Hi,
I need help -- long story, but the 'hired (family) help' we had replacing our kitchen window had to leave mid-project, and we're stuck trying to finish it up on our own. Problem is, we know nothing about finishing exterior trim/flashing/siding, except for the little I've tried to read now online. I'm hoping we can get some guidance from you knowledgeable folks, to give us an idea if we can handle this as 'newbies', or if we really should hire it out. Here is goes:
Current situation: the new, awning-style vinyl window is fixed in place (we think), to the point of being foamed in from the inside. However, on the outside, the j-channel and brick mould are not cut/in place, and I'm not sure how to proceed on making sure it's water sealed properly -- that's what we need advice on.
I have attached the as-is pictures -- hopefully those will help make sense of my descriptions/questions below.
The house is a 1969 home in Anchorage, AK with aluminum siding, with no building wrap underneath (just thick buffalo board). There is a good overhang above the window (~2 ft.?), so the window doesn't get a lot of direct exposure. When removing the old window there were no evident signs of water leakage/rot.
The new window does have a nailing fin, although it is not actually mechanically-fastened in place -- the installer used DAP 3.0 caulk/adhesive (for the cold-weather application -- it's the black stuff shown in the photos, as I think he got the roofing type by mistake!?). He did create a sort of 'sill plate' with Protecto-wrap tape, but as far as I can tell, it's not taped/flashed anywhere else along the perimeter.
Here are my questions:
- Should we also mechanically fasten the window to the house sheathing, as extra security (since we have the fin there), or should the caulk/adhesive that's already been used enough?
- Can we proceed with installing J-channel/brick mould without adding more Protecto-wrap or flashing along the perimeter of the window? If not, what could/should we do, trying to both minimize the disruption to the siding, and do an adequate job of protecting against water? [I've read that in an ideal situation, we'd have house wrap, and then would layer Protecto-wrap over that... but seeing that we don't have house wrap and aren't going to redo siding anytime soon to add it underneath, what should we do? I also have read some advice against J-channel altogether, but I have no idea how to do other flashing in our application -- any suggestions to that end?]
- Assuming we do use J-channel, can it be used on all 4 sides of the window (including underneath), or do we need to use the specific under-sill type of siding piece for the bottom? (We have J-channel and metal roll flashing on site, but not the specific under-sill type piece - so it'd be nice to make use of what we have here, if it's not a big deal to substitute.)
- In the second to last picture I attached, I show the bottom corner of another window on the house, showing how the J-channel ends and the under-sill piece extends further out to the side -- is this the correct configuration (if I do indeed go buy that special under-sill piece)?
- In the final pictured attached, I show the top corner of the replaced window, showing the old J-channel and how it was configured - it appears they cut/placed the top horizontal channel so that it sticks out straight to the side, further out than the window unit. Should we try to configure our new J-channel installation the same way? I've read something about trying to get the top channel piece to bend down after extending out beyond the unit... is this better, and if so, how do we achieve that?
- One more question - what do we do with the big 'fin' that curls up from the siding underneath the window? I guess that will depend on what we use down there... but if you could address that too in your suggestions/explanation, that would be great!
Hope this isn't too many questions -- but thanks in advance for any help you can give. I'm hoping we can finish this on our own, as we're already over-budget... but will humbly accept advice to hire a professional, if it's not something to attempt as a first-timer!
I need help -- long story, but the 'hired (family) help' we had replacing our kitchen window had to leave mid-project, and we're stuck trying to finish it up on our own. Problem is, we know nothing about finishing exterior trim/flashing/siding, except for the little I've tried to read now online. I'm hoping we can get some guidance from you knowledgeable folks, to give us an idea if we can handle this as 'newbies', or if we really should hire it out. Here is goes:
Current situation: the new, awning-style vinyl window is fixed in place (we think), to the point of being foamed in from the inside. However, on the outside, the j-channel and brick mould are not cut/in place, and I'm not sure how to proceed on making sure it's water sealed properly -- that's what we need advice on.
I have attached the as-is pictures -- hopefully those will help make sense of my descriptions/questions below.
The house is a 1969 home in Anchorage, AK with aluminum siding, with no building wrap underneath (just thick buffalo board). There is a good overhang above the window (~2 ft.?), so the window doesn't get a lot of direct exposure. When removing the old window there were no evident signs of water leakage/rot.
The new window does have a nailing fin, although it is not actually mechanically-fastened in place -- the installer used DAP 3.0 caulk/adhesive (for the cold-weather application -- it's the black stuff shown in the photos, as I think he got the roofing type by mistake!?). He did create a sort of 'sill plate' with Protecto-wrap tape, but as far as I can tell, it's not taped/flashed anywhere else along the perimeter.
Here are my questions:
- Should we also mechanically fasten the window to the house sheathing, as extra security (since we have the fin there), or should the caulk/adhesive that's already been used enough?
- Can we proceed with installing J-channel/brick mould without adding more Protecto-wrap or flashing along the perimeter of the window? If not, what could/should we do, trying to both minimize the disruption to the siding, and do an adequate job of protecting against water? [I've read that in an ideal situation, we'd have house wrap, and then would layer Protecto-wrap over that... but seeing that we don't have house wrap and aren't going to redo siding anytime soon to add it underneath, what should we do? I also have read some advice against J-channel altogether, but I have no idea how to do other flashing in our application -- any suggestions to that end?]
- Assuming we do use J-channel, can it be used on all 4 sides of the window (including underneath), or do we need to use the specific under-sill type of siding piece for the bottom? (We have J-channel and metal roll flashing on site, but not the specific under-sill type piece - so it'd be nice to make use of what we have here, if it's not a big deal to substitute.)
- In the second to last picture I attached, I show the bottom corner of another window on the house, showing how the J-channel ends and the under-sill piece extends further out to the side -- is this the correct configuration (if I do indeed go buy that special under-sill piece)?
- In the final pictured attached, I show the top corner of the replaced window, showing the old J-channel and how it was configured - it appears they cut/placed the top horizontal channel so that it sticks out straight to the side, further out than the window unit. Should we try to configure our new J-channel installation the same way? I've read something about trying to get the top channel piece to bend down after extending out beyond the unit... is this better, and if so, how do we achieve that?
- One more question - what do we do with the big 'fin' that curls up from the siding underneath the window? I guess that will depend on what we use down there... but if you could address that too in your suggestions/explanation, that would be great!
Hope this isn't too many questions -- but thanks in advance for any help you can give. I'm hoping we can finish this on our own, as we're already over-budget... but will humbly accept advice to hire a professional, if it's not something to attempt as a first-timer!