HI,
I always thought housewrap was installed over the window openings and then cut and wrapped around the inside of the window opening.
I noticed there was no wrap on the lower sill.
It just looks like strips of tyvek are cut and stapled on either side of the window and above the header. Then the windwo was installed.
Is that the correct way to prepare an opening before installing windows/doors?
wanda
Replies
bump to bring back into the list
Wanda
Can't say that I've seen it done that way, but probably have. To be honest, I've seen many different installs and some have been right from the start, others got there and some have ended just plain bewilderingly wrong.
The house wrap should go over the window installs that feature a peel and stick flashing along with the fins and head flashing over the window tops. The pics are rather small to see if all that is there, but I'm thinking not......................
Some add peel and stick over the house wrap in addition to what was put on over the fins, around the windows-some don't.
The idea is to keep overlapping from bottom up and material out, so that any water that might get in there, doesn't enter the house and can drain out at the bottom of something. What sometimes happens when installed in the wrong order, it traps water instead and doesn't allow it to drain. That's where the real problems start.
This can't be your house, can it?
Back to your question-depending on what shows up onsite and when, you'll see parts is peices put up what looks haphazard, but then when finishing, things are tucked in and overlayed in the proper manner. Whether that will happen? beats me.
For a detail on window install, look up the install directions on a good co. like Marvin, Andersen, Pella, several others. Most will have the same general details shown in diagram and print.
There are a number of different styles/sequences for installing housewrap, and, while different people cling religiously to one technique or another, there are certainly several different ways that are equally sound.
When housewrap first came out the style was to wrap the house, then X the windows and staple back the flaps, then install the windows. This was before nailing flanges on windows became common. With nailing flanges there are those who advocate placing the wrap over the flange rather than under, which is fine. But, frankly, if good quality tape is used (and tape or "peel and stick" should be used around windows) there is probably no strong argument for one order vs the other. (Some are going to argue that the wrap must be on the outside above the window, to let water out, but they never explain how the water gets in in the first place, or how it gets out if there's no convenient window top to let it out.)