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Detecting water damage under stucco?

Dahveed | Posted in General Discussion on December 5, 2004 08:15am

I have a question regarding a test for water damage beneath stucco.

The details are as follows:

My sister is looking at purchasing vacation property in Central Texas. The house is about 4 years old and the current resident is the builder. The house has a traditional 3 coat stucco system which has been painted with an elastomeric coating. The house was inspected in September (for another contract which fell through) and the inspecter noted that there was some rusty trim at the bottom of the stucco on the wall near a fireplace.

I mentioned to my sister that there could be water damage beneath the stucco. That stucco does a good job of hiding water damage within the wall. I have also read that elastomeric coatings could “seal” the wall and prevent it from drying.

My question is what sort of non-destructive test can be run to measure if the wall in wet? What else should we look for? Should we be concerned?

Thanks, David

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  1. Piffin | Dec 05, 2004 08:53pm | #1

    Is this stucco over frame and foam as in EIFS or on traditional masonry walls? I'm having a hard time imagining what sort of metal trim would be there.

    But it will probably take an invasive ( but not destructive) test to find out for sure. A home inspector should be able to drill a small hole for a moisture meter tester and caulk it to disappear in a couple places. Another indicator might be an infrared scan that would hint at differeing wall densitities due to presence of water

     

     

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    rjw | Dec 05, 2004 09:33pm | #2

    There are some home insectors who are trained and equipped for that sort of invasive inspection.

    Be prepared to pay some real $$.

    Once someone starts that type of inspection, potentiual liability skyrockets, so many may well be leery of anything less than a full inspection, involving testing in a number of loactions, not just the one spot.

    But I don't have any expertise in this area, just remembering some stuff form a hour seminar a few years ago.


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  3. Surferic | Dec 06, 2004 12:02am | #3

    David,

    your inspector probably saw rust on the weep screed (the horizontal metal piece at just above ground level that allows moisture in the stucco system to weep out), and called it a trim piece. Clarify this. It can be typical for the screed to rust, even after a few years (are you near coast?) especially with some poor quality metals out there. Do not be too concerned with this. Look for cracking (excessive) in the walls and, if you want to feel real secure, probe into the wall and check for the type of waterproofing used behind the stucco (usually a double layer of 7 lb asphalt saturated paper). Try looking in the crawl space if you have one.

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