Window flashing assembly
A window or door flashing assembly includes a weather resistive barrier that covers a portion of a wall around a rough opening. The barrier may be comprised of adhesive saturated open cell foam or scrim laminated between layers of impervious film A tapered sealing gasket that engages the inner surface of the door or window nailing flange or molding seals exterior air and moisture from the interior of the building. The barrier may extend into the rough opening and integrate with a sill pan.
The present application is a continuation-in-part of prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/114,756, filed Apr. 2, 2002, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/567,866, filed May 9, 2000 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,130, the benefit of the filing dates being claimed under 35 U.S.C. § 120.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to building materials in general, and in particular, to seals, flashing, sill pans and flashing membrane for doors and windows.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONOne of the most common failure points where water enters a building's envelope is around windows and doors. Water penetration is one of the most significant factors leading to premature failure of structures. Many windows and doors, whether they are aluminum or vinyl, are secured in the building's rough opening by a continuous nailing flange. As an example, the window is placed in the rough opening from the outside and secured using nail or screw fasteners that are driven through the window's nailing flange.
Installation methods vary significantly and range from as little as building paper lapping over or under the window flange to flashing materials being shingled in the rough opening prior to window installation, installation of sill pans, application of caulking installed from a tube caulk gun under the window flange, and various flashing or adhesive tapes applied over the window flange. Installation is often performed from ladders or scaffolding at various levels above the ground. Flashing materials are often misaligned or applied in an inconsistent manner that leaves wrinkles or voids in the material leading to leaks, i.e., direct water pathways to the underlying building materials. Adhesion to the numerous substrates is a major problem.
Current flashings are assembled from numerous separate components that when installed cover each other, making inspection of the completed flashing assembly extremely difficult. Further, since there is often a time lapse between installations of the various components, they are often damaged by wind, rain, or other mechanical disturbances.
Current materials used in flashing do not satisfy the various needs of sealing windows and doors nor a flashing barrier around the rough opening. Adhesive tapes provide a self sealing function for nail and staple penetrations. Unfortunately, they do not adhere to many substrates used in construction, are relatively expensive and many are incompatible with components they are adhered to. There application is extremely sensitive to moisture and cold with primers often being used with questionable success. Further, because they are often adhered directly to the buildings sheathing vapor diffusion is limited. This can result in decay of the underlying sheathing.
In other instances, materials used as the flashing barriers are of thin gauge materials made from polyethylene or polypropylene. Products like these provide little water penetration protection for nails and staples.
In products that are in current use adhesive caulking is typically applied between the window nailing flange and the building sheathing. Unfortunately caulk is rarely applied consistently or correctly and even when it is the continual expansion and contraction of components causes adhesive failure and opportunity for ultimate water penetration to the buildings structure. Further caulk adhesion failure is contributed to by low temperature and moisture at the time of installation.
Adhesive barriers applied over the nailing flange are often incompatible with the windows flange. They also often have insufficient thickness that when compressed around and over fasteners they do not create a proper seal.
Many windows eventually leak in areas of the window assembly or provide inadequate opportunity to seal the window at the outer wall face of the assembly. Other windows do not have a continuous window flange. In these instances a sill pan assembly must complement the flashing installation. Current sill pans are often custom fabricated from metal, are fabricated from self adhering flashing material while a few are manufactured from plastic materials. These methods variously; do not adequately provide sufficient support for the window assembly, do not provide adequate interface to other flashing materials, are difficult to seal to the window, are not adaptable to various window widths, do not provide a channel that allows water to be separated from the window frame or do not slope to the exterior of the building to assist moisture drainage.
The object of window and door flashing assemblies and sill pans is to adequately interface to surrounding weather resistive barriers, seal staple and other fastener penetrations, seal the window assembly to the flashing membrane, provide drainage at the sill when window leaks occur, adapt to various window depths that range from full sill width to as little as 1½″, protect window and structure materials from degradation and comply with the multitude of window and door manufacture and industry standards.
