Kick Out Flashing - Always Best Practices

Some roofers recently went through our neighborhood telling everyone they had hail damage on their houses and that this "company" would make the case for them with their insurance company and they would only pay a deductible for their roof.

It worked.  A lot of people had their roofs replaced.  I won't go into all the negative ramifications of companies that do stuff like that, or the people who fall for it.

But I knew I did not have any hail damage.  But my roof is 14 years old.

So I had a good friend and roofer, Steve Gotschi, look at it.  I have known Steve for about 15 years and have referred him all that time without anything but good feedback.  Trusting people enough to refer them to clients makes my personal referral list very, very short.  Steve I trust.  He looked at the roof, suggested some tune ups*, and I had him come out.

I was interested in two things in particular - two sky lights, which looked okay to me but I wanted another pair of eyes to look at them, and two areas where my builder did not put up any "KICK OUT" FLASHING.  In one of those spots some water was getting into my house, said my trusty thermal camera.  What this flashing does it help divert, or prevent, water at the bottom of the roof from getting into the end cut of siding behind or beside the gutter.

Steve had never heard the words "kick out flashing!"  Interesting!  That is the only term I hear used by home inspectors!  So I sent him a diagram and he emailed back saying I wanted "diverter flashing."

So, is it a sub sandwich or is it a hoagie!?

You can see how instead of kick out flashing my builder put caulking over the gutter to "keep the water out."

This is not

Best Practice

Not by any measure.

You can clearly see how water was getting behind the gutter, and also behind the siding as some was getting inside.

What to do?  Install a kick out!

Can you see it?

He gently cut the siding and inserted a small, bent piece of step flashing, cut to fit.

It goes under the siding up one course of shingle.

It is "glued" in with roof tar.

And the side, and siding, is protected from leakage with an elastomeric caulking.

Elastomerics are the caulks that say 40 year, 50 year guarantee.

They have the ability to expand and contract with serious heat/cold changes.  It is an excellent caulking, not terribly expensive, and the best practice for this application.

It has rained heavily twice since.  My camera says no water penetration!  So I am satisfied.

THAT REPAIR, SIMILARLY DONE IN FRONT AT THE OTHER SPOT, WILL LAST A VERY LONG TIME.  CERTAINLY FOR THE NEXT 5 OR 8 YEARS, THE EXPECTED LIFE SPAN LEFT FOR MY ROOF.

My recommendation:    A roof tune up never hurts!  Not expensive, Steve says this tune up probably extends the life of the roof 3-5 beyond what I might have otherwise gotten.  I'll take that!

* What did my roof "tune up" include?  Replacing a section of shingles disturbed and partially blown off during the hurricane, which conveniently happened just before Steve's visit, replacing the three cracking plumbing penetration sleeves, tacking down better and capping the ridge vents, putting back a slightly loose gutter end, examining the roof generally and putting in my two kick outs!

 

 

Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC

Based in Bristow, serving all of Northern Virginia

www.jaymarinspect.com