If the house leaks before the stucco, it will leak after the stucco

If the house leaks before the stucco, it will leak after the stucco.

Hi Reggie,

Great website! I'm hoping you can lend your opinion to our situation: about two years ago, my husband. I built a Rambler home with a walk-out lower level, all four sides are stucco. We've been trying to finish the lower level, however, we've been experiencing leakage around our windows on three sides.

Our stucco contractor has come out to tear off the stucco, re-paper and caulk and is now ready to apply the brown coat. Today it rained buckets and is still leaking in places. Our contractor says it's because there are exposed nail holes and once the brown coat is applied, there will be no more leaks. Does this sound right to you? Or should we anticipate the same problem all over again?

Thanks for any insight you could provide!

If the house leaks before the stucco, it will leak after the stucco. The leaks need to be corrected before the work goes any farther. The leaks around the windows need to be corrected if it means pulling the lath and tar paper off around the window. Bear in mind the flashing needs to go under the stucco, and not over the stucco.

The windows are leaking probably because of these three main reasons: 1. Lack of flashing over the window, or flashing angled into the wall.

2. Lack of sills. Water runs into wall below window.

There are other reasons, such as open gaps next to the window, lack of sill pan flashing below the window, inadequate drip edge at the roof line, etc.

These leaks must be corrected first, or stucco needs to be pulled off later.