It seems like most siding materials offer some ability to allow a wall to dry out, if something has happened to allow some moisture in. But stucco is not permeable to moisture at all, or certainly not to any practical degree.
So I'm wondering, is there something done at the bottom of the wall to allow moisture a chance to dry out?
Stucco is not a sealer at all until you paint it or put a plaster coat on it. If moisture gets in, it is probably going to stay there until something rots out unless it does get vented inside the house.
Guy I know here is facing a $75,000 repair job on his stucco house because window sill seals were not put in right and leaked. Others in his development are having the same problem. Houses are maybe 20 years old. Said he was having the stucco removed, moisture repairs made, and putting on a different type siding.
to dry out, if something
o moisture at all, or
allow moisture a chance
Same thing happened to an even newer 8000 sq ft house behind mine. The OP s hould google for EIFS stucco. That was a new way of doing a stucco like app earance with modern methods that was supposed to be great and less expensiv e. Moisture got trapped behind and the wood rotted. There are many houses here with that and they had to rip it off and do over, like the house behi nd me. I'm sure there is info in discussion about EIFS about why trapped m oisture isn't a problem with the old way of doing stucco.
Until I started looking around in Atlanta I didn't even know people put stucco over a wood frame. Down here stucco goes over concrete block. You still do not want to start hanging drywall until the stucco is sealed, usually with paint these days but older houses were plastered with something similar to the diamond bright they put on a swimming pool shell. I think those older houses "breathed" a little more too since before the late 60s into the 70s, they did not have a lot of air conditioning. There was no vapor barrier in this house at all and no insulation.
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John T.
all to dry out, if something
e to moisture at all, or
to allow moisture a chance
P should google for EIFS stucco. That was a new way of doing a stucco like appearance with modern methods that was supposed to be great and less expen sive. Moisture got trapped behind and the wood rotted. There are many hou ses here with that and they had to rip it off and do over, like the house b ehind me. I'm sure there is info in discussion about EIFS about why trappe d moisture isn't a problem with the old way of doing stucco.
Well, I guess there's your difference. Real stucco is over concrete blocks and this EIFS stuff is over wood framing. I know it is a big problem with e arlier houses built with EIFS. I remember looking at a house for sale here that had it and it had a moisture monitoring system, with sensors to monito r the moisture behind the stucco. I remember thinking at the time that it w ould seem to me it's a "you're screwed" alarm, because if the moisture is h igh, I don't see what you can do about it short of tearing the stucco off.
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