Replies

1. 
   YesMaam27577 | May 21, 2009 09:32pm | #1

   I'm not a stucco kinda guy, and one of the reasons is that the answer to your question is probably not what you wanted to hear.

   You'll need to cut the stucco above and below the ledger, and remove the stucco between the two cuts.

   The flashing that you hinted at, needs to start behind the rainscreen, above the ledger. It then is bent to go out above the ledger.

   But to be done right, you really need to do two of these. Both start behind the rainscreen, above the ledger. One bends out below the ledger, the other above it.

   In addition, each is bent down to direct water onto the exterior surface of the stucco (or ledger) below it.

   In this manner, water is consistently directed out to daylight -- even the water that doesn't follow the rules. This method also isolates the ledger, for whenever it might need to be replaced.

   Unfortunately, doing this requires that you remove some stucco, including at least a few inches above the new ledger. This means that when you're done with the flashing and the carpentry, you'll need to get some stucco work done.

   Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.
2. 
   rdesigns | May 22, 2009 12:37am | #2

   If there's a rim joist behind the stucco at the level of the proposed ledger, you could anchor the ledger with standoff lags that would create something like a 3/4" separation between the stucco and the ledger.

   That way, the only break in the stucco face would be the small holes needed for the lag screws, which could be caulked.

   You would not depend on the lags for bearing the weight of joists that tie into the ledger. You would support the ledger from the ground at whatever intervals would be needed. The lags would only be there to keep the pergola from moving laterally away from the house, or toward the house.

   The 3/4" gap would allow water to drain and keep the stucco and ledger dry, thus preventing problems with mold or rot.

   Deck boards could span the gap and by butting to the house, would keep the pergola from moving toward the house.

3. 
   john7g | May 22, 2009 01:54am | #3

   So hard to do it right I wouldn't consider it an option. 

   Yesmaam describes it pretty well.  The devil is in the details of the flashing and to flash it right you need to get behind the stucco and odds are there will be nails holding the wire mesh on that will be in the way of the flashing.  So ripoff the stucco in the areas to flash it right and then get the stucco reapplied to match the existing. 

   Is this real stucco or EIFS?  if it's EIFS there's insul board under the stucco that will collpase if you put any load on it from a ledger thus cracking the stucco and creating a H2O intrusion path leading to some fun failures/disasters for repair at a later date. 

   caulk is a terrible subsitute for flashing. 

   sorry to be a downer but there's not much that can be done to stucco after it's installed without a lot of work IMO. 

1. 
   YesMaam27577 | May 22, 2009 10:08pm | #10

   >>"...and odds are there will be nails holding the wire mesh on that will be in the way of the flashing...."The nails holding the wire mesh would need to come out, as would the wire mesh. Because the flashing needs to go behind the housewrap, up against the sheathing.

   Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.

1. 
   john7g | May 22, 2009 10:50pm | #11

   that's the point was trying to make but missed.  Won't be slipping any flashing up behind the stucco with just a little cut no matter how precise.

1. 
   YesMaam27577 | May 23, 2009 12:35am | #13

   >>"Won't be slipping any flashing up behind the stucco with just a little cut "True -- sorry I misunderstood.

   Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.

1. 
   john7g | May 24, 2009 12:05am | #14

   no ned to apologize, my lack of clarity caused your misunderstanding.

4. 
   toolbear | May 22, 2009 02:32am | #4

   It's easy to do it wrong.

   It's hard to do it right.

   The Devil really is in the details.

   Can you make this thing free standing?

   @@@

   If you must - many issues back in JLC or FHB, someone was making stucco standoffs of metal - kind of like a shortie I beam. Need some engineering on the loads, but these kept the holes in the stucco down.

   The ToolBear

   "You can't save the Earth unless you are willing to make other people sacrifice." Dogbert

5. 
   AitchKay | May 22, 2009 02:36am | #5

   Yeah, you've got all the answers you need already.

   Freestanding.

   AitchKay

6. 
   levelone | May 22, 2009 03:46am | #6

   Another vote for freestanding.

1. 
   RobWes | May 22, 2009 04:41am | #7

   IF I WAS going to add something to the stucco (STO) house I'm in I would...

   1) make it freestanding

                or

   2) cut into the stucco back to plywood, flash and install ledger, then build.

   #1 is my first, second, and third option.

7. 
   webted | May 22, 2009 08:28am | #8

   Hi Hat:

   Fill out your profile - stucco problems in California are not the same as stucco problems in Minnesota...

   I just tore the deck off the back of my place - the ledger was a 2 X 6 nailed directly onto the stucco (no flashing, no nothing!) with a bunch of 16d nails. I can't tell if it was rotted out worse from the lack of deck flashing or the leaking shower pan inside... Oh well, it's all gone now.

   I've spent a lot of time researching stucco flashing techniques in the last two years, and I have to agree with the previous posters: build the deck freestanding, or prepare to do a bunch of work. Breaking out stucco without damaging the underlying tarpaper, flashing in the new work (with limited clearance and chicken wire poking holes in your hands) and re-stuccoing the inevitable joint can be done, but it's a heck of a lot of work...

   -t

8. 
   gary329 | May 22, 2009 08:31pm | #9

   I have a detail to attach to ledgers to stucco I have used twice with good results.  It utilizes "Maine Deck Brackets". To install you have to have good backing, either access to bolt through rim joists or open up walls and add blocking.  Let me know if you are interested in more info.

   Gary

9. 
   jc21 | May 22, 2009 11:12pm | #12

   Here's a link to article by Andy Engel (hope he doesn't mind)-"Ledgers On Challenging Walls". http://www.deckmagazine.com/pdf/2007/0709/0709ledg.pdf There's a section on stucco walls. I'd be inclined to go freestanding and save the ledger flashing headaches. I plan on going freestanding on the deck for our new place. Engineeered floor and the rim joist has sprayed foam insulation ......... I figure freestanding will save a few hassles.

   "There can be no doubt that Socialism is inseparably interwoven with totalitarianism and the abject worship of the state…Socialism is in its essence an attack not only on British enterprise, but upon the right of ordinary men and women to breathe freely without having a harsh, clammy, clumsy tyrannical hand clasped across their mouth and nostrils"  -Winston Churchill

10. 
    brucet9 | May 24, 2009 02:58am | #15

    You don't say where you live, (If you had filled out your profile we could find out that way) so I can only tell you my experience here in Huntington Beach, where annual rainfall is 12 inches in a good year and measurable precipitation occurs just 35 days per year.

    My patio cover ledger was bolted with 1/2" lags through the stucco into studs on a gable-end wall 27 years ago with no sign of rot and no inside wall leakage so far.

    Live in Phoenix? No problem - ever. Probably ok anywhere in the arid Southwest US or Great Basin region.
    Live in the Pacific Northwest or east of the 20" rainfall line? You should probably build it free-standing.

    BruceT
11. 
    semar | May 24, 2009 03:39am | #16

    my choice: freestanding

1. 
   Hat | May 26, 2009 09:08am | #17

   I will make it free standing. I see so many in my neighbor hood that are attach to the house. And I kno that the are not flashed right. I guess it was wish full thinking on my part. Where I lived and maybe some type of new product. Thanks everyone. I knew I would get the right answer. Not just an answer. Thanks Hat