Jersey City Heights Leak Question

[Ayana Morali]

Hey all, I've got an apartment in Jersey City Heights and there's been a mysterious leak for over a year now. At first we thought it was the radiator in the apartment above, got that fixed (and fixed the wall damage in my apartment). Then the leak came back a few months later after a rainstorm (leak is on a wall touching an exterior wall) so we thought the leak might be coming from the exterior and the HOA hired a company to seal up the pointers/brick outside my apartment. I then gut renovated my apartment this summer and the leak just came back (not long after another storm, though not sure exactly when as the apartment is currently empty.

I had a plumber out who said it might be piping or the exterior and I had a general contractor out who said it was very likely the exterior and the whole building needed to be sealed. I'm at the end of my rope with this thing -- and I can't rent it out until this gets resolved. Does anyone have any advice on the best way to figure out what's going on and to get to the bottom of it? I asked the contractor about a water test and he laughed.

Also, does anyone have anyone in the Jersey City Heights area they'd rec for this work? I'm calling places I find online but no one is calling me back. Not sure if it's a busy time of year or what.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Sebastian Kowalik]

@Ayana Morali I’m on New York Ave. and we had a similar issue. It’s a 6-unit building and we were getting a mysterious leak through the back wall of our unit.

Like many of the roof and siding jobs in Hudson County, the deck builders botched the flashing under the siding and attached the deck directly to the back of the building instead of an intermediary material.

We recently had the siding and flashing redone and that has solved the mystery for now.

I’m happy to pass along our contractor if you need a contact.