Best Way to Flash a flangless window
I am in the process of rebuilding and extremely water damaged portion of exterior wall. We have demoed out the old wall framing, re-framed and sheathed and are ready to install the windows. These windows do not have flanges. Their frames are wooden and were previously installed flush with the sheathing. The previous builder tucked the hosewrap into the window opening, on all four sides and then installed the window. He then cased the window with 1×4’s, provided head flashing (on top of the house wrap) and then installed wood dutchlap siding that butted into the casing.
This website has a lot of info for installing windows with flanges – could anyone point me to an article or give some advice for flangless windows? At this point I am thinking the only way to flash the vertical portions and head jamb is to provide housewrap tape that overlaps the window frame and the housewrap. Then install casing with head flashing tucked under the housewrap as usual in other window installs.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Replies
First off, of course, think like a raindrop.
Beyond that, we resided our house about 20 years back. It was built in 1976 and has windows with brick mold and no flanges. What we did is install Z head flashing, install housewrap, then carefully tape the housewrap to the edges of the brick mold. After the siding (hardboard) was installed we caulked the joints between siding and brick mold (leaving the head uncaulked).
No problems at all with this approach after 20 years.
In your case I'd maybe consider installing tape between housewrap and window frame, before re-installing your casing. Or perhaps better use a "membrane" type product instead of the tape.