Preparing to set and flash the windows, the day started with much exasperation over the sheer quantity of slightly different professional install videos available. I started the day relaxed with a simple understanding that a sill ought to be level and sloped outwards, a window ought to be square, water flows downhill and you should never seal the bottom nailing flange, but after watching a zillion YouTube videos I started to doubt my ability to do literally anything properly.
I learned to set windows 20 years ago with layered tarpaper and hammer tackers, it wasn’t a perfectly tight system but it dried out easily and was good enough for a house with standard eaves.
Things have changed a lot since then and without eaves to save us, (at least on the sides), we are trying to flash everything “the right way”.
Apparently you can spend big bucks on tyvek brand everything and there is some sort of warranty, but we just used a mishmash what we could find locally: plastic window shims, Fortifiber corner shields, and good ol’ Vycor.
The windows we bought are Marvin Integrity line, a great product I’ll talk about more in my next post. They have a unique folding flange that seems solid enough but does require a carefully placed adhesive corner gasket.
A bit of a battle, but at the end of the day, a sill still ought to be level and sloped outwards, a window ought to be square, water still flows downhill, and you should never seal the bottom nailing flange. Tomorrow we tackle the french door.
– Brian
