I haven’t been in the forums in over a year or so. Raising a baby is a lot of work. ;o)
But, spring’s back, and the old house still needs a lot of work.
The windows on our house are original, with newer inserts. When the inserts were put in, they also capped all of trim in aluminum…rather poorly. As such, most of the brick moulding has long rotted away. I’ve been pulling it down and at least one window, had to be completely replaced.
So, we did that this weekend. The only point of contention be myself and the father in law was what do to with the drip cap. The old brick moulding had a drip cap under the stucco (it had since been caulked shut) so my thinking was that we should place a new one up there and leave it open. Was/Is that the right thing to do? Or, should it be completely caulked shut?
Here’s a photo of where things are at:
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It's supposed to rain this week. The wife is asking why the window isn't done. Any opinions on the above? ;o) ;o)
Darrel,
I'm not sure I understand the question or the photo, but see if this helps.
It is always better to have some kind of flashing at plane discontinuities in stucco, such as lintels. If you can get a new drip cap in there and caulk it, that's fine. If you can't get a new drip cap in, caulk will be better than nothing.
More important than anything, check the window manufacturer's warranty and installation instructions. They're often really different. For example, I installed one kind of windows and to get the warranty I had to caulk the windows right to the framing. Another kind of windows, no caulk anywhere until the finish coat of stucco is on. Go figure.
DRC
Nice job on bending a new aluminum drip cap!
If it were me, I'd silicone the joint between the flashing and the stucco instead of leaving it open I understand your reasoning ( leave it open to allow trapped water an escape route). Question is...is water being trapped behind your stucco? Your stucco looked like the authentic masonry type...which would allow water vapor to wick through it to the outside anyway ( unlike acrylic stuccos such as Dryvit). I doubt much rain would being driven into the joint if left open, but do you live in snow country? Snow could possibly build up on top of drip cap and find its way behind stucco. It could freeze and then cause stucco to crack. ( just a theory). For this reason, I'd silicone it.
Davo
> I'm not sure I understand the question or the photo, but see if this helps.
Oh...the photo is the top brick moulding on the new window, with drip cap. My understanding is that the drip cap is meant to be a water shed, allowing any water coming down behing the stucco to shed to the outside. As such, it didn't seem right that I should caulk it.
Good point on reading the installation instructions! I know...I know...RTFM ;o)
> Nice job on bending a new aluminum drip cap!
Umm...well, that's from the lumber yard. Pre bent.
> Question is...is water being trapped behind your stucco?
Well, I guess I don't know. It's old stucco (70 years) and does have a few hairline cracks. On this window, there's one extending out from the upper left corner. I'm going to caulk that as best I can near the window.
> Your stucco looked like the authentic masonry type...
> which would allow water vapor to wick through it to
> the outside anyway
Ah! Is that what caused the mold in new stucco houses? New/synthetic stucco doesn't wick? Water CLEARLY wicks through as the previous owners painted the stucco with impermeable paint. As such, most of it is flaking off now.
> but do you live in snow country?
St. Paul, MN. Though if this winter was an example, fewer people will be considering it snow country ;o)
OK, well, it seems like that my logic isn't too far off but that most people recommend caulking it as well (including the father in law!)
Thanks, Guys!