STUCCO NEWS.NET

Hi,

Just wanted to thank you for all the material you have online. Much appreciated.

If you are curious to read how I got to your website, here is my story. This past Monday I had a company install replacement vinyl windows on my stucco walls, and I noticed too late that they did not do any flashing or sill pans at the bottom.

I'm in Austin, Texas, so not that humid and not excessive rain. This is a house built in 1996. But still, the windows that are most exposed are likely to develop some type of water penetration damage around at some point.

The manager claims that their insulation foam is what provides the water barrier, but I qualify that as BS, as water will just keep seeping down and down behind the stucco.

I found the installation instructions for the windows and the instructions call for installing a sill pan. From what I learned from your websites and other material I found, that would be better than doing nothing.

Still deciding how much I want to fight for a proper installation, an explicit warranty, or just give up :-(

Thanks for reading if you got to this, and thanks again for all the good content!

Thanks so much for the accolades and for visiting my site.

You can see what I am trying to do.

Spray foam absorbs and traps water.

They are using it because it expands and keeps the window from wiggling.

Almost all manufacturers recommend a sill pan flashing, but they are rarely used. The important thing is that the sill pan is angled out of the house, and not into the house.

In the old days, they used a big window sill which was a slab underneath the whole window that deflected water out. You didn't need a sill flashing.

More important is flashing over the window that is angled down.

Thank you for sharing those videos and that additional information.

For my particular case, I had the manager for the window installation/sales company, the district sales guy from the manufacturer and a service technician at my house last Friday to inspect my windows. The window that worried me the most, is one that is in a similar setup as in the second video you shared with me. It is on a two story stucco side of the house, and the window is on the first floor with no eave protecting the top of it. The service technician sprayed the window with a water hose, and as he sprayed the top of the window, water started to drip inside the house at the top of the window. Epic failure.

The window company agreed to re-install the window and this time adding flashing over the window (I will make sure it is angled down). They do not seem very keen to add flashing at the bottom (sill pan), but I will share the other video you shared with me and try to convince them it is in their best interest to do something similar (properly angled).

As for the windows that I have on the second floor whose tops are protected from the eaves of the house, the service technician indicated those are likely to be fine and will not run into problems. I'm not fully convinced, but not sure how much more I want to fight the windows company over those, and whether I trust them to do it right. I may try to get an explicit written warranty about their job.

Again, thank you very much for enlightening the stucco community. If there is an address where I can try to ship a six pack of beers or a coffee shop gift card, do let me know. I guess I may be able to do the latter to this email address of yours.