A well-built home can last well over 100 years. With that said, there are a few items that will need replacing from time to time, in order to ensure long term durability and comfort for the owners.
Windows are often one of the first things to be replaced on the exterior of a home, and it makes perfect sense. Once the seal on a window unit fails, cold drafts are super obvious and condensation can build up between the panes of glass. These are well known red flags, and homeowners will quickly start thinking about replacement. This is why it’s extremely common for 40, 50, and 60-year-old homes in Edmonton to have new windows, while still keeping the original siding or stucco.
Of course, it’s smart to replace your windows when they fail, but even high-quality replacement windows can lead to a major problem.
Typical gap from window frame to rough opening for renovation windows
Take a look at the photo above: do you see the thumb-sized gap between the window and the plywood? In new construction, this gap is covered up by the window’s nailing flange. But 95% of replacement windows are installed by cutting the original window out of the wall and inserting the window into the rough opening. Then, the gap between the window will be filled from the inside with sprayfoam, and the exterior frame of the window will be caulked to the siding or stucco.
The reason that window companies install this way is that most of the time, removing and reinstalling the existing siding just isn’t an option. And since homeowners don’t usually have the budget to do their siding and windows at the same time, it makes sense that the windows get replaced first. But what if the siding never ends up getting replaced?
The sprayfoam on the inside will do an OK job of blocking air leakage, and the caulking on the outside will keep exterior water from getting between the window frame and the siding for a while. But any water that gets behind the siding has absolutely nothing keeping it from leaking into the framing. Over time, this means rot damage to the framing and sheathing, and wet insulation that won’t keep your rooms comfortable. In fact, more than 80% of the rot damage we fix when removing old siding is caused by poorly sealed renovation windows.
Protecto Wrap seals the rough opening, stopping water from getting behind the paper and into the wall
When we remove your old siding or stucco, we can permanently fix this issue. Before we install your new siding, we use a special peel & stick flashing tape called Protecto Wrap to close up the rough openings of all the windows and doors. The peel & stick flashing is extremely sticky, and eliminates the potential for water entering into the framing. Protecto is designed to stick even at temperatures below -20 C, so we can install it all through the winter as well.
If you’ve got newer windows with original siding, it makes sense to get a quote so you can budget for your siding replacement. Blue Jay Exterior Renovations offers a free, zero-pressure, educational consultation that will help to answer all of your questions. Our detailed quotes are guaranteed to be on budget, are 100% accurate (to the penny), and are valid for 180 days so you have lots of time to decide if you’d like to proceed. It’s common for our clients to take between 6 to 24 months to go ahead with a siding project, so it won’t bother us at all if you are reaching out to us for preliminary research!