STUCCO NEWS.NET

Point 9 -Protecting the work when it is finished

Badly cracked up and loose stucco caused by leaking coping. Coping is the three sided flashing on top of the wall.

An ounce of prevention is worth 3,000 lbs. of cure. Whole wall is stripped down to block. This assures a nice job. Patches almost always show.

The culprit was this coping. Water runs right down the cove in the cap and gets behind the stucco. Coping should be put on from the bottom first, overlapping the coping going up. This was put on from the top down, allowing water to run under the piece below. Also, it is a good idea to have the center of the coping higher the the sides. Here, the center was lower, forming a water trough.

We took off the coping and reset it, starting from the bottom. Most of this damage would have been prevented if this was done 30 years ago.

Protecting the work after it's finished is sometimes out of the control of the plasterer. All I can do is insist that things like roof coping are done, but the plasterer usually doesn't put the coping on. We usually put on coping and flashing ourselves. The material we work with lasts pretty much forever, as long as water doesn't run behind the wall.

This example of a block wall is bad enough. Wood framed walls require more attention. If the wall isn't capped immediately after the stucco is finished, water infiltration can cause warping of the framing lumber, cracking the stucco.

We put on a kick out flashing to divert water into the gutter. Not beautiful, but it keeps water from running behind the wall.

Badly cracked stucco in Reston, Virginia is due to poorly done coping.

A close look shows someone painted over the wall with a paint roller and a sand texture paint, or synthetic stucco finish. Note the streaking from the cracks showing water is running out of the wall.

All horizontal members on tudor style stucco should be flashed , like over windows, before the metal lath goes on.

Why wait until the stucco looks like this ?