Well this is OT, so I thought I ask some of you guys what you thought about stucco and siding. I'm still working on my addition, but now I'm getting to the point where I'll have to cover the exterior of the house.
I had originally thought about using stucco but now I beginning to think about siding.

Preferences? Why? Benefits?

 

Look into mold & rot problems with stucco - literally billions of dollars are being sued for because of some of the most modern stuccos. May not be all types of stuccos but there are definately some you want to stay away from.

 

Properly installed, stucco is beautiful and NICE...
properly is the operative word though... have seen multi-million dollar homes where the water intrusion behind the stucco (still "outside" the living quarters) basically turns the stucco into mush where a little finger can push thru it...

I thought long and hard about it on our new house, but decided against it even though some have it on the houses in the neighborhood and it looks classy !

Have you considered Hardie plank siding ? Had it on the house we just sold and it hadn't changed in YEARS while we were there !!!
good stuff !

 

I am taking a class with some professional contractor company sales guys. In the great North Wet, stucco is a nightmare.

If the stucco fails or it is poorly applied, you will get dry rot, mold etc. There are several homes in the Portland area that are not 10 years old that would cost less to bulldoze and start over than to replace the stucco. These are custom homes not cheap fixer uppers.

In the dry South west stucco works fine.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

What is Hardie plank siding? How does it compare to vinyl?

Have you heard anything about Styrofoam stucco? I'm not sure about "performance" pertaining to wet weather, but it's supposed to last much longer than regular stucco.

Also about 95% of my neighborhood has stucco. I am considering a siding/stucco combination as well.

 

Here's a quick reply.
*foam/stucco...Drive-It is one of the brands. Looks nice if applied right. A nightmare if it's not...cause water gets behind it.
*cement board...Hardie is a brand. Developed in Australia as a roofing product, it is much like the old asbestos siding...a cement/wood hybrid instead of a cement/asbestos one. Must be installed right...if left in contact with water it will delaminate. Must be gapped properly or it will buckle. Thin...not much shadowline, and the embossed woodgrain is not very realistic. Is known to sometimes effloress (sp?) or turn white because of moisture migration through the board. Sometimes it won't hold paint. Properly installed, its quite durable.
*vinyl...cheap! About the only good thing about it that you don't have to paint it.
*hardboard...Masonite was the best, but they don't make it any more. Got a bad rapp because of lots of poorly-applied product and water-infiltration issues. This caused a class action by some blood-sucking lawyers. When applied and maintained correctly, embossed hardboard can look almost as good as cedar, and perform better.
*aluminum...forget it.
*cedar...it's the real thing, but expensive and the quality has suffered in recent years.
*brick..The best.
Hope this helps a little.

MR

 

One of my brothers lives out in Ca,in a house with stucco,and from what he tells me,he could use his siding for an earthquake scale.If there is a quake 500mi away,small cracks,and the closer the quake the larger the cracks.And this is a state of the art multi-million dollar home.So for that reason and the fact that it can rot and get mushy,I would say look more towards vinyl siding.There are alot of new types and designs out that look nice and are maint free.

 

http://www.jameshardie.com/index_flash.htm

Guess mine was installed correctly... but it was just the soffit/eves, and gables...
didn't know the install of these "cement" boards was that critical ?!?

We chose brick ... 100 year warranty is longer than I will need it

 

Based on recently completed remodeling, other that this, I don't know much:


Stucco is really just a form of concrete. In our city, they require two,count them, two layers of tar paper between the plywood sheeting and the stucco.

The windows must also be properly sealed on all sides.

So, for an external wall, we have:
stud, plywood, tar paper, tarpaper/wire nailed with furring nails, then stucco, which had the color mixed in. At the bottom of the wall is a weep screed--a metal flashing with holes in the bottom of it that allows water to drop out from behind the stucco. You want your ground level at least 6" below this.

Water can get through stucco, and it does crack. The tar paper (ok, roofing felt) keeps the water away from the wood.

The mold issues I have seen in newspaper articles seemed to focus on "fake" stucco, which would be a plastic type product. That kind of product would not "breath", so any moisture is trapped.

Mold issues are not new--using plastic to seal houses was tried in the '50s, and again in the '70's folks tried to seal things up to save energy. Such sealing always traps some moisture in, as well as sealing the heat/cool in, and the weather out. Can't be--small amount of trapped moisture is mold, mildew, rot and destruction.

With color in the stucco, the cracks really show, which I am not thrilled with.
After a few years, we will have it painted. Paints for stucco are elasticized to fill the cracks and not show the small cracks as easily.

Wood siding is great if you like to scrape and paint more often. As you make be observing, the home siding business is quite confusing. Lots of money trading hands, some happy, some not so. Keep researching.

 

Vinyl is final... and easy to install..

 

Here at the landfill, we just installed some modular buildings. After researching siding, we decided on fiber/cement (Hardi plank). It was a little more pricy than vinyl or stucco, it's way more durable and maintenance free. If you go that route, make sure your contractor knows how to work with the stuff. The main problem we had was the corners of the planks cracked or broke if the nail gun pressure wasn't set properly. The material we used was factory stained and the wood grain texture looks very natural. If you didn't know it wasn't wood, you couldn't tell the difference by looking. We're in a high fire danger area (So. Cal.) so that was also a factor in our choice.

 

But is ugly as sin.

Stucco isn't worth the trouble and maintenance.

Go with cedar or Hardie (cement board).

 

If I could figure out how to attach a photo, you could see for yourself.

 

You don't have to attach the photo.
Just upload it to your gallery,invite the person to it.

Then just after they have seen it >>>>> Delete it

 

Not entirely true.

*It is subject to cold weather cracking.
*The darker colors fade in time.
*It blows off in high winds.
*It buckles if not hung correctly.
*It can rattle in the wind.
*Don't get your grill next to it or it will melt.
*You can hear it snapping as it expands and contracts.
*It offers nothing in the way of additional strength to the building.
*It does, however, cover-up lousey construction.

MR