Given these problems, there is a need for an improved method of ensuring a weather-tight barrier for window installations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is a flashing assembly for sealing around doors or windows. The present system combines integrated components that minimize material failure or installation error that will allow exterior water or air to penetrate the interior building structure. The object of the assembly is to provide an adaptable system that provides for vapor flow under the flashing, provides sealing redundancy and maximizes sealing performance. This current invention minimizes the number of components required in field installation.
The flashing assembly preferably includes a flashing membrane made from a adhesive saturated open cell foam laminated between solid film sheets with vapor flow creases that are positioned behind a nailing flange of a window or door. The foam adhesive flashing membrane is adhered to the building sheathing by staples or similar fasteners. The foam adhesive flashing membrane provides a water seal around nail and staple penetrations without use of exposed asphalt or butyl adhesives tapes that are often incompatible with other components and whose performance is inhibited by extreme temperatures and moisture. The sealing characteristic of the foam adhesive flashing membrane is enhanced by the adhesive being squeezed into the open cell structure during manufacture. The integration of the foam and adhesive also helps physically stabilize the adhesive at higher temperatures. While high density foam has strong sealing characteristics without an adhesive, its use in this application is uneconomic. The fabrication of the foam adhesive flashing membrane causes the wall side of the membrane to develop creases as it is straightened against the wall providing the opportunity for vapor to escape from behind membrane. The wall side film may be impressed with a pattern prior to fabrication to the foam further enhancing the films ability to be held off the wall.
The under flange seal is bonded to the flashing membrane or directly to the window flange, in its preferred embodiment having slanted parallel fins with serrated teeth, is compressed between the window or door nailing flange and the sheathing of the building thereby eliminating the use of caulk. The taper allows the sealing gasket to be uniformly compressed by the nailing flange while minimizing flange distortion and elevation from the wall. The serrated teeth of the sealing gasket enhance its ability to keep moisture and air from passing by the gasket.. The uniform size of the under flange seal provides consistent high performance by utilizing compression to create a seal, adapting to window flange movement and variations of the substrate. Field installation of caulk is inconsistent, generally too small in volume, does not adhere to many flashing materials and often does not cure prior to expansion that results in seal failure.
Integration of the over flange seal to the flashing membrane eliminates the requirement of sealing the two components in the field in adverse weather conditions. A factory seal is more reliable and only requires the seal to then be adhered to the window flange itself I the field. Use of closed cell foam adhesive assures compatibility and high bonding performance to the flange and full encapsulation of flange fasteners.
Integration of a sill pan to the flashing system that allow moisture to drain through channels to the exterior of the building structure, adapts to all window depths and manufactures support requirements, interlocks the sill base and molded corners while integrating to other flashing components provides additional moisture penetration protection with the simple easily installed components of the current invention. No other current system addresses all the required design considerations to comply with manufacture and industry standards.
Combining flashing membrane and closed cell foam adhesive with a release liner provides a flashing component that provides compatibility, broad temperature range and sealing performance not available from other current self adhering flashing systems. These systems are often insufficient in thickness to encapsulate flange fasteners, do not adhere in both hot and cold conditions and are blended for either a hot or cool environment while many weather patterns will expose the flashing system to both over the life of the installation.
The present inventions flashing components adapt the various versions currently accepted by industry standards at levels of performance and ease of installation unavailable by any other combination of products available.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated as the same become better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The present invention is a window flashing assembly that provides an improved barrier to moisture.
As can be seen from the above, the present invention provides a simple, convenient and cost effective mechanism for improving the flashing of windows.
While the present invention has been described with respect to its preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be determined solely from the following claims and the equivalents thereto.
Claims
1. The window arid door flashing assemblies under flange seal is constructed from compressible closed cell foam formed in varying widths approximate to the width of manufactured window and door nailing flanges; and said under flange seal being tapered in depth across its width.
2. The under flange seal of claim 1 tapered surface is scalloped facilitating use of denser foam while maintaining optimal compression.
3. The tapered under flange seal of claim 1 is comprised of a series of slanted fins providing several individual barriers inhibiting moisture and air penetration.
4. The tapered under flange seal of claim 3 whose fins each have serrated teeth on the outer portion of the fin providing additional individual barriers inhibiting moisture penetration.
