STUCCO NEWS.NET

Stucco Pros-

I have a question about a homes I purchased last month with an existing stucco problem:

Where the garage roof meets the corner of the house the stucco wall has developed a leak into the interior of the structure. The home is only 4-5 years old but there is an absence of kick-out flashing at the bottom of the roof/wall joint. In addition, at this point the valley of the garage roof joins the corner of the main structure causing a high volume of water to pass over this roof line. My question is this: can I cut back the stucco approximately 3" above the roof line and install a kick-out diverter and some new flashing pieces and then fill that void with a pvc trim board and install a secondary flashing over the top? Or must I cut back the stucco to fix the flashing and then re-stucco the repair? My concern is that fixing the flashing and then re-stuccoing may not solve the problem and then I have to tear it out all over again. However, I don't want to introduce a faulty system into an already complicated situation if you think such a fix would not work. Thanks.

This fix will work, but you may still need to patch the stucco.

If you only need a kickout flashing, and not a counter flashing, you can get by with a small patch or no patch at all. The important thing is that the kickout is slid behind the step flashing and under the shingles and step flashing at the bottom.

Here is an example of sliding the kick out under the step flashing. The flashing was trimmed later to make it look neater.

Here is a chimney we are working on now. We needed to replace the counter flashing. Stucco was cut off up to about 8 inches and a new counter flashing put on. Note how we slid the gutter guard back to allow water to flow into the gutter. These gutter guards are awful, and the gutter guards are the main reason we are re-doing this chimney. The guard was covered with leaves and pine needles, so the water jumped right over the kick out and the gutter. We have cut off getter guards before. We had a major stucco re-do on a chimney in Reston, Virginia that had gutter guards and the chimney was badly rotted out.

We pulled the plastic off to take this picture. The patch isn't beautiful, but we're skimming the whole chimney. You may need to put on a counter flashing, if you don't have one, so cutting and patching is a necessary evil. Covering the patch with wood trim doesn't work, because water can run behind the trim. Patches tend to show, so they should be as narrow and inconspicuous as possible. The patch will need to be painted, because the color is almost impossible to match. This may be so high that it isn't noticable from the ground, but you may need to put on a counter flashing and patch it to fix your leak.

This will fix your leak. I promise.

If you have a roof line like this that only leaks in cold weather, you need to put on a counter flashing. I have heard suggestions that the stucco can be sealed with a water proof material, but this is absurd, so don't fall for this myth.