a door or window.

The ultimate goal is to create a series of overlapping layers of flashing material so that any water that gets behind the door trim from above the door or along the sides is captured and redirected back out to the front face of the house below the door threshold.

Years ago, builders used soldered sheet copper or tin-coated steel. Good flashing is critical in homes that are framed with wood. It’s unacceptable for any water to gain access to the wood framing behind brick, siding or stucco. The technology to achieve this goal has been known for hundreds of years, but unfortunately many modern builders don’t study old buildings to see how the master builders of old kept houses dry.

Need an answer? All of Tim’s past columns are archived free at <a href="http://www.askthebuilder.com/">www.AsktheBuilder.com</a>. You can also watch hundreds of videos, download Quick Start Guides and more.

The Washington Post

Rentals

Agent Directory

New Homes Guide

Real Estate

prism://prism.query/site,/realestate&limit=20

Washington Post's Real Estate section is your source for buying and selling a home and finding open houses in DC, MD and VA.