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Raking Sunlight

Pro tip, as computer manuals said back when (a) everyone was not yet comfortable using a computer and (b) computer manuals still existed: environmental conditions can help in building investigation. For example, I like conducting facade inspections on very cold days because you can often see icicles forming at places where there are holes or gaps in the sheathing that allow interior air to leak out. 

If you’re patient and have some luck with the weather, catching a facade when the sunlight is close to parallel to it can reveal a whole lot of issues. In this case, the limestone veneer panels are badly misaligned. Some of the joints (the blindingly-white ones) are recent, probably in places where the old mortar fell out; there’s some staining where water is exiting the cavity behind the stone panels at places other than where it was supposed to. This is not to say that there is necessarily a waterproofing or structural problem here. The panels can be misaligned without any specific problem other than some discrepancies about water migration in and out of the cavity. But the raking light lets you find the misalignment without even trying, as your walking by playing with your cell phone.

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