5. The under flange seal of claim 1 is adhered or bonded to a flashing membrane; and the under flange seal is positioned on the flashing membrane such that when said flashing membrane is shingled around the rough opening the under flange seal is compressed between the windows nailing flange and the buildings sheathing;
6. The flashing membrane of claim 5 is adhered or bonded to the flashing membrane in such manner that an inner flashing flap may remain inward from the under flange seal with such inner flap being folded into the window or door rough opening.
7. The flashing membrane and under flange seal of claim 5 includes an outer flange sealing flap with adhesive and release liner that is integrally formed or bonded to the flashing membrane in such position that when the release liner is removed and the sealing flap is folded to the flashing membrane the outer sealing flap adhesive extends over the window nailing flange covering and adhering to nailing slots and fasteners.
8. A flashing membrane consisting of a layered composite made from a film that is laminated to cellular foam or scrim material saturated with a bituminous, butyl, synthetic rubber or acrylic based adhesive; and that is laminated with a forming roller over the adhesive with an additional layer of impervious film such that as the composite is straightened vapor flow creases are formed in the additional film layer.
9. The flashing membrane of claim 8 with an adhered or bonded closed cell foam with exposed adhesive and release liner affixed along the length of one edge of the flashing membrane.
10. The flashing membrane of claim 8 where the tapered under flange seal of claim 1 is bonded or adhered to the length of the flashing membrane.
11. An extruded sill pan base extending the approximate width of the rough opening framing with lateral sill drain channels formed at regular intervals across the width of the base with such lateral sill drain channels formed at incremental depths moving from the inner to outer side of the sill rough opening; and said extruded sill pan base having periodic exterior sloped drain channels; and a sill pan window flange support integrally formed with the extruded sill pan base at an approximate 90 degree angle to the sill pan base that is greater in width than the typical window flange.
12. The sill pan base of claim 11 having a lateral nail slot drain channel extending the length of the sill pan base that is positioned such that the window flange nail slots overlay the drain channel.
13. The sill pan base of claim 11 having corner interlock grooves along the length of the lower inner side of the sill pan base and the lower inner side of the sill pan window flange support.
14. A molded sill pan corner oppositely formed for the right side and left side of the window rough opening formed from thin gauge plastic having an L shaped wall panel integrally formed at the inner sides of the L shape with a sill panel and jamb panel that oppose the wall panel at approximately 90 degrees with the sill and jamb panel being similarly joined; and said sill panel having integrally formed sill base interlock teeth shaped such that when pressure is applied said teeth snap into the sill pan base lateral drain channels of claim 11 forming a water tight seal of the drain channel, said interlock teeth allowing adjustment of sill window frame support at the comers of the window from approximately 1″ to 3″ in length; and said sill panel having an integrally formed exterior sloped jamb gap drain channel that adjoins the interlock teeth and the jamb panel.
15. The molded sill pan corner of claim 14 having a sill panel support leg that is an extension of the jamb panel past the intersection of that panel and the sill panel such that the corner is supported on the window or door sill rough framing.
16. The molded sill pan corner of claim 14 having a wall panel drain channel extending downward from the sill panel jamb gap drain channel to the lower edge of the L shaped wall panel.
17. The molded sill pan corner of claim 14 having sill pan interlock tabs that snap over the molded interlock channel of the sill pan base of claim 11.
18. An L shaped rear sill sealing leg where the longer leg of the L when adhered to the lateral sill drain channels of claim 11 spans several channels sufficient in width to allow adjustment of the rear seal to adapt to various window frame depths while the shorter L leg provides sufficient height to form a seal to the window frame, such adhesion functions being provided by tube caulk or a pre-applied adhesive with application release liner.
19. The rear sill sealing leg of claim 18 further formed by joining or molding two segments together at 90 degrees to form a jamb sealing leg that mates to the lower jamb corner of the flashing membrane positioned in the window rough opening framing, the sill panel of claim 14 and the rear sill sealing leg of claim 18 thereby forming a seal at each corner of the sill pan assembly.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 28, 2004
Publication Date: Jan 20, 2005
Inventors: Dale Ackerman , Katarzyna Ackerman
Application Number: 10/900,747