Flashing at stone & siding ????

[Buck Hartley, CMI]

What say you? The builder says it is OK!

[Brian A. MacNeish]

Originally Posted by bhartley

What say you? The builder says it is OK!

Yeah!! OK for now! What about 3-5-7 years from now?

We have found in Canada as we made our homes more energy efficient and airtight (good for reducing heat loss and stopping water vapour from travelling into walls and attics with the exfiltrating warm house air), we have to work on the exterior finishes to have them shed exterior moisture better.

In the past (80-90+ years ago), we didn't use caulking and may have used flashings over windows and doors (my first house built circa 1800 had no metal flashings nor caulking). Water got into the gaps at window/door trim and cornerboards, etc. These older houses were sieves that bled heat and air through the unsealed walls and rough stud spaces around windows/doors that dried out the water.

Thus these houses stood the test of time (by drying out), not by good planning and design, but by the good luck of the heat/air loss. Nobody really wanted to be heating the outside and still be uncomfortable in colder weather. If insulation had been a well developed concept and product at that time, folks would have used it!!

Rainscreens systems with well thought out/installed flashings and drainage planes are a necessity in climatic areas with poor drying potential..........and caulking is not a replacement for flashing!!