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Hi. We live in Arizona and our house was done with Western One Kote Stucco sometime in 1992. We have tried almost everything but it seems to leak almost everywhere.

There seem to be lots of problems with elastomeric coverings as many contractors here won't even use them.

Is there a way to restucco the house -- and have it bond to the existing stucco (there's only one coat, remember). I know that the existing paint on the house is an issue, but I don't even know where to start... Could you please help me?

Since I answered this question in 2004, we have torn off a lot of one coat stucco. It is used widely here in the Washington, DC area. It is called "hard coat" stucco, "hard" stucco, and othe things, but it is rarely called one coat stucco.

One coat stucco has a thin basecoat, and a synthetic finish. It is used on Toll Brothers houses, Stanley Martin, Pulte homes, etc. The base coat comes in a bag that says One Coat stucco.

It is fast and cheap, and comparatively low skilled. I am not saying I'll never work with it, but we replace one coat with our real stucco basecoat, 3/4" thick, and use a synthetic finish to match the house and the neighborhood.

Of course, the thin material doesn't shed water as well. Another source of our work is old stucco that was put on too thin. Thin stucco is liable to fail because it is weaker.

The main problem with this material as I see it, is that it is put on by the same EIFS workers that put on EIFS before it was replaced with one coat. It has the same problems as EIFS: no flashing, backwards flashing, no drip edge on the roof, etc.

You may want to tear this completely off and stucco the house right. That way you can be assured the flashing is done well. roof drip edges are put on, and rotten framing can be corrected.

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