My company is doing a very fun remodel/addition project on a 1940’s house in historic Clarksville which is an inner-city Austin neighborhood. Hugh Jefferson Randolph is the Architect on the project and he’s doing some interesting things with keeping the house’s traditional look at the old part of the house but doing very modern details in the rear. He has specified a mixture of windows; Marvin at the front, and Commercial Aluminum “Storefront” windows in the rear. These Storefront windows come with separate frames and are glazed on site. They also don’t have a nailing flange to weatherize as in a traditional residential install. Most of these commercial windows rely on a thick bead of caulk as their only line of defense against water getting into the house framing. This is unacceptable to me, so here’s how we turn that caulking into aesthetics rather than main waterproofing duties. Here’s the link to the DuPont Commercial Window Install details. And here’s the link to the StraightFlash VF install instructions. And here’s the video of how it all comes together on the job.
—Matt Risinger, Risinger Homes, Austin, Texas
