The Ins and Outs of Kick-Out Flashing

The space where the roof and wall meet is critical—and kick-out flashing is an essential element in preventing water damage to the home.

In honor of International Flashing Awareness Day on August 26, here’s a look at kick-out flashing and what contractors must know.

What Is Kick-Out Flashing?

Kick-out flashing is commonly used in roofing to prevent water from intruding into the exterior walls of a building.

This is achieved by installing a 90-degree rigid product—usually metal, aluminum, or pre-fabricated plastic—meant for this application at the point where the roof and the wall meet.

Doing so redirects water away from the wall and into the gutter system for drainage and helps prevent massive amounts of cascading water from these integration and transition points.

4 Common Misconceptions About Kick-Out Flashing

1. It’s Time-Consuming

Many contractors and installers believe that adding this detail takes a lot of time. However, there are products available that are easy to integrate into your roofing system. (Pro tip: you’ll want to install your kick-out flashing detail before you install the siding.)

2. It’s Costly

When cutting a project’s budget, it’s much easier for a client to want to hold back on the things they can’t see. However, incorporating this additional drainage mechanism into your build isn’t necessarily costly, and the benefits far exceed any potential drawbacks.

3. It Doesn’t Make a Difference

Trapped water can cause damage over time, and it’s often undetected until it’s too late. When working on a roofing project, you’re trying to get the shingles on quickly, and you’re already integrating step flashing. That should be enough, right? The answer is no.

While step flashing is crucial to your roof assembly, it can’t divert the water to something, like the gutter system, that is designed to handle it; this is where kick-out flashing comes in.

4. It Should Only Be Used in Areas with Heavy Rainfall

Yes, you’ll want to integrate kick-out flashing in climates that receive a heavy amount of rainfall. However, coastal regions and the Pacific Northwest aren’t the only places that benefit from this method. If you’re building in an area that is prone to snow accumulation, it can be advantageous to utilize kick-out flashing.

Snow will often build on the roof, and at a certain point that snow will melt; when it does you’ll want to make sure that liquid is being diverted to a drainage system that can handle it.

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How Can Contractors Properly Approach the Transition Between the Roof and the Wall?

It’s best to incorporate kick-out flashing in new construction or remodels where new siding is involved.

One of the first steps is assessing the basic waterproofing and moisture protection measures that need to happen as a whole.

Once that’s done and you’ve installed the underlayment on the roof and the weather-resistive barrier on the wall system, you’ll want to use a joint method of kick-out flashing and step flashing at the intersecting points of the roof and the wall. (Learn more about weatherizing roof-wall intersections here.)

The devil is in the details, and paying mind to certain ones—like kick-out flashing—can be a key factor for moisture management.

Kaylen Handly is Technical Innovation Manager for Benjamin Obdyke.