Faulty Flashing Above Lake Harriet Bay Window
The Addition of Flashing to the Edge of This Roof Saved This Lake Harriet Homeowner Serious Money
The original builder of this beautiful home near Lake Harriet in Minneapolis spared no expense when it came to quality in design and materials. But nobody is perfect. The original roofer installed the cedar shingles with an inadequate drip, or overhang, from the large crown moulding on the top of this bay window (A).
As a result, water quietly leaked behind the crown and into the wall of the bay window, causing a fair amount of rot and damage to the wood casement windows (B).
Our client had received one opinion from the original builder to x the issue. Because the home was 12 years old the x was not covered under any warranties and it wasn’t going to be cheap. His idea was to replace the cedar roof, crown moulding, windows and surrounding trim. Cost: $5355.00.
Ouch.
In our opinion there was a smarter (and cheaper) way to fix this area that would last many, many years. First, to solve the issues related to the inadequate cedar roof projection we simply fabricated and installed a custom ashing under the first course of roofing and tar paper. Pow! Next, we dug out all of the soft wood and used an epoxy wood hardener to stabilize all of the areas affected by the water over time. Finally, we filled all the damaged areas with a two-part epoxy putty. After sanding it all down and painting, the place looked like new. It still does three years later.
