I inspected a 1901 house today, and I noted there was a lack of flashing above doors and windows. I am curious however, as to this particular situation. in the pictures provided you may be able to see that the windows and doors are installed under a little roof overhang, or with the siding creating a “flashing” above the windows. My initial reaction is “this may have been correct at the time of construction, but I recommend installation of flashing to protect the wood.”
Just a little unsure due to the age and particular construction.
Thanks all! Apperantly the buyer is really into this type of house (its got a lot of issues) but they are a “craftsman” and are excited to have something to fix up and sell later. More power to them.
This is a problem - NOT!
You can’t look at the original installation from 1901 and recommend that they add flashing to 120 year old window installations, you just going to sound silly. If there is damage repair it and move on.
Thanks for the input Jeff and Alan. The age is a big part of why I was unsure of how to proceed with my recommendation.
Ok Walter, thats an understandable position. obviously you cant redo and update every little thing on a house like this. I know I will be faced with more homes from this era as there are lots of them in my area, and the market is totally insane at the moment. last i checked we had a 9 day supply, and buyers are waving inspections left and right, yet all the inspectors are booked out.
Oh yea, along with the future of the roof course, and the predicting crazy weather events course. I hear those are also crazy. We had a windstorm not long ago that destroyed trees all over town, smashed houses all over, and killed at least 2 people.
Those are not 120 old windows. When windows are re-installed, they should be re-installed following modern standards or they may just leak and or fail prematurely
Mr Buyer, the house you are looking to buy is 120 years old, nothing is wrong with it because it was built 120 years ago and back then we had no building standards, now hand over my money.
I disagree. There are two ways to install new windows in an old house. One way is take it all down to the framing and rebuild it. The other way is to remove the sashes and retrofit a new window into the opening. No removing trim interior or exterior, no painting etc. I can retrofit a new window in about 20 minutes, done. I have installed 1000s of windows like this. Yes 1000s. It would be cost prohibitive for most people to pay for 3 days of labor for one window.
In my opinion, the only window in this old house I would be concerned about (in this photo) is the upper left window. I would put the flashing across the first horizontal piece that butts up to the shakes. The other windows are inset or very close to the soffit. So in my opinion, that horizontal piece on that window is the weak point.
(btw, that addition does not appear to be 100 yrs old)
