Keep Condensate Water off From Brickwork With This Easy Guide
Today we are talking about diverting a window AC unit condensate drain. The very specific details are part of a much bigger conversation about water trails on masonry facades and the associated damage caused by repeating residual precipitation direct to the surface of building facades. Masonry is somewhat resistant to the harmful effects of water and moisture, but over time, exposure to moisture and water can have severe debilitating and insidious deteriorating effects to brick, mortar, and other types of masonry. In fact, in a completely dry environment most masonry could last decades longer without tuckpointing or repointing of the mortar.
We will look at the following topics:
Water trails and slow damage to building facades from precipitation
We have examined the topic of water trails in the past, extensively. That information is still available and you can go back and look at some of the articles and topics related to water trails and water diversion around or on masonry facades at some of the following links:
In these past articles, we talked about the subtle details of a masonry facade, where elements of the front side such as cornices, crowns, sills, window and door headers, plinths, and ostensibly architecturally intended freizes and other esthetic details will direct water from running just beyond the horizontal face of the greater part of the masonry facade field. These elements preserve a building by running water away from or just beyond the field of the brick facade, during most vertical precipitation events and without heavy winds the facade will stay much drier than it ever would without these elements. When we walk past a building and we look at the facade, these details may remain subtle, but they significantly preserve the building from slow and deleterious damage of deterioration from exposure to precipitation.
Condensate water damage to brick masonry
When working in a city neighborhood, we saw an interesting alternative to modern or contemporary types of diversion systems. We thought this was noteworthy. It’s not a particular type of building methodology that we encourage or promote, but it is still very interesting and it’s clearly a very cost effective workaround to protect the building facade without spending much money.
Condensate water is a collection of water molecules which come out of the air and collect on a colder surface. This type of water, similar to rainwater and precipitation, can also cause major damage to brick and mortar or even stone masonry buildings. There’s always some degree of moisture or water vapor in the air, even in cases of very dry climates, such as desserts. In regular non-dessert environments such as Washington DC or Capitol Hill neighborhoods, on most days, moisture can be very high, even in the summer when air conditioning units are running. Moisture content in the air can be very high and as air conditioning units run refrigerant through the coils of the machine, air passes over those coils and results in a collection of condensation. That condensation water is referred to as condensate.
A cheap looking but functionally effective makeshift solution
Condensation water, once collected in air conditioning units, usually through a pan under a evaporator coil, is then discharged from the unit, normally by gravity. Condensation water can also be discharged with a pump. That pump or gravity drain then has to run away from the building. It can be collected internally, but in most cases with air conditioning units that water is just discharged right to the outside of the building.
In the picture below you can see an air conditioning unit. In many cases because of the greater thickness of masonry walls, the dimensions of the air conditioning unit do not allow for a large projection away from the building, where the condensate pan will drain outside of the air conditioning unit.
The picture below shows a funnel that has been connected to a hose to prevent the condensation water from running all over the facade of the brick building. This is a very cheap method and it doesn’t look good or professional, but functionally it’s doing a great job of keeping the masonry dry from condensate discharge which occurs every time the air conditioning unit is running.
In this particular case, it’s a very cheap set up. A professional setup would look more neat and wouldn’t use just a hose, it could be run with a solid pipe. Also in this case, the hose terminates or ends right above the walkway. In most cases it’s problematic when a drain crosses a property line, into a public walkway. In many cases a building code has restrictions against certain types of discharges of water or liquids onto public walkways or across property lines. The same condition applies though even in a private walkway or patio. The biggest problem with this type of drain discharge away from a building, when just charging in winter conditions in our Washington DC area is that it can cause ice slicks or areas where ice will build-up unnecessarily, even without the coincidence of precipitation.
Here though, in this particular case, ice slicks are not a related problem because this particular air conditioning unit only runs in the summertime and we never get ice or freezing temperatures in the summer season in our area of Washington DC and Capitol Hill.
It’s not fancy at all, but the way they’ve built this, they’ve just taken an automotive oil type funnel and used that to widen the upper end of the hose inlet.
It might look cheap, but it’s working to keep condensate water from running all over the brick facade of the building.
They’ve used an electrical conduit mounting clamp to mount that hose to the brick wall. Again this isn’t a professional looking application or installation, but functionally it is effective. While we do not recommend this type of installation, there’s easily more professional ways of doing or accomplishing the same thing, but this works to help protect the masonry. Aside from the screws that have been otherwise unnecessarily installed in the brick facade, this makeshift type application is actually helping preserve the facade and while there are more professional ways of doing the same thing, we thought this was a really interesting attempt to preserve the masonry facade of the building.
We encourage all of our clients, and all readers of this article and to our blog in general, to prioritize the historic built environment of Washington DC and neighborhoods such as Capitol Hill, Dupont Circle, and Georgetown and become educated on on the difference between proper historic preservation versus improper work which leads to significant damage to the historic fabric of a building.
From a conservation and preservation perspective, several approaches can be taken to improve conditions related to deteriorated historic brick masonry. Primarily, lime mortar brick joints and low temperature fired soft red clay bricks should be inspected and checked on a routine maintenance schedule, either seasonally or at least annually. If brick masonry is kept in good condition, the life of embedded wood elements can be significantly extended. Hire a professional contractor which specializes, understands and appreciates historic construction elements and buildings.
You can learn a lot more on our blog. Feel free to check it out. If you have questions about the historic masonry of your building in Washington DC, contact us or fill out the webform below and drop us a line. We will be in touch if we can help.
