No Kickout Flashing | Design Problem Detail

Here’s one that’s kinda sneaky.  When an eave dead ends into a wall along with a gutter, guess what happens?  Water rushes past the gutter and soaks the wall.  If one includes a nice “hole” in the wall in the form of a light fixture, we’ve now got a sluice gate into the wall.

The usual outcome of this is a rotten bunch of wall assembly.  It takes a few years, sometimes a decade, to really show up bad.  What’s it take to fix?  A simple little piece of metal called a “kick out flashing”.   You can buy them at Le Depot de Maison, but they’re  teeny little things that might work, but it’s usually better to make them yourself, or find a good sheet metal shop to make them for you.  The videos below show how to make them; it’s easy.

I’ve also found a couple (overlong and kinda boring) videos about how to install kick out flashing.  Look ’em over.  The 2nd video has an interesting explanation for the “Why doesn’t my roofer install kickout flashing?” question….he describes a condition into the video about 3:08, which if for no other reason, is exciting because understanding behavior is the foundation for so many things.

This is one of those details that is always screwed up on most houses.  When one introduces new materials, such as tree farm lumber, OSB, or similar engineered siding or sheathing materials, this can really go to blazes quick.

Video number one is a little different than the picture with a few more things that make it especially stupid, but the guy explains it reasonably well, but he could really use some editing.  Bad videos are commonplace in the Home Inspection world, so watch and listen for content, not editorial brilliance.

Video number two is good for the DIY’er, and has the wonderful answer to why so many things in home repair go awry….remember, about 3:08 in…..

And finally, our friend Reuben has a good video for this conundrum.  It’s good because, if for no other reason, he’s young (almost no one in this gig is young….too many old fat guys),  he’s knowledgeable (almost no one in this gig is truly knowledgeable),  and he’s passionate about what he does (almost no one in this gig etc., etc….).

 

 


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I'm a home inspector and carpenter in Chicago and this site is built from things I’ve learned from 30 years inspecting houses in this town.


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