Irregular water marks on stucco, is this a cladding issue?

[llwhiteoutll]

Hopefully there is someone on here that is familiar with cladding and can help.


I have what appears to be some odd water marks on the north facing wall of my house, below the vinyl siding. There is evidence of this happening all along the wall, but it varies on how hard it is raining on where it presents itself. Without pulling off the siding to inspect the wall, is this type of thing indicative of an issue with the siding installation or is it just from imperfections in the bottom edge of the siding?


Should be noted that there is no evidence at all of water intrusion on that wall inside the house.

[Mass_nerder]

Vinyl cladding isn't a face-sealed system, so it has a drainage plane behind the siding to move moisture away from the building paper behind. A little water like in the picture shouldn't be a problem.
If you're noticing a lot more water draining down, they might have installed the siding incorrectly though, and it should be fixed.

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by Mass_nerder

Vinyl cladding isn't a face-sealed system, so it has a drainage plane behind the siding to move moisture away from the building paper behind. A little water like in the picture shouldn't be a problem.
If you're noticing a lot more water draining down, they might have installed the siding incorrectly though, and it should be fixed.

What would constitute "a lot more water draining down"? During the heaviest rain this year, there were similar marks along the length. All the times I have seen it, the wet spots on the stucco aren't flowing, just wet.

[iggy_oi]

We get water marks like this on our stucco but it’s only at the points where the separate pieces of trim at the bottom of the siding connect. I’m not sure if this has anything to do with your issue but I noticed your siding only has the trim along the lower point and the footling vertical portion.

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

We get water marks like this on our stucco but it’s only at the points where the separate pieces of trim at the bottom of the siding connect. I’m not sure if this has anything to do with your issue but I noticed your siding only has the trim along the lower point and the footling vertical portion.

You're totally right, I didn't even see that the trim was missing. My neighbors have the trim and the rest of my house does, except for the north and south sides.

[Mass_nerder]

Originally Posted by llwhiteoutll

What would constitute "a lot more water draining down"? During the heaviest rain this year, there were similar marks along the length. All the times I have seen it, the wet spots on the stucco aren't flowing, just wet.

If the parging was completely saturated, that would be a problem. If you have water steaks along the length, you should still be good.
The fact that the steaks are happening tells you that the cladding system is working properly. As I said, it's not a face sealed system, so water will get in no matter what. If that water isn't draining, that becomes the real problem.

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by Mass_nerder

If the parging was completely saturated, that would be a problem. If you have water steaks along the length, you should still be good.
The fact that the steaks are happening tells you that the cladding system is working properly. As I said, it's not a face sealed system, so water will get in no matter what. If that water isn't draining, that becomes the real problem.

Excellent, thanks

[Ducay]

As Mass said, Vinyl isn't intended to be watertight itself. Instead it sheds the majority of the water down its face, but a portion will make it through the joints (which aren't watertight or overalpping), so the real waterproofing (generally tar paper or Tyvek depending on age) is what sheds the remainder of the water behind the vinyl all the way to the bottom. That remaining water then will hit the bottom channel and collect/drain (the left side of your image) or simply drain if there is no channel present (the right side of your image).

The irregular water marks are just showing where that water is draining. No cause for concern. Number of reasons why it would come in certain spots and all just depends on gravity, the installation, wind, etc. A bottom channel helps keep the vinyl in place, but even with it you'd have the same water draining.

[Mass_nerder]

It's most likely streaking where there are weap holes at the bottom of the siding.

[Amethyst]

Does anyone have a recommendation for someone who can do a bit of parging on a house? It's a small section along one side of the house. The stone work wasn't installed properly and eventually fell off. Rather than putting stones back on (matching the rest of the house would be too costly I think), I just want to put parge on that section.

[Delthefunky]

Originally Posted by llwhiteoutll

You're totally right, I didn't even see that the trim was missing. My neighbors have the trim and the rest of my house does, except for the north and south sides.

That trim (siding J) is just used for places where they don't use starter trim. I would guess that the full course of siding seen there is on a slope, so all the water runs down to the end, and comes out the joint. There's little vent/drain holes on the bottom of the siding to let water out too. Probably not a big deal. If you can, try and pull the starter back a bit and see if the water is coming from under the tar paper, that would be bad news.

[Shin Pad]

Originally Posted by Amethyst

Does anyone have a recommendation for someone who can do a bit of parging on a house? It's a small section along one side of the house. The stone work wasn't installed properly and eventually fell off. Rather than putting stones back on (matching the rest of the house would be too costly I think), I just want to put parge on that section.

I assume that the stone is a mortar placed manufactured stone (Installed on a base coat of cement plaster). If this is the case, then it isn't that hard to put the stone back. Make sure you attach some metal lath to the substrate first, using drilled screw fasteners at maximum 12" o/c or less, each way. Then mix up a cement plaster (stucco - I'm sure you can get some premixed stuff that you just add water to) and apply it to the metal lath (about 1/2" thick). Then back butter the stone pieces and stick them into the wet plaster. It isn't that difficult. I'm assuming that the original installation didn't use a metal lath (the cement plaster was installed directly on the concrete). This is probably why the stone fell off in the first place.