How to cover exterior insulation?
tinytank
| Posted in General Questions on
I’m having a hard time figuring out how to cover the exterior foam insulation on my house. There are only a few spots showing but they show some damage already from falling branches/rain/snow. Quikrete and Tuffcoat aren’t available where I live so I was thinking of using surface bonding cement?? Is this the correct option? And do I need to add something to strengthen it?
Thanks
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Replies
Jenna,
I'm assuming that you are talking about the rigid foam installed on the exterior side of your foundation wall. Did I guess correctly?
For a full list of all the different materials that can be used to protect the above-grade portion of this type of insulation, see How to Insulate a Basement Wall. Here is the list of materials from that article:
A cementitious coating or cementitious stucco (for example, Styro Industries Brush On ST), with or without metal lath
A cementitious coating that includes chopped fiberglass (for example, Quikrete #1219 foam coating or surface-bonding cement)
An acrylic coating like Styro Industries FlexCoat or Styro Industries Tuff II
EIFS (synthetic stucco)
Cement backerboard, with or without a layer of stucco
Pressure-treated plywood
Metal flashing
A fiberglass panel like Ground Breaker from Nudo Products
Styro Industries FP Ultra Lite panels (XPS coated with mineral granules adhered to one side)
Protecto Wrap Protecto Bond (a flexible peel-and-stick membrane with a textured, gritty coating)
ProGuard Cement Faced Insulated Sheathing.
For repairs to stucco, you can use almost any stucco mix or mortar mix, especially if you aren't fussy about color matching.