The Ladd house
in Orcutt is an older house, built without drip screed at the foundation. When dirt accumulates along the base of the stucco, water can also accumulate, and start moving up through the plaster via the "wicking" process.
All newer houses built after 1980 are required by code to have drip screed.
Over a long period of time, the plaster begins to lose strength, and sometimes disintegrates entirely. Along the rear wall at the Ladd house, we found some of this problem.
The best solution in such cases is to cut out the bottom of the plaster, and install new drip screed, keeping the existing paper/waterproof membrane intact as much as possible. Sometimes the paper has almost completely disintegrated.
When we layer new paper and flashing under the existing paper, over the new drip screed, we create an excellent system to keep water out of the walls.
Including the finish coat, the entire process took only 4 days from start to finish color; completed Aug 22, 2013.
