Hi, I have installed a wood/aluminum clad patio door on my current house. The door install was not too bad but the stucco repair including stucco trim was labor intensive because the door and windows have eyebrow trim.
I would like to replace south facing windows with wooden windows with fin to match the patio door. I'm wondering if it would be practical to just remove a section of the foam trim and then repair/replace after window install. Based on the door install I believe you need about 3 to 4" of stucco removed to get the flashing under the house wrap. See below pictures, pices with X would be removed entirely.
The reason i don't want to remove all of the trim including eyebrow is because I have to make the eyebrow from trim pieces. I removed entire eyebrow when I did the door and recreated it from a template and pieces of trim and it was labor intensive. That was a 6' eyebrow and this one is 10'. Also I think my stucco finish was sprayed and its a bit difficult to match so the less I have to match the better.
Someone told me they had their whole house done w/o removing stucco and I looked at this method but I don't think it can be done with trim around the window because it requires an external metal flashing piece above/below the window to direct water around the window and its quite a bit of fabrication. I included a cross section diagram of this from Pella install doc. So I'm assuming I will have to use fin method.
If it has foam trim, it is called EIFS, not (traditional) stucco. It's a "synthetic stucco".
The proper method of installation would involve cutting back at least 6" of EIFS so that the window can be correctly flashed, then the EIFS gets patched back in. And yes it's labor intensive. Not what you wanted to hear, I know, but there is no other code approved way to do it. It has as much to do with proper EIFS installation as it does with proper window installation. So there are no shortcuts.
Yes, for the door I bought the normal big box foam trim pieces, installed them and stuccoed over them with the fast drying stucco by loading a trowel with stucco and pushing it onto the trim and pulling off then light knockdown. I recall using a stucco bonding agent also. Got a fairly good match. I would have gladly called a pro for the stucco but at that time probably the job too small - may be I'll try getting a pro to do the stucco repair this time.
Is this method Ok?
I read a lot of online info on stucco repair but did not see any examples that look like mine, probably for the reasons you said so that mystery solved.
I also have 1" foam insulation which complicates matters a bit but original installers seem to hold back the foam a few inches from the door (and I assume windows also) and fill the gap between foam and window with stucco. Foam gets cut back a bit more than original to allow room for new install flashing but I don't think thats a problem.
Also the stucco around the door was paper thin so they could use a standard jamb width door because of foam.
Finally, for the kitchen is it unusual for the bottom of the window to be flush with the the tile? I don't need a wood window here but I don't want vinyl. Should I build up the bottom of the rough opening 4" or so to avoid possible moisture issues?
I have a little barn-style house that was slapped together by subcontractors in 2018. They did a very basic window installation, and it's clear that they neglected to finish the windows properly. (No flashing, or whatever other materials are necessary to make windows watertight.) When the rain hits my kitchen window, water comes in all along the top edge. I caulked the exterior of that window (top and sides) and the top and sides of the boards that frame the window. I even caulked along the top edge of the long horizontal piece of trim that goes from side to side above that window. The rain has not been deterred. The second story window occasionally seeps moisture when it rains, but it's never as bad as the kitchen window. If anyone can point me in the right direction as to how to solve this problem, I would be most grateful.Read More
My house is coming up on 22 yrs old. This last summer I had the roof replaced and the roofers installed a continuous ridge vent whereas there was no ridge vent before. I have 3 gable end wall vents. The house also has full soffit vents on the none gabled sides.
With the first cold snap in November, the house felt much more chilly than ever before. It was noticeably drafty. I covered the 3 gable vents which has helped some. Still, the house feels chilly. This year I can really feel the cold air coming in through windows. They are supposed to be vinyl windows but seem to have a lot of metal in them. Anyway, they still look good and function fine. Even the caulking is still good on all of them.
What I plan to try next is replacing the pile weather stripping and the bubble seal on the bottom of the sash. I need measurements to order the correct sizes. The pile strips are in a tee channel where I need to cut a small access at the end of each strip to remove the strip to measure and of course replace. The pile mfr. website says all you need to do with vinyl windows is use a sharp knife to cut the access. My windows are all metal on these channels. I can use my Dremel tool to grind down enough but it seems time consuming so far.
Questions: 1) I'd like opinions/ideas on my efforts to help weather seal the house. Going forward I will be sealing up all the ceiling fixtures and blowing in additional insulation in the attic before next winter. 2) Is there a particular Dremel accessory that would work best for removing the small amount of metal on the window channels?
Thanks for any advice!
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02-26-23, 12:38 PM
