I get this question all the time: "Stucco all the way down to the roofing: right or wrong?" Answer: WRONG. and here's why...
A thirty-year roof is designed to last for thirty years. A stucco wall is designed to last for centuries. If you take a stucco wall down to a thirty year roof, then you have to jackhammer into the stucco just to replace the roof. OK, maybe not jackhammer, but you get the idea.
In this video, Kirk Giordano demonstrates how to counter-flash the bottom of a stucco wall over the step flashing of the roof, so that no one has to jackhammer your walls just to fix a roof.
- Lay 2x4 blocks on the roof to set a consistent height for the weep screed flashing.
- Slip the wall leg of the weep screed behind the existing paper.
"What happens if there is no existing paper?
Well, you are in trouble..."
- Tack the weep screed in place with a couple of staples.
- Flash the weep screed into the existing paper with strips of building paper, about two feet long and 12 inches wide.
- Beginning at the bottom and stepping up the slope, 'fish" the strips under the existing building paper, behind the stucco until you hit a nail or staple, and then stop.
- Do this with additional lengths of paper, overlapping the lower piece.
- Tack the paper in place with staples.
- Cut the bottom edge of the paper.
- Unfold the existing wire lath, and patch in additional wire lath as needed.
If you work with your kids, as Kirk does, rib them about the 'Magic Whiskers' (2:30)
What are Magic Whiskers?
At a certain age, you get these whiskers on your face and when that happens, God from Heaven above blesses you with all this knowledge... and suddenly you know more than your Mom and your Dad.
He actually knows more about stucco than I do even though I've been doing this for three times as long as he has been alive ..."
—Kirk Giordano is a plaster and stucco contractor in the San Francisco Bay Area. His YouTube channel has a lot more videos.
