Stucco + moisture issues

[IIOY]

I don't know if I'm on the right board since we're not buying a house, but this seems like the closest fit.

Our house was built in 2004 in a new neighborhood in PA. We are starting to hear of issues from some of our neighbors with moisture building behind their stucco exteriors.* One house had to have its entire exterior redone at a cost of about $70,000. Apparently the code changed in 2006 to require multiple wraps of Tyvek or its equivalent, but of course this does us no good. I know we have at least one wrap of Tyvek, but knowing our builder, he didn't go above and beyond this.

We haven't had any internal signs of problems, which is what our neighbors exprienced and how they learned they had a problem. Nevertheless I am assuming we should get a moisture inspection so that we know.

Does anyone have experience with this? My first question is how big an issue this is. As I'm reading up on it, it appears to be widespread, particularly in the northeast where building codes serve only as a minimum and weather is fairly wet year-round. However, the degree to which these issues present as problems seems to vary widely.

*This doesn't appear to be limited to stucco. One of our neighbors apparently needs to get the entire brick facade on the front of their house redone.

[kaylie]

I moved this to the main board since I thought more people would be able to help here.

I've definitely heard of people having issues with stucco. Our chimney is stucco and the previous owners had to shell out a few thousand to fix it because water had gotten into cracks. I think that might be fairly common. I know there is a sealant you can have put on it to help it resist water, but I don't know how effective it is.

I think anything that involves moisture coming into a house could be a big issue. Moisture can easily lead to mold. If you've got the money it might be worth an inspection to determine if there are any issues brewing.

[IIOY]

Thanks, kaylie. We're going to get an inspection after the first of the year. I just wish I knew how emergent a problem it is if it occurs.

[Deleted]

the houses 3 doors down from me is stucco. I never asked what their problems were, but they've had a lot of work done on their stucco and our houses are less than 10 years old.