Thread: Lead plumbing vent flashings

Does anyone know if these lead roof jack pieces serve any function other than just looks?

Are these the whole flashing or just a wrap?


Thanks.....

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Usually, they're one piece. The top edge of the flashing is wrapped over the top of the pipe to the inside. It looks like your photo shows an additional cap, perhaps due to the height of the vent.
In any case, they work great, and for a long time...until the squirrels get to them and gnaw them to the roofline.

Hi Matt,

those are typical 2 piece lead pipe jacks-- they are the flashing. One important thing to check on those is that the cap actually extends down far enough to where the top curled edge sets into the vent pipe. Otherwise, water can seep down between the vent pipe and flashing (leak).

Here's a link that shows them: Lead Roof Pipe Flashings

Originally Posted by Brandon Whitmore

Here's a link that shows them: Lead Roof Pipe Flashings

None of those are two-piece, though.

Usually there are two reasons that will be done:

- The vent stacks are required to be high enough to clear snow build-up and one flashing is too short, so they take a second flashing, cut off the base, the slip it over the first flashing, extending the flashing up, over, and into the vent terminal. One could also use flat sheet lead in a roll (as seen in Brandon's link) to 'make the second flashing', but then the seam would either need to be soldered or the top piece wrapped completely around a couple of times to make sure it stays there, in which case it would likely be to think to fold over and into the vent terminal without blocking the vent terminal.

- Older homes where squirrels have gnawed away at the tops of the leaf flashings, happens a lot. There there are two ways to repair it: 1) replace the entire flashing, and that is a big job; 2) take a new flashing, cut the base off, slip it over the existing flashing (see further description in above paragraph).

In Florida, and especially South Florida, shingle roofs don't last that long anyway, so the roof is replaced as well as the lead flashings, but with tile roofs, that repair is common.

Thanks guys.... I have always wondered about those.

Around here whenever I see them (fairly seldom) it's on a nicer house. I get the feeling it's just done for looks. The picture was from an 07 built 'new construction' - from back in the days when builders had money.

Seems like the last time I checked the price difference the lead was 4 or 5 times more expensive than the sheet metal and rubber/plastic combo. Of course they easily last 4 or 5 times longer if you keep the squirrels away.
Oh yeah, these were around long before PVC and the cheap alternative flashings.

None of those are two-piece, though.

Jerry,

The 2nd piece is the counter flashing as shown in that link-- scan down toward to the bottom of the page. That's almost always what is used in these parts. The only difference is that the counter flashing is usually much longer (extends down the pipe farther).

Can't say I've ever seen one chewed up by pests. Our squirrels must not like lead so much?

Originally Posted by Brandon Whitmore

Jerry,

The 2nd piece is the counter flashing as shown in that link-- scan down toward to the bottom of the page. That's almost always what is used in these parts. The only difference is that the counter flashing is usually much longer (extends down the pipe farther).

Can't say I've ever seen one chewed up by pests. Our squirrels must not like lead so much?

Brandon,

I kept looking for it and looking for it and looking for it and ... saying 'What am I doing wrong, I see all those flashings and those rolls of lead' (which I referred to in my post), then I clicked to page 2, then to page 3, then ... realized that *IF I READ* what was on the page I would notice the "rolls of lead" were actually the "counter flashings" you were talking about. I've got to learn to *read better* .

I have *NEVER* seen a pre-made counter flashing placed over the top of a vent terminal. I've always seen where the lead is just bent over and into the vent terminal. I also know why - 10 bucks for the 1-1/2" one ... 35 bucks for the larger 4" one.

I would certainly have saved many a write ups for the lead flashing blocking the vent terminal, that was probably on every single report for the first 10-12 years before roofers started doing it correctly, and some still block the vents.

I tried to get every inspector I knew to 'look down into each vent to see what was there'. As each one started looking, they started seeing the same things I was seeing - 99.9% of them were blocked, the other 0.1%either; a) still had the plumber's test ball pumped up and blocking it; or, b) *were not even there*, the vent had been relocated to another location and the lead flashing left there, with a hole down into the attic.

In my days as a commercial plumber, Lead flashings and counter-flashings were the rule. So much fun hauling 20 pound flashings up to the roof deck for the roofer to install!

Pitch Pockets were fun too!

Hello,

The Neoprene seals in the newer flashings are junk. Observed hundreds with UV splits that were 6 to 8 years old. I would never recommend a product that fails in 6 to 8 years on asphalt shingles that last 17 years typically. Lead is sooooo much better.

Damon