Deciding Between Stucco and Vinyl
Hope everyone is doing well. I ran into a mason the other day and he took a look at my 20×20 detached garage and said did you ever think about stucco over the entire thing. Right now there is old wood shingle siding. He said he would attach metal lath over the wood and stucco on to that. Told him I would let him know so I could find out if that is just a terrible idea.
My plan was to take everything off, start with vapor barrier then attach new vinyl. I would even consider going back to mason and saying ok give me a price to start with a fresh slate, take everything off. Clearly stucco would not be a diy project for me. Obviously stucco is more of a green product but what setup would actually perform better? I know vinyl is much less maintenance but stucco does look good. It’s much more expensive but since it’s not an entire house I’m thinking the cost would be more but not astronomical. Can you even stucco over previous wood siding without killing the structure?
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There no reason you can't stucco over wood sheathing (especially if the interior side allows drying). But it is important to maintain an air gap and a drainage plane. Clarify with the mason on whether he is proposing traditional stucco or EIFS.
That's my 2 cents. But let's see if an expert will chime in.
There is real stucco and fake stucco very different things.
Real stucco is a masonry product almost a thing of the past it is a great system.
Fake stucco EIFS can work if installed correctly the problem is that it is installed correctly so rarely. Often the EIFS allows water into the wall and they are very rotten before it is apparent that there is a problem.
Note EIFS comes out of a paint can stucco comes out of a cement mixer hand fed with bags of cement.
Walta
This guy is old school so def real stucco and of course I would watch to make sure. I just have to see if it is a fair price. No insulation on interior of garage, what would be a good insulation to use when you have stucco on outside