Have you stepped your flashing lately?

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The pages of this blog are often filled with concepts and images intended to inspire architects and builders to bigger, bolder, more innovative uses of fired clay brick in their designs. Sometimes, though, we like to bring it back to the basics, the brass tacks, where the rubber meets the road, (insert your favorite cliche here).

In that spirit, consider the stepped flashing. When you design a brick structure, the details of how the building will resist water penetration are probably something like 123rd priority. And that’s generally okay because brick’s cavity wall system is extremely effective, straightforward, and generally easy to implement. But if your design includes arches, protrusions in the facade, or multiple roofline levels, you might want to give some advance thought to how and where you will specify stepped flashing details in your plans.

Stepped or "waterfall" flashing is typically used when brick masonry intersects an adjacent sloping surface or when it surrounds a curved or sloped wall opening. Here are some common applications:

  1. Above a segmental or semicircular arch;

  2. Above bay windows, or similar features;

  3. Where lower story pitched roofs meet the brickwork of higher stories.

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In each case, the typical integration of straight, horizontal flashing into a single mortar joint may be inadequate to manage water around these round or oddly shaped features. Curving or bending flashing to follow the contours of these features is often impossible, so jogging multiple segments of flashing in a stairstep fashion from one course to the next, approximating the line of the feature may be necessary. In some cases, combinations of stepped flashing with tray flashing are called for.

What’s tray flashing? We’ve got you covered. Detailed advice on applying stepped and tray flashing can be found in the Brick Industry Associations (BIA) Brick Brief on the topic. And, for even more information on designing and detailing to create buildings resistant to water penetration, check out BIA’s Technical Note 7.

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Heartland Brick