flashing

It's all about the flash[ing]

by the Carpenter

It’s the flashing I tell ya!

Ok, I know I have talked about this before but it ticks me off so much its worth another post.

We have been on several projects over the years when we have had to give the homeowner news they don’t want to hear. The news is we have found significant rot and decay in a major structural component of their home. It happened again this week.

We have been on the stucco removal stage of our project - Modern Farmhouse- http://www.applewoodremodelers.com/recent-projects/for a couple of weeks now and its been going pretty smoothly. Until this week. We uncovered two major areas of rot that had to be repaired. These were expensive repairs– increased labor and the cost of additional materials. Not happy news for our homeowner.

What ticks me off is this. Incorporating one simple piece of material could have prevented the added work on this project and others we have had. It’s a $10 piece of material http://www.dictionaryofconstruction.com/definition/flashing.html and when installed correctly would have stopped all these problems.

Its called flashing! Whether its window, dormer, door, or kick-out flashing, they all do the same thing. They all divert water away from vulnerable areas of your home. When installed properly, they will protect your home for years and years.

Here is another project we did with major rot damage due to lack of flashing. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.378883805532138.94725.342655239154995&type=3

What ticks me off more is how many carpenters, siders, and roofers have no idea as to what they are doing. They do their thing and then they are gone and then the problems don’t show up for years. When the problems do show up, the repairs can be extremely expensive.

If you are having work done on your home... remember to ask if they have added the appropriate flashing. Just that one inquiry will save you or the future owner of your home a boatload of stress and money.