The First Window Install

Darn Fine Flashing Job

At the risk of turning everything into a superlative...WE HAVE A WINDOW! 

Starting with one of the smallest and easiest openings to get to, we tested our installation and waterproofing methods. 

I am personally on the hook for all of the window opening prep, and I am getting to master the fussy ways of peel-and-stick flashing.

Some call me the Butyl Whisperer.

Stepped wall & window lap-on-lap action in progress, from well above the ground

"None shall leak!"

And now a Candid Admission.

I h̶a̶v̶e̶  had created a very well researched 'best-practices' window sill-pan detail, included on projects for years.  It combined the best ideas from the best sources into one excellent detail.

For some reason, builders never quite fully followed instructions.

This detail, I have learned the hard way, might just be asking a bit too much of the installer.  Simple origami, and simple origami with permanent adhesives, are two different things.

Even as a careful person, with decent crafty abilities and all the motivation in the world on this project to get it right... it seems that folding theoretical 3 dimensional membranes and folding a very real, very long, very floppy, extremely adhesive thing that grabs anything and everything permanently, all while on a ladder with only two hands and a knife in your teeth - might just be different animals. 

I am hereby revising my old membrane sill-pan detail to a more reality-based, still-perfectly-waterproof, easier-to-execute version. 
Lessons from the field.