STUCCO NEWS.NET

Like the rest of this site, my book is free and can be copied under the terms of the Open Publication License.

I haven't published in a long, long time. I just got distracted by the every day hustle and bustle of this business.

I hope I stay motivated to publish chapters 4 and beyond.

I plan to expand on Evil EIFS from time to time. These comments on EIFS may offend people, but someone has to say something. EIFS has been proven to trap water against the wall and rot houses.

This drives me crazy:

I see this condition everywhere I go. This is an open invitation for rot. We have done termite damage repair that was caused by this same condition.

The house wrap (or vapor barrier) should overlap the foundation wall. This is the most important point to cover. Water penetrates the stucco, siding or what ever and runs down and sits on the foundation, rotting not only the sheating but the bottom plate. In this case the foundation is parged blocks, but concrete is worse. This is particularly bad when the bottom is concrete, and worse when the concrete projects past the framing.

This house, built in 1988 was done the same way. The house wrap didn't overlap the block foundation wall. The blocks projected out about a 1/2"

Sheathing lumber and the rim joist, that is, the horizontal 2 by 10 that supports the house are rotted out. The white dots are termite larvae. Two more inches of house wrap would have prevented this.