STUCCO NEWS.NET

Why is this building leaking ? I didn't go far out of my way to take these pictures. I took all these pictures within one city block of the stores we worked on.

I took this picture the day after it rained. The pooling water shows how the sill on this high end retail store angles in to the wooden window instead of away.

Another store in the same block. I poured some of my Deer Park on the sill to show how this is reverse also.

The finish already has signs of deterioration, even though this store was just finished this past summer.

This is the store we worked on. I did this work for a truly great company, but they didn't do the millwork or design.

I noticed how bad the sill angled in when we finished the stucco and washed the windows. A little Deer Park shows water pooling against the wood window mullion. I am sure this custom made mill work for this store wasn't cheap. It is sad to see something built to fail.

The rule on brick sills is to angle the sill 15 degrees away from the building.

These bricks are level and the weep holes on the window mullion are caulked shut.

Stucco and brick are porous and require more of a slope than wood to avoid excess water penetration.

What is wrong with this picture?

This store was well done. The wood sill is angled a good 15 degrees or more and projects well past the material below. Maybe there is hope.

I took this picture of an old building a few miles away to show correct weep holes under the window mullion that aren't caulked shut. The sill has a slight pitch for water run off.

They don't build them like they used to.

The construction industry

is marching up the mountain, only to fall off the cliff
to it's impending doom.
The masses are mindlessly trudging forward, zombie like and glassy eyed without
concern of the cliff looming ahead.
I try to stop one designer. "That is the way we have always done it" he says
in a robot like tone as he elbows me to the side.
I see a contractor I know and try to reason with him. "We have never had problems
with our jobs", and continues to trudge, trudge blindly to the cliff ahead.
"You're just a plasterer, you don't know what you are talking about."
Not a pretty sight.
We still can save our buildings but it will take a massive
effort from anyone who cares.