Name your favorite brand of windows.  How about your favorite roofing and siding brands?  Maybe you have a couple of favorites. Now, what’s your favorite brand of deck ledger flashing?  I suspect most builders and remodelers don’t know who makes the flashing supplied by their lumberyard.  Flashing seems to be one of those commodity products and falls to the lowest common denominator – price.  

There are a few companies out there making premium flashing.  One ledger flashing I’ve used the last 2 years is EverFlashing (www.ledgerflashing.com ).  It has a unique profile, comes in two cap sizes and is available in heavy-gauge stainless steel, G185 galvanized steel and colored aluminum.  

Extra Fin

Standard ‘Z’ flashings have a wall leg, a cap leg and a drop leg.  EverFlashing adds an integral 1 in. fin that projects a strong inch up the wall leg.  The fin serves a couple functions.  First, it conceals the edge of decking where meets the building. If you lay decking starting at the outside of the deck with a full-width board like I do, then the board against the house usually needs to be ripped.  The fin gives a clean look to the last deck board without going to the effort to ease the board edge.  And it accommodates unevenness in any board-to-house gap.  The fin also helps deflect wind-driven water.  When wind-driven rain hits a house wall, the wind can drive the water vertically under flashing and siding laps.  The fin helps reduce the amount of water driven upward. 

Counter Flash Wall Leg

The wall leg of EverFlashing is almost 4 in. tall; short by my standards.  But the company’s installation details call for a counterflashing which extends to wall leg.  I use a 4 in. to 6 in. wide strip of self-adhering flashing tape as counterflashing.  The bond between the flashing tape and the flashing seals against water entry.

EverFlashing’s drip leg is an ample ½ in. There are two cap leg sizes –  1 ½ in. for ledgers installed tight to the wall and 2 1/8 in. for ledgers spaced off the wall by a stack of washers or the Deck-to-Wall spacer.

The flashing comes in 10 ft. lengths.  Locally the G185 1 ½ in. x 10 ft. flashing sells for just under $17.  The aluminum flashing is about $18 per length and stainless steel is about $35.  As a comparison, the generic light-gauge painted electrogalvanized flashing 1 ½ in. x 8 ft. flashing stocked locally is about half the price of the EverFlashing G185.

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