Where Melbourne buildings actually leak.

The short version: water almost never enters where it appears inside. Once it's through the skin it travels along slab edges and cavities until it finds a way to show. Patch the internal stain and the water keeps coming — the fix is finding and sealing the actual entry point on the façade.

The points we find most

• Perished sealant joints — the number one offender. Movement joints and panel joints whose sealant has hardened and cracked open. (More on sealant failure here.)
• Failed window and curtain-wall gaskets — EPDM gaskets that have gone hard and shrunk, letting water past the glazing line.
• Cracked render and masonry — hairline cracks that wick water in, especially on the weather elevations.
• Parapet cappings and flashings — defective or poorly lapped cappings at the top of the building that let water straight in behind the façade.
• Balcony waterproofing and thresholds — failed membranes, tile beds and door thresholds that send water inside and into the slab.
• Service penetrations — unsealed or re-opened penetrations for pipes, cables, brackets and anchors.

Why Melbourne makes it worse

Two factors stack up. Melbourne's wind-driven rain pushes water sideways and upward at the façade, so it gets into joints that would shed a vertical drip — the south and west elevations cop it hardest. And the city's big crop of 2000s–2010s towers are now at the age where the original sealants, gaskets and membranes have reached end of life all at once. Put those together and water finds every tired joint on the windward face.

Why you can't fix it from inside

This is the part that frustrates owners and managers. The plasterer patches the ceiling, it dries out over summer, and it's back the next big southerly — because the entry point on the façade was never touched. Internal works treat the symptom. The only durable fix is to trace the water to where it's actually getting in and seal it there.

How we trace it

We inspect and test the façade up close by rope access, across the whole elevation rather than a guess from the inside — checking joints, glazing lines, cappings and penetrations, and water-testing suspect areas to confirm the path before we commit to a repair. Once the source is confirmed we rectify it: re-sealing joints, repairing or replacing gaskets and flashings, addressing failed glazing or cracks — so the leak stops, not just the stain. That's our water-ingress investigation service.

Because the same tired joints that leak are usually the ones driving concrete spalling as well, it's worth catching them on a maintenance cycle rather than after the damage is done.