Stucco & Exterior Work in Woodland Hills, Built to Drain
Woodland Hills stucco and exterior work built to drain, with double building paper, flashing lapped around new patio doors and a clear weep screed.
A double layer of grade D building paper sits behind the lath on new stucco for a Woodland Hills house. Cement plaster soaks up rain in a hard storm and lets a little of it pass inward. The outer sheet bonds to the scratch coat as it cures, which leaves the inner sheet free and a hairline drainage gap between the two. Water in that gap runs down to a weep screed and leaves the wall at its base.
Lapping around a new patio door
Where a wider opening to the yard cuts through the wall, the paper has to be woven around the door in a set order. A sloped sill pan goes in first, with its back leg turned up. Side flashing tapes lap over the sill pan's flanges, the head flashing laps over the side tapes, and the upper courses of paper lap over the head. Each layer overlaps the one below, the way roof shingles do, so anything running down behind the plaster stays on the outer face of the flashings and drains out at the sill.
Where the wall meets the ground
A weep screed only works if water can leave it. Planter soil, mulch or a new patio slab pushed up against the metal strip can block its slots, so the clearance below the screed is checked and restored as part of the job. Any irrigation head aimed at the plaster gets turned away or moved. Downspouts from the roof and any patio cover get extensions or a tie-in to a drain line that carries water away from the foundation. Around a hose bib or light fixture, a flexible sealant joint lets the plaster move without opening a crack.
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A close match is realistic. A trial area on a hidden part of the wall gets the same texture and color, then is left to cure, since wet plaster reads darker than dry. If the old finish has faded, carrying a new color coat corner to corner on that face hides where the patch ends.
That depends on what lies under the finish. A hairline crack on a sound wall takes a patch. A wall with good layers and a tired, chalky surface takes a color coat. When moisture readings run high, the paper behind it has failed or the plaster sounds hollow over a wide area, a full restucco makes sense, with new paper, lath and coats from the sheathing out.
Work on a Woodland Hills house falls under LADBS, the City of Los Angeles building department. Patching small areas or adding a color coat may go ahead without one. Stripping and replacing the plaster, or closing the wall around a new opening, generally does, and an inspector then checks the lath and paper before the first coat goes on.
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