Thread: Hollow Stucco?

What the heck is this stuff???? I know all about EIFS and this isn't anything like any of that I've seen.

This material has a hollow sound when 'thumped' upon. It will deflect a bit when pushed upon and I suspect it's plywood backed. The problem is there is very old or orignal brick around the bottom edge so I couldn't look behind it (so, of course no weep screed, etc).

And the icing on the cake.... the seller was actively painting the house while I was there. So, no chance to look for cracks of signs of problems.

Any ideas/thoughts??

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Originally Posted by Matt Fellman

What the heck is this stuff???? I know all about EIFS and this isn't anything like any of that I've seen.

This material has a hollow sound when 'thumped' upon. It will deflect a bit when pushed upon and I suspect it's plywood backed. The problem is there is very old or orignal brick around the bottom edge so I couldn't look behind it (so, of course no weep screed, etc).

And the icing on the cake.... the seller was actively painting the house while I was there. So, no chance to look for cracks of signs of problems.

Any ideas/thoughts??

Matt: Looks like someone slathered a cementitious (or not) finish coat over some sort of cellulose-based siding, painted it, and voilÃ*! you have unknowable cladding!

Looks like a very thick high-build texture paint applied to ... who knows what ...

If you suspect it was plywood back, yet it deflected some when pushed on and sounded hollow, it 'may' ... *may* ... be an old EIFS, or it 'may' ... *may* ... be layers of built-up high-build texture paint covering plywood.

All you can do it advise your client that you have no idea what the cladding is, that it may, or may not, be a problem, and that the only way to find out is to do some destructive testing in a few areas.

The seller painting AFTER the property has sold (they already have a buyer) is VERY ALARMING?

What were they trying to hide, if anything, from the buyers inspector?

Thanks guys... it's an odd one.... as for the sellers - FSBO.

Seemed like nice people and I don't think they're intentionally covering anyting up. The painting is part of the agreement they had with the buyer to finish the work they had started when they moved out.

They have a stucco guy coming out to sort things out.

Saturday I looked at a block home about 95 years old with stucco applied, the garage built maybe 5 years ago had OSB with a "stucco" finish on it. You could see all the OSB joists from the outside and on one side see hand prints. Hadn't see that done before...Mike H