Waterproofing Details for Leak-Prone Areas of a Custom Home
Hey, Brian Freeman with Freeman’s Construction here. Today, I will show you a waterproofing detail in a common location to get a leak. When building a home, it’s essential to do the waterproofing right. So I want to show you a custom home we’re building and what we’re doing to ensure it gets done right.
Identifying and Preventing Leaks: A Close Look at Proper Fascia Installation
I want you to see where this condition occurs and where you could get this leak if you don’t do this properly. So we have a black piece of wood, which is a piece of fascia that’s running over and dying into another wall. So we will go ahead and get up close, and I want to show you how this needs to get done and what the potential problems could be.
The Key to Waterproofing Your Fascia Board
We’re up here nice and close, so you can see what’s happening. This piece of wood is a 2×8; this is your fascia board, running over into the wall. On the backside, you got the tail coming off of your truss. Then you have your sub-fascia back there to meet the fire code. And then you have a piece of Jiffy Seal; it’s a peel-and-stick. So this is important and what you must do to avoid leaks.
The Importance of Proper Fascia Installation for Siding and Stucco Projects
So a lot of times, what’ll happen is you will see a framer take the fascia, and what they’ll do is they’ll run it all the way tight to the other side, to the actual wall. Nothing gets put back behind there. And you’ll also see it’s tight; you can’t get anything behind it as far as putting in any siding or stucco. So this gap has to be adjusted here if you’re putting siding or stucco because you’ve got to slide behind this with the material you’re using.
Creating the Right Gap Size for Successful Fiber Cement Siding Installation
So what we’ve done is make sure that we’ve cut this back. The gap is about 1/2 or 5/8ths of an inch. And this allows you to get fiber cement siding there because you’ll have it lapping over itself. So it’s 5/16ths times two. And you have a little bit of a gap, so you can slide through and get the siding up in here, depending on where the laps hit and where the siding laps onto that piece.
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Installing Flashing for Z-bar: A Crucial Step for Waterproofing
Before the siding goes on, the flashing for the Z-bar goes on first. The backing for the Z-bar is 1×4. But this goes on first, so you can get it behind the whole section because you want to keep this from leaking right here. This is where the leak would occur. Then, the water would come in and pour down the wall.
The Importance of Proper Water Barrier Installation for Leak-Free Walls
So what this allows us to do is get paper behind this around the back, slide it up under, and we can get paper out in front of this. And then, we would remove the piece keeps it from sticking on the back. Pull this off. And then we’d staple it down to the paper. And now everything is sheeting down. So it’s all sheeting down the wall. It goes all the way down to the wall, to the ground. And it’s not going to leak. So even if the water gets behind the siding, it won’t leak.
The Benefits of Using Z-bar Backing for Future Roofing Needs
So what we do here is set up to help the roofer if they ever have to re-roof it; you put the Z-bar backing on. Regardless if you have siding or stucco, you’d put this on here. And then if they’re using shingles, they’d have a step flashing that goes on, that laps with the shingles that goes up underneath the eve up there.
Ensuring Effective Water Drainage with Z-bar Metal and Kickout Flashing
And then what ends up happening is the Z-bar metal has a piece of metal that comes down. So you see, it comes down here like this, comes out, and then it counters over the top. This would be on top of this, but it counters over the top of this other metal because the metal will be on top of this paper. And then you have the paper that goes on top of this Z-bar metal that runs up the wall up to the top. And then everything is sheeting down. And even if water gets through here, it hits this and then runs down the paper if it gets behind the siding. But they also will take on this metal they put here, and they put a kick-out flashing that ends up kicking out right here, pushing the water away from that spot even further.
The Key Role of Peel-and-Stick Membrane in Proper Gutter Installation
And then if you’re putting gutters on, you’ll end up having a gutter that’ll slide up underneath the metal, that drip metal, and then it’ll end up dumping right into your gutter and then running out. So essential detail to make sure this happens. So make sure you hold this fascia back, and get this peel-and-stick membrane in here before you end up putting any of this on here. So make sure before your Z-bar backing everything goes on, and get it tuned up.
Contact Freeman's Construction for Your Home Project
I hope you learned something about that waterproofing detail where your fascia runs into your wall. Feel free to contact us for more information about building a custom home, building an ADU, or doing a whole-house remodeling project. Make sure you check out all of our resources on our resources page. We’ve got a ton of floor plans and pricing information. We’ve also got a very comprehensive FAQ page that has a lot of answers to the questions you might have. So thanks for watching, have a great rest of your day.
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