Gator's Home Improvement, Inc.

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Far too many builders and contractors today believe that taping the flange of a window to the house wrap is an adequate replacement for properly flashing a window. In reality, it is the lazy man's way out of doing the job right. Tyvek tape is not a replacement for aluminum flashing. I do not care what the building materials manufacturers say. Taping the window flange to the house wrap is the first step in properly flashing a window. The second step is to flash around the window with a minimum of 3" wide aluminum flashing to divert water that gets behind the siding away from the window (i.e., vinyl siding is not waterproof). Michael Wroten is "old school" when it comes to flashing. He uses 6" wide aluminum flashing. He and his team have replaced three window assemblies in my home that were poorly installed by the builder. The Tyvek tape on every one of the old window assemblies had given way over the years. With the above said, Michael Wroten is not the cheapest guy in town. If one is looking for a low-cost home improvement contractor, one should look elsewhere. However, if one is looking for the job to be performed correctly the first time, he is the man for the job. Anyone who is over thirty years of age can remember when houses were built by tradesmen who took pride in their work. With the infiltration of lawyers, accountants, and Wall Street types into the building industry over the last two decades and the overuse of unskilled/under-skilled/illegal labor, it nice to know that there are still contractors who were brought up in the old school tradition by their fathers.