rubber flashing boot

Greets all,

I'm looking for a place to buy a "pre-formed synthetic rubber flashing boot" to make a waterproof seal around a pressure-treated 4x4 on a deck. I've seen such things mentioned in books, but can't seem to find a source for them. I've not exhaustively checked my local building supply as that would take forever but the biggest ones do not have them.

Help appreciated, flames ignored.

Thanks, Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Vickery
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This may not be the answer that you are looking for, but here it is, anyway. In 35 years of construction I have never seen such an animal. To waterproof post penetrations, we use a combination of flexible flashing and a roll on or paint on waterproofing substance.

Flexible flashing is the way to go.

Reply to
Robert Allison

I agree with Mr. Allison. Rubber boot flashing is made for pipes penetrating a roof and similar cylindrical shapes. Flashing for penetrations with flat sides like your 4x4 can be made up from sheet material. T

Reply to
tbasc

What you're looking for may exist, but I've never heard of one. The standard thing is to make one up out of either metal flashing (you can buy them pre-made but they're unnecessarily expensive), or to make one up out of fiberglass flashing mesh and embedded in roof cement. Google 'pitch pocket' to get an idea of a typical type.

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the most typical one you see, where the flashing has a 90 degree bend at the top and fits into a horizontal kerf cut around the post.
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There's really no need to advertise what you'll do if and when you feel you are attacked. I mean someone flaming you won't read the warning and think, "Uh oh! This guy means business and he's going to ignore me if I flame him!" Right?

R
Reply to
RicodJour

Not to necessarily disagree with the other posters because I don't see it working with a 4x4, but to answer your question,

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might contact this company and see if you can find a dealer in your area.

Reply to
marson

They DO make a flashing detail for things like posts, but they are not all rubber or neoprene and they are wildly expensive. This is one that we have looked into buying but realized that we could make something on site that worked just as well, if not better. Plus our method cost about 1/25th as much as the product sold for. Take a look at this site and scroll down to the bottommost picture on the right. Notice the rubber boot inserts and you will see that one of them is square.

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Reply to
Robert Allison

Interesting site T

Reply to
tbasc

Thanks Robert, T, Brian and Ricodjour for sharing your expertise! Fellows like you make this a really good group.

I tried making a boot out of Grace Ice and Water Shield, but it was really difficult to get the joint where all 3 planes intersected to be strong and to last. I wasted a ton of time in the shop trying to pre-fab the flashing & counterflashing out of copper, and I saw the phrase "pre-formed synthetic & rubber flashing boot" show up in a google search (even referencing 4x4 posts) I thought it looked like a better solution. But when I tried to drill further to find a source it proved elusive.

While it will probably wind up being another time-burner, I'm currently trying another approach which is to make a mold master from a 4x4 bolted onto a flat base, make a fillet around the base with bondo and then cover the whole thing in wax or some other mold release.

I'll over lay that with strips of coarse nylon cloth (the stuff used for speaker covers) which have been soaked in a mixture of GE silicone dissolved in VM&P Naptha. The cloth adds some strength to the silicone and being a bit stretchy itself allows the end product to conform to odd shapes without tearing.

If it works, I'll make it into a small injection jig so I can turn them out next time without a lot of work.

Thanks again to all, Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Vickery

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