How To Install Drip Cap Over Window

Drip caps are an essential component of a waterproofing system that includes properly installed exterior cladding, trim, a weather-resistive barrier (WRB), and flashing tape. They should exist used wherever h2o tin can go behind the horizontal edge of an exterior finish textile or assembly to help mitigate water intrusion.

Unfortunately, those piffling strips of metal are often neglected or inadequately specified within a builder's quality assurance program. That's because the bug caused by a bad drip cap installation seldom reveal themselves until long afterward the warranty period ends.

Such latent consequences take the form of rotted sheathing, trim, and siding, or perhaps deeper structural degradation and mold growth. And though the home'southward one-year warranty may accept expired, your liability and reputation every bit the builder is still on the hook.

When information technology comes to baste caps, what we see done right and wrong is consistent amidst builders, and avoiding mistakes is simply a matter of paying attention to a few fundamental details.

First rule: Avoid the stuff y'all tin buy at the lumberyard, which tends to be thin and flimsy and with a vertical dorsum leg that'due south non tall plenty to prevent wind-driven pelting from forcing its mode up and backside the metal barrier.

An effective baste cap is a minimum 26-gauge-thick metal with a back leg at least 4 inches tall that's properly integrated with the WRB or adhered to the drainage plane using flashing tape (see illustration, beneath), depending on the sequence of your window installation.

Most siding installers today fabricate their ain baste caps to ensure these qualities, and you should include and verify those standards in your construction guidelines and details.

To ensure intended operation, the lower edge of the drip cap should lap ¼-inch over the trim it'south protecting and, for best results, should include an outward kick. That additional bend in the drip cap ensures h2o drips off the edge of the metal rather than existence drawn backside information technology. With that, each end cap should exist folded downwardly over the ends of the trim board so rain can't blow in from the side.

Even where drip caps accept been correctly fabricated, I ofttimes run across them installed with insufficient or negative gradient, and with the siding or trim installed tight to the drip cap. You don't demand much slope, but you lot do need enough to assist h2o drain off.

When yous install siding over trim that's protected past a baste cap, leave a 3/8-to-¼-inch gap betwixt the drip cap and the bottom of the siding.

Unfortunately, I've been on a lot of jobs where the bottom edge of the siding rests directly on the drip cap, often because homeowners don't like the await of the resulting gap.

In that case, explain to both the homeowner and the installer that the gap is necessary to go along the joint from trapping h2o and is required by the siding manufacturer'south installation instructions. It's non a hard sell; most people don't want the house to rot, or be liable for it.

And while it seems obvious not to fill up that gap with sealant, I come across it done all the fourth dimension. Simply, if you seal that gap, the water won't exist able to bleed out from the outside cladding assembly and could void the siding manufacturer'due south warranty.

The bottom line: Drip caps are not difficult to practice right, and doing them right won't add cost. When you consider the potential for failure that a bit of extra scrutiny can eliminate, drip caps take one of the all-time returns on investment of whatsoever material you specify.

John F. Koenig is a building functioning specialist with the PERFORM Architect Solutions team at IBACOS.

Source: https://www.probuilder.com/drip-cap-essential-absolutely

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