Step Flashing

[Mark P]

At the upper front left corner of this house, where the roof meets the wall covered with vinyl - the step flashing goes all the way under the vinyl and OSB. Inside the attic the steps make a little channel for the water to run down and out a hole at the bottom. Sections of the OSB is black from getting wet. The house was built in 2006 - out where there are no muni inspections. As you can see in the pictures the shingles must have been put on before the siding was. Would I be off base in calling this builder a dumb ass? Is there any other feasible repair besides removing the siding and shingles and do it correctly?

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[Tom Raymond]

Would I be off base in calling this builder a dumb ass?

You'd be a little too kind.

[Bain]

I'm with Tom. What I don't understand, is why there are shingles beneath the OSB. The house was roofed before, or at the same time, the sheathing was installed?

That's beyond dumbass.

[Jim Katen]

Don't know about his ass, but his head sure is dumb.

[Marc]

I wouldn't call him a dumb ass. He may have bumped that wall out a little to take care of some error in the plans. That doesn't get him completely off the hook though. Just enough to not call him a dumb ass. Dumb ass is reserved for those who build that way out of ignorance when they possess a correctly written set of plans.

I'd absolutely still be writing it up.

I've often seen a similar detail where the brick veneer sits on top of the roof/wall step flashing, mostly involving dormers.

Marc

[hausdok]

I think he definitely had his head up his butt when he decided to block out that wall without stripping the cover back and re-doing the flashings at the wall plane.

When you think about it, this isn't much different than if they'd opted not to sheath the gable end walls above the living space and only covered the gable end framing with felt as so many do. In a case like that, the felt behind the siding and/or any fanfold would get wet anyway.

With vinyl siding, condensation and blow-through collects on the backside and has to drain out. The tiny weep holes on the drip edges of the extrusions allow most of that to drain but some drains down the face of the WRB or fanfold. If there isn't any WRB or fanfold behind the vinyl and there is an unsealed end cut on the OSB that end cut (In this case the rake cut) will absorb water and rot.

He still would have needed to provide kickouts where that wall ends so that water didn't continue past the end of the roof at the bottom of that wall and into the wall below; and he'd still need to seal the bottom edge of the OSB and keep that OSB farther away from that roof-to-wall joint.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[John Kogel]

Looking at the pics, the overhang is equal on all the gables. I think Dumass needed to correct the gable wall to match the brick veneered dormers, but didn't care to do it properly.

[AHI in AR]

Looking at the pics, the overhang is equal on all the gables. I think Dumass needed to correct the gable wall to match the brick veneered dormers, but didn't care to do it properly.

The wall was furred out to provide the necessary brick pocket. Unfortunately, the flashing details are crap.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but those aren't dormers on the front of the home -- they are gables. Unless terminology is different in Canada, that is. Dormers sit on the roof.

Back to the original question: The roofing wouldn't HAVE to be removed. A competent contractor could remove the bottom J channel, remove nails at the ends of the vinyl siding as needed, and install step flashing. With a proper kickout at the bottom, of course. This would remove the need for the original flashing.

Good luck finding a competent contractor...

[Jim Baird]

The perils of "mixed media" cladding.

In our area a builder who regarded himself as a creative type mixed roof covers, as in part sheet metal panels and part three-tabs. How does it look? If looks could smell I would say, "Stinko".

[John Kogel]

Looking at the pics, the overhang is equal on all the gables. I think Dumass needed to correct the gable wall to match the brick veneered dormers, but didn't care to do it properly.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but those aren't dormers on the front of the home -- they are gables. Unless terminology is different in Canada, that is. Dormers sit on the roof.

You're right. West of the Ottawa River, dormers sit on the roof, just like yours do.

East of there, 'dormer' means 'to sleep'. Sleepin rooms up there on the roof there, eh?

I guess I should have called them 'gabled bumpouts'. They're too short to be wings.

[Jim Baird]

"...I guess I should have called them 'gabled bumpouts'. They're too short to be wings..."

Down here they call them dog houses. For some reason people think they look good.