Siding & Windows
Window Installation in Charleston, SC
New openings, and the part that decides whether it leaks.
New openings, and the part that decides whether it leaks.
Quick answer: A window does not keep water out; the sill pan and flashing around it do. Flashing laps must shingle, each over the one below, so water drains outward; installed out of order they send it into the wall, and the leak shows years later at the bottom inside corners. New openings in existing walls also need a properly framed header. Southeastern Renovation installs windows in the Charleston area and York County. Call (843) 718-8177.
Related: Window replacement.
Water gets behind siding. That is normal and expected, and every wall assembly is designed to let it get back out. A window interrupts that path, so the sill pan, the flashing laps and the order in which they are installed are what decide whether the water goes back out or into the wall.
The order matters more than the material. Flashing laps have to shingle — each piece over the one below it — so gravity carries water outward at every junction. A perfectly good flashing tape installed in the wrong sequence directs water inward, and nothing about the finished appearance reveals it.
That is why the failures show up years later and always at the same place: the bottom corners. By the time the drywall stains inside, the sheathing behind it has usually been wet for several seasons.
We take this work across greater Charleston, from Summerville and Goose Creek to Mount Pleasant, West Ashley and the sea islands, and on the York County side around Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Tega Cay and Lake Wylie. More on our siding and window services.
Almost always flashing, not the window. Water gets behind siding by design and has to drain back out; if the sill pan and the flashing laps are missing or installed out of sequence, it drains into the wall instead.
The bottom corners, inside, and usually long after the fact. By the time a stain appears on drywall the sheathing behind it has generally been wet for several seasons.
Yes, and the new opening is the straightforward part. Framing the header and re-establishing the drainage plane correctly around the new opening is the work that decides whether it lasts.