Upcoming exterior inspection

[Ponyboy]

An upcoming inspection (Friday) is a 1940's house in Seattle with a brick veneer exterior. The builder has covered the old brick with stucco, added foam trim, then applied Dryvit as a finish coat. I have seen pictures of the house and no control/expansion joints exist. I will be looking closely at the window flashing and caulk. I have not ever seen this application in Seattle. I am wondering about what will be the drainage plain if the weep holes of the old brick are plugged and if the brick is damaged from the installation of the stucco over the brick. I have had several conversations with my client and he is aware of the limites of my inspection, but is very worried about the siding installation. Other items I should be looking for?

Link to listed property below:

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/12005 ... 7494_zpid/

[hausdok]

Hi Brad,

Well, it sounds like he's added E.I.F.S. and plantons over the veneer; not stucco. If the veneer had been draining well before the application of the EIFS over it, and if the EIFS was done properly and there is a way for any moisture that gets behind the EIFS to get out via the same route it's always gotten out of the veneer it will probably be fine.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[hausdok]

Hi,

Yeah, I looked at the photos. It's an EIFS application. I can't tell from the pictures whether they've properly detailed the windows and doors and I'm a little bit concerned because it looks like the applicator applied that stuff all the way to the flatwork and didn't leave it clear to drain at the bottom of the wall.

If you'd like to bone up on EIFS before Friday, you can borrow my EIFS Existing Construction Inspection, maintenance and Repair Guide by Robert Thomas; the guy who was the Dryvit General Manager for more than a decade. I'll be out running some errands today; where will you be?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Ponyboy]

Originally posted by hausdok

Hi,

Yeah, I looked at the photos. It's an EIFS application. I can't tell from the pictures whether they've properly detailed the windows and doors and I'm a little bit concerned because it looks like the applicator applied that stuff all the way to the flatwork and didn't leave it clear to drain at the bottom of the wall.

If you'd like to bone up on EIFS before Friday, you can borrow my EIFS Existing Construction Inspection, maintenance and Repair Guide by Robert Thomas; the guy who was the Dryvit General Manager for more than a decade. I'll be out running some errands today; where will you be?

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the offer, but I have the EIFS Existing Construction Inspection, maintenance and Repair Guide by Robert Thomas, Jr. I have not inspected an E.I.F.S. house for some time so a little brush up will be needed. I thought it was an E.I.F.S. job when I first saw the pictures, but am being told it is a stucco job. The buyer sent me this list of left over products in the garage;

*#148;Behr#148; Premium Plus paint (ltd lifetime warranty) in Exterior flat,

interior satin enamel & ceiling paint varieties.

*#148;Dryvit#148; Freestyle Mid Base (in 5 gall jug/s)

*#148;Dryvit#148; Sandblast NTX PMR Mid Base (in 5 gall jug/s)

*#147;Basalite#148; Stucco premix- pre-blended #147;superior stucco base coat#148;. There was about 1/3 of a 80 lbs bag left over.

I was concerned about the drainage plain, if the brick weep holes were plugged and damage to the brick when the E.I.F.S. or stucco was installed. I see problems with either system being installed over the origianl brick veneer.

Thanks Brad

[Brandon Whitmore]

Are you sure there is a gap between the bricks and wall with weeps/ wicks? That age of home, I wouldn't think there would be an air gap/ drainage plane.

[hausdok]

Originally posted by Brandon Whitmore

Are you sure there is a gap between the bricks and wall with weeps/ wicks? That age of home, I wouldn't think there would be an air gap/ drainage plane.

Hi,

Yeah, there'll be a gap between the brick and the sheathed framing. There will be a single thin layer of felt covering the sheathing behind the brick and the through-wall flashing will be the bottom of that felt where extends to the face of the brick beneath the bottom row of bricks on top of the foundation wall. I've seen brick veneer with weeps going way back to the 20's here. Out of thousands, I've only seen rope wicks in a few though.

The question is whether the system will drain properly or not. I think that if it is stucco, they probably would have applied an extruded metal lath over the brickwork first, because the stucco needs to be able to expand and contract independently of the wall. That lath should provide a drainage plane, and, if they've used a proper termination bead/weep screed at the bottom of the wall, it shouldn't be a problem. However, it looks like the walls go all the way to grade and might even have the yard applied against them - which is commonly seen here, and there isn't any expansion joint at the floor line where you'd want to see one in either a stucco or an EIFS application.

If they've used dryvit on top of stucco, without configuring any expansion/accessory joints in the stucco, I think they're going to have problems with it as the stucco, veneer, and EIFS all struggle to expand and contract independently of one another.

It should be an interesting job.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Terence McCann]

Originally posted by hausdok

If you'd like to bone up on EIFS before Friday, you can borrow my EIFS Existing Construction Inspection, maintenance and Repair Guide by Robert Thomas; the guy who was the Dryvit General Manager for more than a decade.

Where did you get the book Mike?

[hausdok]

I got it from the Northwest Wall & Ceiling Bureau (http://www.nwcb.org) when I went through their EIFS inspection/repair course a few years ago.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Tom Raymond]

Did TLC shoot an episode of "Flip" there or what?

Tom

[Ponyboy]

Well it should be an interesting inspection. Spent some time brushing up on my stucco and EIFS details. Determining the actual drainage plane will be the big challenge.

[Ponyboy]

Below are some pictures of the exterior stucco application. The stucco is a one coat system applied directly to the brick. A primer/sealer was applied to the brick prior to the stucco being applied. The Dryvit acrylic top coat was then applied over the stucco. All of the original brick weep holes have been filled, but this should be ok since the acrylic is waterproof. This application looked ok.

EIFS trim is installed around the windows. The trim is just glued on top of the stucco and was not blended into the stucco system. The top and bottom ends of the vertical trim are not backwrapped and a finish coat was not applied over the base coat. I think the trim installation was real cheap.

The brick around the windows is wrapped with a plastic trim product. Caulking of the trim was minimal and some trim pieces covered the window weep holes.

What do you think?

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[Scottpat]

Ya know, I think I might have reported this as being an "'Unconventional Cladding" and then I would have added a little phrase that many of us use: "Unconventional things tend to act in unconventional manners".

[hausdok]

Brad,

I've looked at it for the past 20 minutes and I still can't figure out what I'm seeing in that center picture. Guess I need to go drink another cuppa before I try again.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Ponyboy]

Hey Mike,

The third picture down is the top edge of the vertical side pant-ons at all the windows. The top and bottom edges are not back wrapped.

The bottom picture shows the mesh sticking out of the base coat of the ppant-on and the finish of the plant-ons. All are only base coated, not finish coat.

Writing the report this morning. The roof was also just grand. New install 50 year shingle with improper layout. Exposed shingle butt joints across the entire roof.

Originally posted by hausdok

Brad,

I've looked at it for the past 20 minutes and I still can't figure out what I'm seeing in that center picture. Guess I need to go drink another cuppa before I try again.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike